by M. D. Cooper
Grayson’s loping stride faltered for a moment, but he continued onto the lift.
Grayson guessed he was still touchy about the whole series of events. The incident was still fresh in his mind, and the fact that he was able to have a new AI after everything that had happened was only through sheer force of will. The way Jerrod had cut him off from his own body, unable to move or make any decisions on his own, had been the stuff of nightmares.
When the SSF asked if he’d consider a new AI, he’d agreed for the good of the assignment, not because he wanted to get touchy feely with it. He’d also only agreed after Tanis Richards had offered to have ISF technicians do the work. She’d assured him that it would not be possible for Alice to take over his body the way Jerrod had.
Regardless, Alice was a good person who knew her job and performed it well. He didn’t want to hold Jerrod’s actions and General Samuel’s orders against her.
As Grayson entered the medbay, Doctor Hammond turned to greet him, and they shook hands before the doctor led the way over to where Maureen was convalescing. She had already been taken out of the medtube and relocated to a bed to rest.
“Is she sleeping?” Grayson asked as he stood at the foot of her bed. She looked angelic and peaceful, her blonde hair combed out beneath her head.
“She’s still in a medical coma, so it’ll be a few more hours until it’s safe for us to wake her. Everything is on the mend, though. While she’ll have some discomfort upon awakening, she’ll make a full recovery. Still, it’ll be a few days at least until you can put her back on active duty.”
Grayson nodded. “Keep me apprised. If I’m onboard when she wakes up, I’d like to be here. I need to hear her account of what happened.”
“Talking will be painful, too. It may be better to engage in a Link conversation, to make it easy for her.”
Grayson took the suggestion under advisement. “If her status changes, please let me know. I’ll be down visiting with some special guests.”
* * * * *
The guard outside of Fen’s quarters announced Grayson and then let him in. The large cabin had a holodisplay that pulled off a convincing external view. Or it would have, if there had not been a blanket thrown over it.
It would be showing a view of the world below, which he would have thought would be amazing to someone who had never been on a spaceship before, but maybe that was part of the problem.
Fen sat on the deck, hugging a pillow to her chest while she rocked back and forth. He’d given her a large cabin as a courtesy, but realized that may have been a mistake.
Grayson walked over to her, noticing an empty jar on the table, jelly beans spilled out on the surface. “Fen, what’s wrong?” He bent beside her, balancing himself on the balls of his feet.
Her rocking slowed, and she peered up from the pillow. “It’s cold on this beast. I can feel the rumbles from its stomach. It’ll eat me, I’m sure of it.”
He sighed and sat cross-legged beside her. “Oh, Fen, we’re on a spaceship. It’s not a monster.”
“Metal beast,” Fen corrected, clutching her pillow. “It’ll snatch us up while we’re sleeping.”
“It’ll do no such thing. Do you know why?”
She shook her head, her hair swishing.
“I’m in charge of this beast. I’m its master. If I tell it not to do something, it won’t.”
“You’re in charge?” Fen asked, eyes wide with doubt. Even when Grayson nodded, her expression didn’t change. “Mother Mei is the only true leader and she’s mean. You can’t be in charge if you’re not mean.”
“I can and I am. Many good people, men and women, are in charge who aren’t mean.”
“Then why do they let Empress Mei continue to be mean?”
Grayson thought about it. “I don’t know. Space is very large, there are many planets. The good people do their best to find and stop bad people, but sometimes it’s hard. I’m sorry no one tried to stop Mei for so long.”
He thought of all the other reasons why people didn’t want to get involved or to interfere, but Fen wouldn’t be able to understand such complex reasoning—and in this case, neither could he—so he kept it to himself.
“You came. You’re here now. When can I see Mother Mei?”
“Later,” Grayson lied. “She’s resting in her room.”
“Will you tell her I was asking for her? Someone needs to bring her tea and her slippers. Tell her I wanted to bring them, will you please? If I don’t, she’ll be very cross.”
“Fen, Mother Mei isn’t going to hurt you again. She will be physically incapable of hurting you again. I promise.”
Fen sat up straight and for the first time, let go of her pillow. “She can read minds, did you know that?”
Grayson stroked her head as if she were a child—because that’s exactly what she was. “She can’t through these walls. They’re laid with mind control barriers. We put you in a very safe room.”
“Really?” Fen smiled wide. “You mean it’s safe to dream?”
“It should always be safe to dream.”
Fen giggled and covered her mouth. “I have a secret. She never figured it out. I kept it very quiet and I never told anyone at the palace. Only one person, but he left a long, long time ago.”
“What kind of secret?” When Fen didn’t answer, Grayson tapped her leg. “You can tell me, remember? I’m in charge, and I never reveal people’s secrets.”
“She made me kill the girls. The ones she had like me, but she doesn’t know….”
Grayson held his breath, feeling as though she was revealing something deep and dark from her past.
“I have another sister. There’s one girl I never could kill.”
“Another sister? Where?”
“I don’t know. I gave her to someone visiting the palace. That used to happen more frequently than it does now. He said he’d take care of the baby. It was so small. The empress had just given birth, and she was disgusted with this baby’s appearance more than the others.”
“Because it was another girl?”
Fen considered it, sucking on her bottom lip. “Because it looked different. The eyes were wrong. ‘Too much like its father’, Mother Mei said. Usually she’d parade the baby about, showing it off to the common folk. To see how beautiful her children could be. This one, she handed it to me right away.”
Fen took a deep breath, and her mannerisms changed. Her eyes narrowed, and she snapped her hands together. “ ‘Kill it! End it! Take it from my sight!’ That’s what she said. But it cooed different. It smiled. I didn’t want to kill it.” Her tone was apologetic.
“You did good,” Grayson reassured her. “No one should harm children like you were forced to. Do you have any idea where he took the baby? What his name was?”
“Was a duke, I think. No, wait.” Fen scratched her chin. “He was a baron! Yes, I remember because he wore this gold sash. We never saw him again once he took the baby from me.”
“His name, Fen. Do you remember his name?” Grayson tried to sound as patient as possible, but it was hard.
Fen’s eyes lit up. “Ranstock. Baron Ranstock.”
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS
STELLAR DATE: 12.21.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Hyperion Hotel, New Roma, Dante
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br /> REGION: Dante Velorum System, Fringe
“What the hell are you doing, Janice?” Paul asked, unable to comprehend his wife’s actions as she pushed him into a storage room off the lower service corridor.
She raised the gun to his chest and backed up to increase the distance between them. “What I should’ve done a long time ago. But I couldn’t stomach the thought of losing you, Paul. The fleet looked to you in Peter’s absence, but now…now you’re a liability. I loved you dearly, but you’re just not the leader he was.”
“You think I haven’t fought against that all my life? You know I have. You know, and now you throw it in my face?”
Janice took a deep breath. “We needed you. But you failed us. It’s time for you to step aside so someone else can take your place.”
“You?” Paul asked and took a step forward.
He knew that, though Janice had a weapon trained on him, there was no way she’d shoot. They had spent so many years together, raised a son and a daughter. Their life’s work was together, always had been; Janice wouldn’t give up on him just like that.
She wasn’t like him. She was stronger.
Her eyebrow twitched. “I know it comes as a shock to you. It’s not like you were ever paying attention to me…or the children. For you, it was all about your father. When he was alive, that was fine—things were the way we wanted. But after he died…. You’ve turned weak. You don’t have the stomach for the work like Peter did.”
She cleared her throat and her eyes narrowed.
“Like I do.”
Paul couldn’t help but laugh. “You?”
“I got Orion here. I’m the one who negotiated with Raynes. I’m the one who told you what to say and when to say it. I’ve been in charge, and you were too big a daddy’s pet to see it. You took the glory, but I’m the one who’s been running this show.”
“You want it?” Paul asked, grabbing the barrel of the weapon and stepping up so it rested against his sternum. “You take it. You kill me and take it, because I don’t want any of it.”
Janice took a deep breath. “You’re such a fool! This was supposed to be our time! Ours. Not yours or mine. Us! Working toward a common goal. We’re so close, Paul!”
“I don’t want what you want.” He stared into his wife’s eyes wondering where the woman he’d fallen in love with had gone.
“It’s never been more apparent to me than now. You sold us out to Orion, didn’t you?”
“Yes!” Janice’s eyes widened. “I made a deal with them. I agreed to go to war on their behalf, just as your father wanted.”
Paul shook his head. “My father never wanted this. He was a peaceful man, spreading his message. I share in the message, not this hate campaign!”
“You’re wrong if you think Peter didn’t want this. He’s the one who worked for Garza. He’s the one who set everything in motion. He taught me to follow through, so that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
Paul raised his eyebrows. “How did I never see you for who you really are? Stars, Janice, you’re my wife.”
“Still am and still can be. You can still get onboard. No one knows how far you’ve fallen, and we work well. I come up with the plans, you sell them to the people. We’ll play to our strengths. We’ll—”
Paul shook his head, wondering when his wife had become so…morally diluted. How hadn’t he noticed for so many years?
“You’re wrong. It’s over,” he told her. “They’ve caught up to me.”
“You’re the one who is wrong. I took care of the problem.” Janice smiled. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to.”
“What?” Paul felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. He let go of the gun, and Janice lowered it. Slightly. “What did you do?”
“What you couldn’t. I shot Kylie—as if her disguise would fool family! Once I saw you talking to her, I knew exactly who she was.”
“You shot my sister?”
He didn’t want to think about this. He didn’t want to let the depths of his wife’s depravity into his mind, but he couldn’t stop it. Slowly, everything came together. All his careful planning to avoid Kylie, to avoid having to hurt her or kill her, it was all for nothing. Everything he had done…it was all for nothing.
“Yes! So we can stay here and do what needs to be done. The demonstration—”
“There will be no demonstration! We don’t have the AIs, and we don’t have the virus.”
Janice’s face fell, and she finally lowered her weapon as the pieces finally came together for her. “We need the demonstration, Paul. I promised them…. They aren’t the forgiving type. They’ll kill me. Don’t tell me you want that to happen?”
“That’s out of my hands. You killed the one person who knew where the AIs were. We simply don’t have what we need.” Paul watched Janice’s face crumble. “But I can get us out of here.”
“With our fleet? They’ll find us!”
“I have another ship,” he told Janice. “One I had built just for us. That’s where I was this morning. It has advanced weapons, the best shields and stealth tech, all courtesy of designs from Orion. We can hide from Silstrand, hide from everyone.”
“You…had a ship built? You were going to run away?” Janice fell quiet, and then tears filled her eyes. “You were going to leave me? Abandon me and the cause?”
“There’s no time to argue about that now. If you want to be safe, we leave. Now.”
Janice raised the gun again. “I don’t think so. Just because you’ve abandoned our dream, doesn’t mean I will.”
“Now, wait a second, Janice!”
“You can come in now, General.”
Paul stepped back with a pounding heart, as the door slid open and in walked General Levin.
“Mr. Rhoads, I think we’re all going to go for a little walk.”
“I don’t think so,” Paul said, pushing past the general, but the four armed guards on the other side changed his mind. “Alberta? Drake?”
Alberta is working for Orion? That can’t be. She had been at his side for so long.
“Sorry, Paul,” Alberta said. “We work for Orion now. And you do, too.”
CONFIRMATION
STELLAR DATE: 12.21.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: CSF Precinct 3, Holding Cells, Chimin-1
REGION: Chimin Asteroid Group, Hanoi System (independent)
Lana watched from outside the interrogation room while Winter stepped in to meet with the leader of the Coalesce Legion’s assault team—Lew, as it turned out. She couldn’t see much except for Winter’s broad shoulders as he leaned menacingly over the table.
But, boy, if she didn’t find the way his uniform barely fit over those shoulders damn sexy. Get a hold of yourself, Lana! Stars. Hormones.
Well, shit. Lana shook her head, amazed that Grayson had taken such drastic action. I guess Ranstock was telling the truth.
Lana checked the message’s route and saw that the colonel had bounced it off relays all the way out at Hochi to get it around the flares and coronal mass ejections rolling along Dauten’s magnetic fields. The transmission time had to have taken over 10 AU to make it to Chimin—almost a ninety-minute light lag.
She sent the message out through the linkup to the Hochi relays, knowing it would be some time before Grayson got her response. Then she turned back to the window looking into the interrogation room, where Winter was yelling at an increasingly nervous man across the desk.
Winter fell quiet.
He hadn’t turned from the man he was looming over, but Lana would have bet that his scowl was mighty severe.
Lana resisted the urge to storm into the room and slap some sense into the man. With all the good work he’d been doing on Chimin, it was easy to forget how pig-headed he could be at times.
Lana ground her teeth, wondering what was really going on with the boorish man. She was beginning to wonder why she’d opted to stay on Chimin in the first place. At first, she’d thought that seeing Winter again would be a nice perk of the job, but now she was wondering if she’d never learn her lesson.