Song of Scarabaeus

by Sara Creasy

  “Can’t you just pay up and get them off your back?”

  “No, because they know that we know it’s a bullshit excuse. If we cave in, they’ll know we’re covering for something else.”

  At the far end of the corridor, a flustered Haller jumped down the ladder and marched toward them.

  “Are you reading my memos? Did you program those nanofinds?”

  “Uh…nanofinds, sir?” She had no idea what memo he was talking about.

  He glared at her, his color rising, and seemed to be waging an internal battle as to whether he should smack her. She was grateful that Zeke was right there and Finn was nearby.

  “Read my fucking memos, Edie! If we can’t avoid being boarded, you and that serf need to get to the skiff. We’ll give you a shove into the jump node and you can hide out until it’s over. We need nanofinds to wipe the Hoi clean. Get it done. Then report to the bridge. We might have a problem with the BRATs.”

  He stormed away.

  Edie turned a questioning look on Zeke. “What’s he talking about? He wants to dump us inside a jump node? In that tiny skiff?”

  “If it comes to that.” Zeke shrugged, as if it wasn’t a big deal.

  It was a very big deal to Edie. If the skiff needed a push from the Hoi to enter the node, it must mean there was no gate. And with no gate, the skiff would be stuck wherever it exited until the Hoi came back for it.

  That sounded like a terrible idea.

  “Isn’t this illegal?” Finn’s dry tone emphasized the irony of his question. Was anything these rovers did legal?

  “Completely illegal. The primary use for nanofinds is to scrub a crime scene.”

  “But you’ve done it before?”

  Edie shrugged. “It’s biocyph. I figured out how to make them when I was a kid.” They were in the infirmary, where she drew blood samples from them both and dropped them into the DNA sequencer. “Never made them before to wipe out all traces of my own existence.”

  Their med records had already been wiped. It was a strange feeling to scroll through the ship’s logs and find herself erased. Even Haller’s memo vanished as soon as she closed it. She scanned the system to find that he’d put a rather clumsy precoded worm into action an hour ago, presumably when the danger of being boarded had become too great to ignore.

  Finn watched her working but fell silent again. He was hardly the most talkative person she knew, but today he’d seemed preoccupied with his thoughts.

  “Are you thinking about that serf?” she said.

  “I’m thinking about CIP.”

  “The ship out there?”

  “Ever thought about turning yourself in?”

  Her hand froze over the sequencer. “You can’t be serious. Go back to the Crib? I’ve told you why I can’t do that. Natesa, Project Ardra—”

  “What about me?”

  He was right. She had to consider what was best for him, too. But that was never going to be the Crib.

  “After what Haller did—murdering that serf,” he went on, “I believe you now. I believe he’ll find a reason to kill me.”

  “Cat thinks otherwise. Listen, what Haller wants is to get through the mission with maximum profit. We’re doing this for the creds. Our goal and his are the same. The Crib isn’t the answer.”

  “It might be the only answer to deactivating the leash. Crib tecks are the best.”

  She couldn’t argue that point, and they’d agreed from the start that the leash was their first priority. But the situation had changed. After witnessing the Fringers’ misery first hand, she’d lost any remaining faith in the Crib’s integrity. They’d discard Finn even quicker than Haller would.

  “What about afterward?” she said. “Even if they do cut the leash, you’ll still be their slave and I’ll still be Natesa’s pawn. The Crib has nothing to offer us.”

  He inclined his head in a gesture of withdrawal from the discussion, but not exactly agreement with her argument. Edie didn’t pursue it, didn’t want to hear him come up with more reasons. He was simply wrong if he believed either of them had a chance of freedom in the hands of the Crib. His peculiar mood singed the air.

  Using a standard wet-teck generator, she imprinted their DNA codes onto a matrix. A few minutes later she held between her fingers a vial of genetically engineered nanofinds to be distributed through the aircon. They would multiply rapidly, spread through the ship, and selectively target only the DNA for which they were primed—

  hers and Finn’s. They would break down all traces of hair and dead skin cells they came across and then quietly self-destruct into unremarkable dust, to be mopped up by cleaner toms.

  Edie was prohibited from the bridge, which made Haller’s summons all the more unnerving. Her crew key failed to snap the hatch and she was about to hit Haller’s callsign when he opened the hatch from the inside.

  “That report you wrote,” he said without preamble, leading her to a console at the rear of the bridge. Finn hung back and the bridge crew ignored him. “Because the BRATs were dead, you said, the Crib scout ship knocked out the satellite that the original mission left behind.” He flicked on a holoviz, which displayed various projection lines on an image of Scarabaeus. Behind her, she was aware of Captain Rackham in conversation with Cat at the con, and one of the engies.

  “That would be standard procedure. If the BRATs didn’t germinate, they would’ve disabled the satellite to prevent its transmissions drawing the attention of rovers.”

  “But you don’t know for sure?”

  “No,” she admitted. Her report contained a large amount of speculation that she’d presented as fact, based on her accumulated knowledge of standard CCU seeding procedures.

  Haller’s holoviz was starting to make sense now. An animated sim showed the satellite’s projected tracking path and ground coverage arcs.

  “Our advance probe is picking up transmissions that exactly overlay this pattern. That means the satellite is still functional.”

  “I guess so.” What did he expect her to do about it? It wasn’t her fault CCU had left a beacon behind. “Surely you have to deal with this problem all the time—isn’t that what you rovers do? Hit and run. Disguise your ident transmissions within the system, do your dirty work and then disappear before CCU can respond to the satellites that detected your presence?”

  “It’s not detection I’m worried about. Yes, we can disguise our approach.” He gave her a look that said he wasn’t about to tell her how. “The satellite is receiving information from the BRATs.”

  “Okay, that’s normal. There would be latent broadcasts from the surface regardless of whether the BRATs germinated.”

  “I’m not talking about weather reports and positional scans and security beacons.” Haller’s voice was tight, controlled, masking something very much like panic. “The satellite is picking up activity within the BRATs. Our probe sent back a preliminary reflection and it looks like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

  He flashed up the data packets. The content was Crib-encoded so he’d been unable to access it, but the packets contained far more information than could be accounted for by the housekeeping blips of dead BRATs.

  Stunned, Edie could only murmur, “What’s going on out there?”

  “CIP is on the line,” Cat said sharply from her console, and Edie turned to catch the wary glance the navpilot threw in her direction.

  “Off the bridge,” Rackham snapped at Edie over his shoulder, sparing Finn a brief glare as well.

  By the time they reached the hatch, everyone’s attention was on the main holoviz. In a spur-of-the-moment decision, Edie ducked behind a console, pulling Finn with her. She needed to know whether CIP was after her, and she wasn’t going to rely on Haller’s secondhand report to find out.

  “Put them on,” Rackham said.

  A young, square-jawed CIP official appeared on the holoviz.

  “Hoi Polloi, this is CIP Inspection and Quarantine on the Laoch. One hour ago you were ordered to power down and
prepare to be boarded.”

  “One hour ago,” Rackham replied coolly, “you sent an illegal order to inspect our manifest. You’ve since provided no acceptable reason to delay us and no justification to inspect our holds, despite numerous requests from my crew. Your spurious excuses are unconvincing. This continued harassment is unwarranted, and I intend to take it up with your superiors once we return to the Central zone in a few weeks.”

  The young man didn’t falter, reciting his orders like an automaton. “You are required to comply with all CIP

  requests for inspection.”

  “Cut the bull, young man. Those regulations apply within Crib Central space, which we left two days ago.”

  “You registered an incorrect mass at jump dock thirty-three AVID, within the Central zone. Therefore—”

  “Therefore, you should have stopped us then. You missed your chance. Not that it matters, because we both know that there was nothing wrong with our mass or with the tariff we paid to traverse that node.”

  The CIP official set his jaw in frustration, and Rackham turned to Cat with a cutoff signal.

  “Captain!”

  They all spun back to the screen at the sound of a new voice, and Edie suppressed a gasp. A familiar face now filled the screen.

  “Captain Rackham,” the woman said in the snide voice Edie knew so well.

  “Who the hell are you?” Rackham barked.

  “Liv Natesa. Crib Colonial Unit, Special Branch.”

  Edie crouched lower behind the console. There was no more pretending that this was a routine CIP inspection, although rovers must run into such trouble all the time. Natesa was on board the Laoch. It could only mean she suspected Edie was on the Hoi.

  “Captain, I have the authority of Crib Central Intelligence behind me. You need to listen to me.”

  That got Rackham’s attention. The bridge went quiet.

  “Say your piece, Ms Natesa.”

  Edie had to give him credit for sounding entirely calm, something she’d never felt in Natesa’s presence. She knew the woman too well. Natesa had a way of crushing all arguments, all obstacles that impeded her mission. She always won. Rackham just didn’t know it yet.

  “I have information that you may be harboring a criminal,” Natesa said, “by the name of Edie Sha’nim.”

  A criminal? What was she talking about? Was she planning to accuse Edie of desertion? Or worse…of Ademo’s murder? Edie saw her future with the Crib more clearly than ever. If Natesa threatened her with criminal charges, her choices would be Project Ardra or life in a prison camp.

  And Finn’s choices? None at all. He’d participated in her kidnapping, or desertion, or whatever Natesa planned to call it. As a serf, his status was below Natesa’s threshold of humanity and his future was a swift execution. Even if Edie could plead his case, he was at the mercy of the leash. Natesa would never allow him to stay at her side. He would be discarded. There was no hope for him.

  That realization set Edie’s heart pounding. Going back to the Crib meant death for Finn.

  Finn’s breath ruffled the hair on the crown of her head as he crouched behind her. He pressed against her, warm and solid, and closed his hand around her upper arm. With his lips against her ear he breathed, Shhh. She fought to calm herself.

  “You will submit to an inspection so we can clear you of this allegation,” Natesa continued. “Otherwise I’ll be forced to impound your vessel immediately and arrest your crew to face serious charges.”

  “This is outrageous,” Rackham blustered. “What’s with the charade? How dare you trail us like a Priscian vulture with accusations about our manifest and tariffs, and now this nonsense about harboring a criminal. What are you going to think up next—our taillight is out?”

  As Rackham’s voice rose, Edie hoped he wouldn’t lose his cool. The captain struck her as a man who always chose his words too carefully to say something stupid.

  “I wouldn’t dream of concerning myself with your taillight, Captain. From your ident I note you’re a loyal Crib citizen like me. A decorated vet, no less. You’ve done your duty for the Crib. Now let me do mine.”

  Rackham started another protest, but Natesa simply spoke over him without even raising her voice.

  “The Laoch is increasing speed to rendezvous with you in twelve minutes. Please hold course and we’ll spare you the trouble of decelerating. I strongly recommend that you comply.”

  Natesa cut the connection. Edie sagged against Finn, intently aware of his protective touch. But there was no real safety in his arms. He couldn’t protect her from Natesa’s plans, and she certainly couldn’t protect him.

  She peeked out at the bridge, where Haller paced the deck. “We can still outrun them, can’t we?” Haller said.

  Cat gave an uncertain shrug as she checked her console. “We could make a dash for the jump node, but if they open fire—”

  “We’re not going to run.” The bridge crew stared at Rackham. “We’re a prospecting vessel for Stichting Corp, no more, no less. They may not have an entirely legal reason to search us, but if we don’t comply we’ll never hear the end of it. How far are we from the jump?”

  “Six minutes at current speed,” Cat reported.

  Rackham spun on Haller. “Send the cypherteck to the skiff and we’ll push her through the jump. We’ve got to get her and those rigs off the Hoi. Lancer, you mapped a course for the skiff?”

  “Yes sir, did it yesterday.”

  “Are we close enough to give them a shove into the node?”

  “With our bulk shielding the skiff from CIP sensors, we’ve got about four minutes to launch the skiff before they come within range to detect it.”

  “Four minutes. Go!” Rackham yelled.

  Haller ran right past Edie and Finn, and ducked through the hatch. His boots clattered on the ramp as he descended to the deck below. Rackham continued barking orders at Cat and the engie Corky, giving Edie and Finn the opportunity to sneak out.

  Haller’s voice boomed over the shipwide comm. “Edie, where the hell are you? Get to Beta skiff immediately.”

  Edie hit his callsign on her comm. “We’re on our way.” The idea of being jettisoned into a jump node horrified her, but it was preferable to ending up in Natesa’s hands, where Finn’s life was worthless.

  They ran the length of deck one, climbed down two decks, and doubled-back to find the floor hatch that led directly to the skiff’s airlock. It was a shorter route than going via deck four’s hatches. Finn jumped down, landing lightly, and caught her around the waist as she followed him and slid to the deck. They could hear Haller up the corridor yelling at Zeke, who in turn yelled at the serfs.

  Haller’s face flooded with relief when he saw that Edie had arrived. “Get in there. In a few minutes this place is going to be crawling with CIP drones, and you need to be gone. Skiff’s on auto. Cat’s patched through the flight specs, so you sit tight until we come back for you. Don’t touch anything.”

  Edie and Finn stepped through the hatch as two serfs bolted out on Zeke’s command. They’d been dragging in the last of the illegal equipment.

  “Secure the inner hatch, then get up to the cockpit and strap in,” Haller instructed as the outer hatch cycled shut in front of his nose, with him on the other side.

  Edie turned to survey the hold—it was stuffed full of equipment, every piece of junk that could possibly incriminate the Hoi, as well as Zeke’s treasures that he probably didn’t have the proper paperwork for. The sharp edge of Zeke’s booster scraped her shin.

  “You guys ready to go?” It was Cat on the comm.

  Edie went over to the comm panel and answered, her voice unsteady. “Yes, we’re set.”

  The events of the last few minutes were slowly sinking in. They were about to be launched into a jump node with no means of getting themselves back out. And Natesa was out there, bearing down on her, determined to bring her home. And calling her a criminal.

  Perhaps Natesa was making it all up as a ruse t
o get aboard the Hoi. But Edie had known the woman since she was ten years old. Natesa had the power to carry through those charges—frame Edie for desertion and accessory to murder, or at the very least blackmail her with the threat of prosecution.

  Returning to the Crib was completely out of the question, and seeing Natesa’s face again, hearing her voice, only heightened Edie’s resolve. She could never go back. Never.

  CHAPTER 18

  Edie’s knees gave way and she sat down on the booster casing. Her heartbeat was starting to return to normal after the frantic rush belowdeck, but her mind still whirred. She looked up to see Finn standing in front of the inner hatch, facing her.

  “We have ninety seconds before the Laoch’s close enough to detect your launch,” came Cat’s voice. “You better get that airlock sealed.”