by M. D. Cooper
“So I take it Empress Diana was not amused?”
“Not even in the slightest. You should have seen what she made Petra wear to the Celebration of the Seven Suns.”
“Oh? Petra had always wanted to attend that.”
“Not like this, she didn’t.” Sera passed the image over the Link to Nadine, chuckling as an expression of horror and amazement washed over Nadine’s face.
“That’s…just a little demeaning,” Nadine said at last.
“Yeah, and Petra is still trying to get back into Diana’s good graces.”
Nadine stopped and faced Sera. “You left her there?”
Sera nodded. “She’s the best one for the job. Diana had a change of heart, too—a bit, at least. She apologized to Petra.”
“And Petra? She wants this?”
“Remember that whole thing about agents falling in love with assets?”
Sera watched Nadine’s face redden. She could tell the woman had something she wanted to get out, but it wasn’t the sort of thing you could say to your boss…and president.
“Spit it out, Nadine.”
Nadine clenched her jaw, then exhaled. “No, I’m good.”
“You sure? This is your one chance.”
“OK, fine,” Nadine’s eyes narrowed. “I fall in love with my asset, and I’m taken to task, chewed out. Petra falls in love with the damned Empress of Scipio, and she gets promoted to, what…Ambassador?”
Sera winked at Nadine. “She didn’t go off-mission. Took her lumps and moved forward.”
“What do you think I did?” Nadine shot back. “I took Kylie out and sent her off with her brother….”
“Which, I’ll admit, worked out in the end.”
“ ‘Worked out’!” Nadine was almost screaming. “Have you looked beyond this big fancy ship of yours? A lot of people died out there. People who had no choice.”
“Now do you get my point?” Sera asked, her eyebrow arched.
Nadine’s mouth snapped shut, and she worked her jaw back and forth. Sera simply stared at Nadine until the agent finally said, “So what now? Is this where I get kicked out the airlock?”
“No,” Sera said without elaborating, still waiting for Nadine to calm down.
Nadine closed her eyes. “Then what’s going to happen?”
“Look, things could have been worse, and we learned about Garza, and about something that Kylie’s father saw. Something he called his ‘angel’.”
“Angel? I didn’t hear about that.”
Sera turned off the path and led Nadine through the woods for a minute before stopping in a small clearing.
Nadine looked around at the trees, and up at the far side of the habitation cylinder where a lake hung two kilometers over their heads. “Can I just say that I’ve seen a lot of crazy shit in my life, but never, and I mean never, have I seen a warship with a forest.”
“It may be a first,” Sera agreed. “And there are not a lot of firsts anymore.”
Sera dropped a privacy dampener on the ground between them and placed a hand on Nadine’s shoulder. “In time, this will become common knowledge. But for now, it doesn’t leave your lips or mind. Understood?”
Nadine nodded solemnly.
“I need you to say it, Nadine.”
“I’ll not tell a soul about what you are about to tell me. Not until it’s common knowledge.”
“Good,” Sera nodded and tried to figure out in which order to explain things. “I’m not going to put an auth token in your mind about this or get carried away with what ‘common knowledge’ means. You’ll know when you can share it.”
“You’re making me a bit nervous…”
“Yeah,” Sera laughed. “You should be.”
Sera proceeded to tell Nadine the whole story. Her mother’s trip to the core, encountering the Ascended AIs coming back as Airtha. How Helen had been a shard of her mother in her mind. The attack on New Canaan, the clones of Garza that seemed to be everywhere, orchestrating everything, and what they knew of the mysterious entity that called itself ‘the Caretaker’.
“Why’d you take us here in the woods? I need to sit down!” Nadine exclaimed when Sera was finished.
“Sorry, you can sit in the grass…”
“No thanks, I finally feel like I got clean for the first time in weeks.”
Sera laughed. “You always were a bit of a princess.”
“It’s why the cover works so well for me.” Nadine shrugged. “So, let me get this straight. Airtha is leading a rebellion with some sort of clone of you claiming to be you—”
“It probably is me,” Sera interjected. “Helen was in my head for decades. Finaeus thinks it’s entirely possible that she could make another… ‘me’.”
“That’s seriously creepy.” Nadine shook her head in disgust. “OK, so there’s that. Then there’s the core AIs. Orion has Garza running around, cloning himself—which is really unusual behavior for Orion-types. Lastly, we have Ascended AIs pulling our strings like we’re all marionettes, and there may or may not be more than one faction of them.”
Sera nodded. “Plus all the other stuff, like wars breaking out all across the Orion Arm as the lines get drawn between us and the Orion Freedom Alliance.”
Nadine rubbed her eyes and ran her hands through her long blue hair. “This is…Sera…this feels like…. How are we going to deal with all this? Excuse me if I start to hyperventilate.”
Sera placed her hands on Nadine’s shoulders and locked eyes with her. “We’re not without our allies and strengths. Having Scipio on our side counts for a lot. Diana may be a cold, testy bitch, but she can get things done. And what’s more, we have New Canaan. They’re building more ships like this one. At least fifty. That’s the beginnings of a galactic fleet.”
“What’s the Transcend’s relationship with New Canaan?”
“Not as complex as one might think. They’re committed to backing us, and Tanis is in it to win it. Even without New Canaan’s resources, having her on our side is easily as big a win as Scipio, maybe bigger.”
“New Canaan is just one star system, though. How many resources can they bring to bear?”
“They built a twenty-thousand ship fleet in secret in fifteen years.”
“Oh…OK, when you put it that way…. Then why is Tanis out here? Aren’t they worried about being attacked again?”
“They worked out how to summon the things from the dark layer,” Sera said without elaboration.
“What!? They brought them out? How…?”
“I don’t know, and I really don’t want to know. I hope they never tell anyone else, either. It was…terrifying.”
“And they put them back in?”
“They wouldn’t have a star system anymore if they didn’t.”
Nadine whistled and appeared to be processing everything Sera had told her. “OK, so you don’t tell all this to someone that you’re canning. But I’m not entirely certain I have any more of this in me. I don’t know if I can do subterfuge, secrets, and missions anymore. Not yet, at least.”
“Good, because that’s not what I have in mind.”
“Oh?”
Sera shook her head. “I want you to function as an intelligence officer for Tanis. From the looks of it, she’ll be heading to Praesepe. You’ve spent time there, and your cousin Nerischka is there, too.”
“Been a long time since I’ve seen Nishka. Also, I couldn’t help but notice your wording,” Nadine said. “I take it you’re not coming along?”
“No. I have to get back to Khardine. We were going to get the Inner Stars under control before dealing with Airtha, but with the other ‘me’ out there, we don’t have that luxury any longer. I have to face her head-on.”
“Good luck,” Nadine chuckled. “You’re going to need it.”
“Tell me about it.” Sera took a step back from Nadine. “So, Agent Nadine. Are you ready to become Major Nadine, officer in the TSF?”
“Major? That’s a jump.”
“I need people t
o listen to you when you talk.”
Nadine snorted, though it sounded more like a soft squeak. “That’ll be a change. So, I don’t have to go undercover, lie to anyone, or make promises I know I probably won’t be able to keep?”
“Well, I’m not going to make promises I can’t keep. But none of those things are my intention.”
“OK, I’m in. When do we leave?”
“Well, technically, you’re staying here. I’m leaving.”
“And what about Kylie?” Nadine’s voice was strained, as though she had held the question in for too long. “What happens with her…and her nanotech?”
“They’ve altered it to make it safe. The weaponized aspects were causing problems—would have caused more, too, soon enough. Kylie’s signed on to go find her brother and put a stop to this Revolution Fleet business. When she finds them, she has a device called a QuanComm that will instantly reach me at Khardine. Then we send in the cavalry to take out the rest of that fleet.”
Nadine nodded. “I guess that’s for the best. She needs time away. Do you know if Grayson is going with her?”
“The Silstrand Colonel? No, not that I know of. Silstrand has a lot of cleaning up to do. That general…Samuel. He made a right mess in Gedri—worse than it usually is. There’s talk of sending a pair of cruisers along with Grayson to clean it up.”
“You’re going to send just two cruisers to subdue a star system?” Nadine asked. “Seriously?”
“They’ll be ISF cruisers. Which means atom beams and stasis shields. They probably only need to send one, but they can cover more ground with two.”
“Damn…” Nadine’s voice was barely above a whisper. “This is surreal.”
“Yeah, just a bit. Oh, crap! Kylie just filed for departure clearance on that tub of hers. You should see her off.”
Nadine chewed her lip. “I’m worried about her going out there on her own.”
“Don’t,” Sera replied. “I’m sending Ricket with her.”
“Ricket!?” Nadine almost choked. “OK, now I’m really worried.”
JUST DESSERTS
STELLAR DATE: 10.09.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Dessen
REGION: Outer Silstrand System, Silstrand Alliance
The three ISF pinnaces settled down onto cradles in one of Dessen’s docking bays, disgorging Marines before the cradle ramps had even extended.
Once Colonel Smith declared the bay secure, Tanis walked down the ramp to where a very nervous-looking woman waited.
Tanis had a brief memory of the days when she was the person who would make sure a bay was secure before some important person ventured forth.
Even now it still felt surreal.
Colonel Grayson of the SSF was at her side, and when he laid eyes on the woman, he gave her an unkind smile.
“Hello, Shinya, how has your day been?”
The woman took a deep breath and nodded professionally. “We have managed, and we’re thankful for both of your fleet’s assistance. We are ill prepared to deal with this many wounded.”
She gestured to her left, and Tanis looked over to the far side of the bay. Though the Marines had deemed it secure, it was far from empty.
Half the bay was full of wounded men and women, soldiers, and ship’s crew, laying on triage cots with automatons and medical personnel moving amongst them like grey wraiths.
“If you need further assistance, we can send it,” Tanis said.
Shinya snapped her attention back to Tanis. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry I did not properly introduce myself. I am Shinya, assistant to President Smithers.”
“Whatever happened to Ginia?” Tanis asked with a wink. “I liked her. She had spunk.”
“Ginia?” Shinya asked.
Tanis nodded. “I met her twenty years ago when I sold S&H the license to use my nanotech.”
“License?” Shinya asked.
Tanis glanced at Grayson. “She seems to have a lot of questions.”
“Shinya, why don’t you just take us to Smithers? Is he in his creepy black room?” Grayson asked.
Shinya nodded. “Yes, of course, please come this way.”
Colonel Smith nodded to Tanis, and two dozen Marines peeled off and formed up behind Tanis and Grayson.
“Oh…your soldiers can’t come along, Smithers said so.” Shinya looked more than a little worried as she delivered the message.
Tanis spoke slowly, spacing her words out. “Shinya. Pass this along to Smithers. This can go one of three ways. Option one is the one where I bring my Marines along, and we talk peaceably. Two involves a lot more Marines and an all-out assault on this moon-station. Four is the one where I just blow up Dessen and call it a day.”
Shinya nodded and swallowed. “What happened to option number three?”
“I decided to escalate things.”
“Um…OK. Smithers said your soldiers can come, too.”
Tanis smiled at Shinya and gestured for her to lead the way.
Tanis almost laughed aloud.
“I want to thank you for bringing me along,” Grayson said quietly. “I bear a…special dislike for these people.”
“Because of Lana?” Tanis asked.
Grayson nodded, glancing at Tanis. “Surprised you know about her.”
“She was in Nadine and Kylie’s reports.”
Grayson whistled. “You got Kylie to write a report?”
“Well, it was more like a series of images, and then some bullet points. There was a cat, too. Angela thinks her AI put together most of it.”
“Bob?” Grayson asked. “That’s your big ship-AI, right?”
“Yes.”
“Does he not talk often? I got all sorts of orders from someone named Priscilla, but nothing from Bob.”
“He does talk, just not to most humans. It’s taxing for him.”
Grayson frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s not supposed to—not to humans, at least.”
Tanis saw Grayson frown and cock his head out of the corner of her eye. “Are you playing with me, Admiral?”
She couldn’t help but laugh at the concerned annoyance in his voice. “A touch, but not too much. Bob’s a lot to let into your head.”
“Now I know you’re messing with me.”
Tanis just grinned and shrugged. “Could be.”
“Why are all the women in my life so complex?”
Tanis held back a laugh. The colonel seemed wound a bit too tight. Granted, his ex-wife, who she suspected he was still deeply in love with, had just left on her ship to search for her brother’s fleet, so she could understand that his state of mind may not be ideal for needling.
“Kylie’s not gone forever,” Tanis said. “She’ll find her brother, and Sera will send in the cavalry. We’ll do our best to see that you’re a part of that.”
“I hope she doesn’t find him too soon,” Grayson muttered.
“Really? Why not?”
Grayson gave her a predatory grin. “Because scuttlebutt has it that you want to send some ships to Gedri to put Maverick down.”
“And scuttlebutt is that you’d be top pick to join in that clean-up job,” Tanis replied.
“I don’t think I have to tell you how much I’d like to kick that man clear across the galaxy.” Grayson’s voice had dropped, growing quieter and
more menacing. “He’s…well, let’s just say that I’m all in.”
Tanis gave Colonel Grayson a nod. “When I meet with your fleet command, I’ll make your command of that mission a requirement.”
“Admiral Richards, you have my undying gratitude.”
* * * * *
Grayson’s description of Smithers’ office as a ‘creepy black room’ was more than apt. At first glance, the floor seemed nonexistent, but Tanis could see that it was a clever holo effect, just like the blazing star on the far side of the room, casting an otherworldly light through the space.
President Smithers stood before the raging pseudo-star, his expression grim as half the Marines filed in behind Tanis.
“Major Richards—or should I say ‘Admiral’—fortune has favored you,” Smithers said as they approached.
Tanis saw that what had been an old man looking to be at the end of his life was now much younger in appearance, carrying the ageless look of a high-quality rejuvenation treatment.
“And you, it seems. This is a far cry from managing weapons upgrades on the PetSil mining platform,” she replied.
Smithers smiled, the expression looking somehow just like it had when his face was creased and worn. “Well, I have you to thank for that—though not entirely. When you sold us your nanotech, you omitted certain things we needed to know.”
Tanis shook her head. “I did no such thing. What I sold you was predicated on base technology which you did not possess. Tech that was common knowledge in my time. Either way, I’m sure your lawyers will have told you by now that the contract I signed noted those base technologies, though you may not have recognized them at the time.”
“Yes.” Smithers bit off the word and then paused, as though the taste of it had stymied him, then continued slowly. “Well, we worked it out. It wasn’t easy, but we did.”
“And you broke your licensing agreement,” Tanis said without elaboration, letting the ball drop on the man before her.
“By making the technology work?” Smithers sputtered. “Preposterous.”
“Of course not. But it’s how you did it. The viral way you weaponized it. There are clauses in the agreement about how the nanotech can be used, the purposes for which it can be leveraged. What ended up in Kylie Rhoads was not within the scope of that license.”