by M. D. Cooper
Normally she loved space, loved the black; but it wasn’t black here. Ships were flying all around them, oblivious to the partially stealthed bot she clung to. Dust pinged off her armor, and above them, the baleful eye of the Grey Wolf Star loomed—its dark band of black holes tearing the star apart atom by atom.
No, this isn’t the black, this is some sort of space hell, and I am floating around in it with a crazy ancient scientist, who may or may not manage to get a stupid spider robot to fly us back to a station where everyone wants to kill us!
Sure enough, the spider bot began to move, and a moment later, its grav drive activated, turning it back toward Gisha Station’s hub.
Cheeky wanted to berate Finaeus, to ask him how long they were supposed to wait outside the station, but she bit her tongue and tried to calm herself down. He was right; this was under control. One of the crazier things she had ever been involved in—but under control.
Then the spider-bot’s grav engine went haywire.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
STELLAR DATE: 07.22.8938 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Docking Bay F34A, Gisha Station
REGION: DSM Ring, Grey Wolf System
“What do you mean, ‘they escaped the station’?” Admiral Krissy asked.
“Well,” Major Michaels began, “we had cornered them in a service bay, one filled with broken mirror bits. We engaged them, and they got out the airlock.”
“Shit!” Colonel Bes swore. “They could be anywhere now, probably headed across the station’s surface to their bay.”
“Yes, sir, I have crews heading out after them, and patrol craft scouring the station.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Krissy shook her head. “Did they get EVA suits somewhere? Did anyone check the emergency locker at that airlock?”
“I’m on it,” Major Michaels replied and stepped away to address a pair of lieutenants.
“You don’t think they killed themselves by accident?” Bes asked.
“I think that’s less likely than you killing yourself by accident,” Krissy said, earning a dark look from Bes. “No, they wouldn’t have died by accident or on purpose. They’re too smart for that.”
Krissy looked up at the ship, its invisible stasis shield continuing to protect it from the soldiers surrounding it.
You’d better not be that stupid, Krissy thought. Finaeus is going to need you back on that ship if he’s to get out of this mess.
She considered the hack job Jessica—it must have been Jessica, with her TBI training—had performed on the two guards. It was a brilliant move; one that surprised even Krissy. That armor wasn’t supposed to be vulnerable to an attack like that.
She was fast learning that nothing was as it seemed, with this crew.
“Then what are they playing at?” Bes asked. “If their mission is just to escape, why hit the STC? Why did they come out of their ship in the first place?”
“The first answer is simple,” Krissy replied. “They want a mirror. Finaeus must have been certain he could still get one, even after they had their misfiring.”
“You mean where they attacked the station,” Bes said. Krissy noted by his inflection that he meant it as a correction, not a question.
“Oh, is that what happened?” Krissy asked, peering into the Grey man’s eyes, curious if he would let a tell slip through his cold expression.
He didn’t.
“You saw the logs from your own ships. They don’t lie. Not all of them,” Bes said while holding her gaze.
Krissy nodded slowly. Until a few hours ago, she would have believed that without reservation—now…not so much.
“No luck so far, Admiral,” Major Michaels said as he turned back to them. “I’d like to take another crack at that ship. We’re certain we have a plan that will work this time.”
“No,” Krissy said with a wave of her hand. “You’ve already squandered what chance we had of winning this without further bloodshed. First, we try to find their compatriots, and then we try to negotiate. If that fails, then you go in.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Major Michaels nodded.
“Major, I’d like to hear your plan,” Bes said.
“Belay that, Major!” Krissy turned to Bes, a fire rising in her chest. “Colonel Bes. May I remind you that I have orders to capture and turn over two people from that ship, and arrest the others? Nowhere in my orders does it even insinuate that I have to give you one iota of tactical control over this situation. So, if you’ll kindly shut up and return to your ship, I’ll consider not filing charges of insubordination. I repeat, consider not—you better have good protection from the top.”
Major Michaels blanched, and Bes opened his mouth to deliver a rejoinder when Krissy held up a finger. “I’ll remind you, Bes, that we are deep in the Inner Stars, and are on a war footing. Out here, in this realm, I am your god. The Grey Division may be safely back on Airtha, beyond my reach, but you, Bes—you are within my grasp. You’d do well to remember that.”
“Admiral,” Bes ground out. “The Division will hear of this.”
Krissy felt her calm slipping away entirely. “One more word, and we’ll see if they can hear it from my brig. Now get out of my sight!”
To his credit, Bes spun on his heel and left the bay without another word.
Krissy turned her eyes to Major Michaels. She took a slow breath as the man visibly wilted before her.
“Major. The next time someone shows up here—and I don’t care who it is, it could be President Fucking Tomlinson—you don’t surrender tactical control of an operation without first clearing it with me. Am I clear?”
“Yes, Admiral Krissy.”
“Am I crystal clear?!”
“Yes, Admiral Krissy!”
“Good! Now go do your fucking job—somewhere out of earshot, would be nice.”
Krissy felt shame over losing her temper so spectacularly—especially while in hearing range of hundreds of her soldiers. Still, it didn’t hurt for them to be reminded that the admiral had teeth, and she wasn’t afraid to use them.
She looked back up at the Sabrina, wondering if Finaeus was looking down at her. Someone was playing a dangerous game, and she wondered who it was. One thing was for certain; some of his crazier ramblings were starting to make sense.
Krissy turned and surveyed her troops in the bay. Her faith in Major Michaels and his operation was only a hair above nil right now.
Krissy closed the connection, and her gaze settled on a pair of soldiers moving toward the ship. There was something familiar about them.
A WINK AND A NOD
STELLAR DATE: 07.22.8938 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Docking Bay F34A, Gisha Station
REGION: DSM Ring, Grey Wolf System
“I say we just walk on,” Jessica suggested.
“What? Past all those Sender soldi
ers?”
“Are you just messing with me, now? You gotta say the ‘c’.”
Iris offered.
“I like that,” Cargo chuckled. “Scenties.”
Jessica put a hand to her forehead and shook her head slowly, turning her attention back to the scene before the pair of them. They stood on one of the upper catwalks in Docking Bay F34A, Sabrina lying below them with the growing contingent of TSF soldiers arrayed around it.
“Doesn’t seem like she took any damage,” Jessica said. “With any luck, we can use the hackit to get the doors open and get the heck out of here.”
“Yeah, back before we realized that Krissy is being forced to take orders from the dark side, and is going to ship us all off to some secret prison, or something.”
“Probably the secret prison for me, and the ‘or something’ for you,” Cargo grinned. “Anyway, I like your plan. We just walk toward the ship, maybe cut across the front down there, so that it’s not obvious until the last moment, and then we run.”
“Think Sabrina will spot us and have a lock open?” Jessica asked.
“Fine by me,” Jessica replied.
The pair walked to a lift and rode it down to the dock’s main level, where they casually strode past a platoon setting up a pair of crew-served slug throwers, and another group of soldiers readying armor-piercing javelin missile launchers.
They passed by a pair of scouts who were crouched behind a stack of crates, their railguns trained on the starboard airlock.
Jessica was about to suggest that maybe the approach was too dicey, when the sound of yelling caught her attention. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Admiral Krissy dressing down a major who looked absolutely terrified.
Jessica’s gaze lingered a moment too long and she cringed as Krissy looked their way and caught Jessica’s eye. The admiral frowned.
They kept moving, hoping against hope that the next words weren’t ‘seize them!’
To Jessica’s relief, Admiral Krissy called out to the two scouts watching the starboard lock, repositioning them further down the dock, and creating an opening for the pair.
Jessica touched Cargo’s shoulder.
Cargo didn’t respond, but cut across the remainder of the TSF soldiers’ front line, then took a deep breath and walked out into the no-man’s land around the ship.
For a moment, Jessica thought that they’d pass through free and clear, but then a voice called out.
“Hey! What are you doing?”
“Stop!” another voice hollered.
Jessica broke into a run, dodging and weaving just in case anyone decided to shoot. She saw Cargo doing the same out of the corner of her eye, and nearly stumbled when a shot did ring out. A projectile whistled past her ear.
She poured on as much speed as she could. Hopefully Sabrina did see them and would make a hole, or she was going to slam at full speed into the stasis shield. She was wondering if she’d passed beyond its protection yet, when a pulse blast hit her in the back and sent her sprawling.
The staccato beat of projectiles ricocheting around her brought her back to her feet, and she expected to see rounds tearing through her.
But she was unharmed.
Jessica turned and saw bullets, rail pellets, and beamfire all striking an invisible force, mere centimeters from her face.
She was through the stasis shield.
“You don’t see that every day,” Cargo said.
As they talked, Jessica and Cargo ran down the starboard passage, climbed the ladder to the crew deck, and then the next up to the command deck.
They entered the bridge to see Nance sitting at one of the scan consoles.
“What do you mean they left?” Cargo growled. “Whose dumb idea was that, anyway?”
“I’ll give you three guesses,” Nance said quietly.
“I’d rather they left it as weak as possible,” Cargo said. “What’s the word?”
“Out where?” Cargo asked brusquely.
“What?” Jessica yelled.
“Jess! Damn, I’m glad you’re OK,” Trevor said as he burst onto the bridge. “I take it you’re yelling about Cheeky and Fin going on a little walkabout.”
“Yeah, they walked right off the station.”
“What…you’re kidding, right?”
“It seems not,” Cargo said. “Options, people? They’re out there looking for our crew, and we need to reach them first, and then get the hell out of here.”
Jessica threw an image of Gisha on the main holo, and Iris populated it with the last known location of Finaeus and Cheeky.
“Any chance that they faked the Teebies out and are still in the station?” Cargo asked.
“Really? Teebies?”
“Seems like a stretch,” Nance shook her head.
“So, two to three hours tops before they run out of air,” Cargo said. “Depending on how much Cheeks is hyperventilating right now.”
Jessica could only think of one way to get off Gisha, and that was opening fire on the soldiers and the bay doors. But after what Krissy had done to help….
“Only way out of this tin can is to shoot our way out,” Cargo said, echoing her thoughts. Jessica met his eyes and the captain sighed. “Right, but we have to warn Krissy somehow.”
“What? The evil admiral who is trying to take us all out?” Nance asked.
“It’s more complicated than that. She has some significant history with Finaeus—more than just a few drinks once, like he said—enough for her to h
elp us escape. I don’t think she wants to see him die.”
“Yeah, but he’s not here anymore,” Trevor said. “She has no special attachment to us.”
“Why’s that?” Cargo asked.
Cargo let out a long breath. “But once we get out into space…we have to bubble the whole ship.”
“Right. No heat dispersion,” Nance added.
“Batts one and two look good,” Cargo noted.
“OK, so it’s going to be dicey out there,” Jessica said. “But we still—”
“Yeah, but just show her Jess and me. Leave her guessing about who else is still onboard.”
Admiral Krissy appeared on the holotank, her surroundings a blank grey—which told Jessica that the message was coming from her mind, not visible to anyone near her.
“Captain Cargo, Jessica,” Krissy said. “Please ensure that this message is encrypted properly per TSF Naval code 837.322.11A.”
Admiral Krissy began to recite the charges against them, and the crimes and punishments they faced in a droning monotone.
Jessica glanced at Cargo and mouthed ‘What?’
Suddenly Admiral Krissy’s voice changed—though the visual did not.
“Good, I hoped you’d figure that out.”
“What’s going on, really?” Jessica asked pointedly. “What does Finaeus mean to you?”