Sonata in Orionis (Earth Song Book 2)

by Mark Wandrey

  "They won't give it back."

  "Don't bet on it." Pip looked disbelieving. "You may be right, but no one with less than two stars on their sleeves will ever see it, that's for certain." Pip nodded and handed her the last of the chips. "I trust you, you just don't have a safe." Minu turned around and opened the tiny safe in her office wall. Inside was only the chip with her new car's registration and her debit card. She'd almost never used the thing. Before putting their hard won chips in the safe, she took them one at a time and found the locking tab. Using her thumb nail she snapped the little piece of recessed plastic off. Now the only way to get rid of the data was to destroy the chip. They were forever read-only. Nine chips full of data, she wondered how long it would take to figure out what was there. "What did you get?"

  "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure. An awful lot of the warfare data you wanted, and more than a few thousand technical specifications on weapons. Shit, I might have been downloading Tog cookie receipts at the end to keep Z'Kal off my ass."

  "I don't know how to thank you, Pip. You really went above and beyond." Minu toyed for a second with the ultimate reward, her body remembering how it felt to hold and kiss him. It wouldn't be any stretch to close the door to her office and indulge a few of the fantasies lurking in the dark corners of her mind. Lately those fantasies were making themselves more vocal, especially in her nightly wanderings of the dream world. Luckily for her, he had more mundane wishes.

  "Just promise me you won't look at any of that without me here."

  "Okay, but why?"

  "One, I'm drooling at the prospect of seeing what I got. Two, because I'm afraid that a little more than just data came though."

  "I clipped them off," she told him, "bugs can't affect read only chips."

  "True, a self-replicating bug is stopped in a read only environment, but they can be copied into a computer while accessing the data, then it's no holds barred."

  "Okay, I understand. Tomorrow, after we finish in the lab, let’s start dissecting what we have." He smiled and left her alone in her office to wonder if her initial ultimatum to Pip months ago had been premature.

  Chapter 6

  February 10th, 518 AE

  Science Branch, Chosen Headquarters, Steven’s Pass

  During the following month Minu found her schedule continue to compress into one seemingly endless day. Almost every team already certified in the weapons use returned for follow up seminars, led by Minu and Pip. Mostly the classes discussed using the beamcasters for cover fire and avoiding the use of the guns while on the move. "Emphasis should be placed on suppression fire and the use of the beamcasters for pinpoint, highly destructive sniping." Minu's summary read on the handouts. Those that had already employed the weapons were in instant agreement with this change in strategy. Minu also advised the Chosen council that teams taking the weapons into the field should carry one extra power unit for each weapon, at the minimum.

  Between meetings with scout teams and briefings of the council, her team began a complete dissection of the weapon itself. One of the few they were allowed as specimens was mounted on one wall of her lab like a live-action exploded blueprint. Components that were known and understood were named, those with suspected functions were labeled as such with an asterisk, mysterious devices were painted red and unlabeled. When they were done the amount of red was disturbing.

  "I can't believe we know this little about these damn things," she moaned at the results.

  "All too common with Concordia tech," Alijah said. Minu looked around at the universal agreement of her people. That evening Pip and her set about reducing the pile of red labeled components. Like that late night session months ago, he showed up after hours with a bottle of mead in one hand, and a stack of tablets in the other.

  "Booze and porno?" she asked with a wry smile.

  "Booze and data," he said and slid past her, "even more arousing in my opinion."

  "You're a strange bird," she said and closed the door behind him. The tablets were his personal units, two of them were modified, their network capacity disabled. These were to be the ones they sifted the stolen data with. "Aren't you being overly careful?"

  "When it comes to stolen Concordia data, there ain't no such thing." He slid a chip into the first computer and set to work. It took less than an hour to prove his precautions justified. He purposely went through the last three chips first, figuring they had the highest risk attached to them. Pip would sift the data a few files at a time, running it through every bug filter in his arsenal before copying it onto a new chip. These were the dualloy type like he kept his pirated IDs on. Once loaded they were permanently coded as read only and put aside. Halfway through the second chip, the computer screen flashed ominously and locked up.

  "What was that?" Minu asked. She'd been warming them up a snack when the incident occurred. All she'd seen was a flash on the wall.

  "That was justification of my paranoia," he said. Pip tried a few experimental button pushes then turned the computer for her to see. They were completely solid state machines, photonic computers with no moving parts. Except for one damaged through physical impact, she'd never seen one fail. The screen looked slightly scrambled and a window stated "Hardware Failure". As she watched it dissolved into Concordia script, and then even that deteriorated. Like a melting candle, the entire screen image disintegrated into random digital garbage.

  While that was happening Pip removed the computer chip and attached another much smaller computer to the dying tablet. "Diagnostic machine," he told her as she sat next to him at her small table. "Wow, this is one dead computer."

  "What happened to it?"

  "Some sort of suicide bug tucked into the data we stole." He worked at the diagnostic computer for a minute before disengaging it. The power light on the stricken machine flickered and went out. "I've never seen anything that thorough." He took out a marker and wrote a note on the plastic screen of the dead machine. "Component Level." Under that he wrote in big letters; "TOXIC" then wrote the same on the chip which caused the crash.

  "You sure your diagnostic machine is safe?"

  "Oh sure, it doesn't really load data, it's like looking at a Medusa in the mirror. Perfectly safe."

  "What is a Medusa?"

  "You need to read more. We're going to have to take this a lot slower and sift every single file. At least until we get to the first couple chips." Minu looked at the stack of chips and whistled. "Yeah, I know."

  "Okay, so let’s get to it."

  The next day in the lab the others noticed Pip and Minu both had dark circles under their eyes, and they kept grinning at each other. Naturally, they came to entirely the wrong conclusion. "About time," Mandi said with a self-satisfied grin when they broke for lunch. Minu stared after her in confusion. It wasn't until days later that she found out from Terry that everyone thought Pip and Minu had slept together.

  "You bunch of assholes," she yelled at him.

  "Take it easy," he said and backed up, genuine fear in his eyes, "we were all happy for you! Well, most of us. It came down to him or one other who finally got to you."

  "He really isn't my type," she mumbled under her breath. "Wait, who's the other?” Terry was a fast learner and with the intent of keeping his skin intact he refused to talk about it. Still, the rumor made its rounds of the Chosen at nearly light speed. Only a couple days later, she got her first real date.

  ***

  March 12th, 518 AE

  Chosen Headquarters, Steven’s Pass

  Minu was sitting at a table by herself in the corner of the cafeteria drinking some coffee and scanning a tablet full of sifted and safe data retrieved from the Concordia files they'd stolen. She already eaten her lunch and the remains were on the tray in front of her.

  "Good afternoon," a strange voice said. Minu looked up to see a Chosen she couldn’t remember having met before.

  "Hi," she said and went back to her reading. After a moment she realized he was still there so she looked back
up. He was worth the second look. Handsome, nearly two meters tall with well-kept brown hair, blue eyes, and a very athletic build. She compared him to Aaron without even realizing it and found him less muscular and just as handsome. "Can I help you?" She also noticed the three gold stars on his collar.

  "I'm Christian," he told her.

  "I'm agnostic," she said and went back to her reading.

  "No, that's my name? Christian Forsythe." She blushed and put the computer down, looking up at him and feeling very embarrassed. He was smiling and silently laughing. She joined him.

  "Sorry, I've been working too much lately."

  "Aren't we all? You're Minu, right?"

  "Yeah, sorry again. Minu Alma." She offered her hand and he shook it firmly. One point in his favor.

  "I've seen you in here a few times and wanted to meet you."

  "Thanks, good to meet you too." The formalities out of the way she wanted to get back to her reading before she needed to return to the lab. Heedless of her hint he still stood there. She looked up into his face and saw uncertainty. "Is there something wrong?"

  "Wrong, no, not at all. I just, well, crap. Will you go out to a movie with me tonight?"

  The worst part was Minu didn't even remember saying yes. The rest of the day went with a blur of work and angst over the coming date. Before she knew it she was waiting for him in the main entrance hall. She'd rolled the dice and wore civilian clothes, slacks and a comfortable short sleeved blouse. The boots were Chosen issue, short calf length and black. She'd been embarrassed to discover it was the only footwear she owned except sandals, and that didn't seem appropriate. Christian showed up dressed similarly and she could see the relief on his face when he saw her.

  As he approached he gave her a quick up and down. She noticed his gaze slow as he passed over her hips and chest. "You look great," he said and held out a hand.

  With a shiver of apprehension she took it and smiled. "Thanks. Where we going?"

  "Into Chelan, they are showing an old earth movie called Shrek."

  "I've never heard of that one."

  Minu had never been to Chelan either. It was a small community a dozen kilometers away, at the base of the cliff where Steven’s Pass was built. It was mostly home to the couple hundred civilians who worked at the facility, and a few businesses serving the same. They went outside and found out the last shuttle left a few minutes earlier. "Damn," Christian said when he saw the time board which informed the next shuttle would leave in two hours, "we're going to miss the movie."

  "Not if I can help it," she said and ran off, leaving him standing with a confused expression. A minute later she pulled her bright red aerocar from the garage and up to her surprised date. She swung the other door up and he slid into the previously unused passenger seat.

  "Very nice!" he said as the door slid closed. He scanned the instrumentation with a critical eye and felt the kloth leather upholstery. "I don't think anyone knows you even own a car."

  "I didn't exactly make an announcement," she said with a coy smile. He grinned and she smiled even bigger. He was really quite handsome.

  Minu steered away from the building and brought the impellers on line just enough to get off the ground, not wanting to put tire tracks on the grass, she spun the controls. Only a low wall separated the compound from the cliff. She hopped the wall and the car plummeted over the cliff with a gut dropping fall. "Wahoo!" she yelled as the car plummeted.

  "Oh shit," Christian said and grabbed his seats arm rests with white knuckled force. Minu took a moment to glance at him and wink before cycling up the impeller power and pulling out of the dive. "Wow, you really know how to fly," he said, a little ashen faced.

  "It was my favorite part of the training." She set course for Chelan and turned toward him. "Did they pull the bit on you with the transport? You know, where they pretend they’re out of control and everything and you've never left the ground?"

  "From the Trials? Yeah, I think that's standard issue."

  "Didn't shake me in the least. Kinda pissed me off, really."

  "I almost lost my lunch. Of course, that was seven years ago." Minu nodded, swallowing. He was at least four years older than her. She wasn't yet nineteen and going out with a twenty-two year old man. Chelan was approaching and she prepared to land. "The theater is over on that side of town,” he said and pointed.

  It was a fun night. They sat together and watched the movie, a funny animated film about an ogre who fell in love with a princess. Part of the way through Christian reached over and took her hand. She shivered a little from nervousness but finally relaxed. Afterwards they walked out with the evening crowd and to a nearby food court. Ice cream and snacks were a welcome treat on a warm autumn night. Minu was sorry she hadn't been to visit Chelan before, it was a nice little town and they loved the Chosen.

  While walking back to her car, Christian held the driver’s door for her. She stepped into him and gave him a tentative kiss. After a surprised second he returned it with interest. "It's been a nice night," she told him after the kiss, "thanks."

  "Thank you too," he said. She piloted her car much more sedately up the cliff to the complex. After she parked the car she surprised herself by being adventurous enough to kiss him several more times in the garage. His hands roamed from around her waist to cup a breast, teasing the nipple. She felt her back arch and the breath caught in her throat. Just then another car entered the garage and they separated quickly.

  "I'd like to take you out again," he said as they walked toward the looming building. A few floodlights provided illumination in the darkness and in the nearby woods a pair of howlers was barking at each other.

  "It could be complicated," she admitted, "both being Chosen, and both in command."

  "We wouldn't be the first, and you’re not under me."

  I wonder what that would be like, she thought with a little shiver. "Okay, I'd like to see you again."

  The next morning Pip and Minu introduced the first bits of gleaned data onto their exploded gun. The team was puzzled and wanted to know where the information came from. Minu simply refused to give in so the others eventually stopped asking. Each night the two would work to catalog the results of their thievery, and the next day introduce anything they found useful. A week into the nocturnal research they found the first files that got Minu genuinely excited.

  "Look at this," she said, slightly out of breath. Pip leaned over and looked. The file contained standard format image files showing what was unmistakably a fighter craft strafing a ground target. "Bingo!" she crowed. "Now let’s look at the other files from where you found this one!"

  "These files are a minefield of toxic bugs," he grumbled, "I've lost three tablets already. It would be a lot easier if you'd just leave me alone to sift the data and give you the cleaned files."

  "Too slow, and this is more fun."

  "Hmm," he mumbled and tapped at his tablet. "Heard you went on a date last week," he said, like someone who would notice a new haircut.

  "I hoped that wouldn't become public knowledge."

  "Are you kidding me? Female Chosen are the golden trophy. Most guys in the Chosen would do anything to score with you girls." Minu made a dark face. "Don't look at me like that; it wasn't on my mind that night. I ended up leaving, remember?"

  "I remember," she said and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. He blushed and tried not to smile. Still, she couldn't help thinking about Christian. And what was his motivation for asking her out? "Have you put any of our talk that night to use?" Pip turned bright red and grew a sheepish grin. "You did, didn't you!"

  "Yeah, I've been out with a couple girls."

  "Who?"

  "You wouldn't know them. One girl in Chelan, another back home when I was on leave." Her eyes glimmered with unasked questions. He scowled a little. "No, I didn't have sex with any of them."

  "Oh, I wasn't going to ask that."

  "Sure, like I buy that. Anyway, it didn't seem right to hurry into it a sexual relat
ionship. Jessica, the girl from home, almost tried to tear my clothes off." Pip laughed nervously. "I might wear boring silver stars, but all she cared about was the Chosen uniform. The other local girl was a dud, never shut up about hair and stuff. What about your date?"

  "Christian Forsythe, he's in command like me. He didn't try to tear my clothes off or anything. We went to a movie and kissed a little."

  "Sounds fun enough."

  "Yeah, I've been wanting to go out again but we've been so damn busy."

  "Don't I know it. I was talking to Cherise the other day and she was talking about how busy they are too."

  "Does she have a love life?"'

  "Actually, Gregg and her have been a thing all along. Never saw that coming."

  "I did," she said, more to herself than to Pip. "Can Chosen marry other Chosen?"

  "You know what, there isn't a rule against it, so I don't see why not." Minu didn't bother asking if he was sure. He'd probably memorized the manual before the Trials. "Getting a little ahead of yourself with this Christian character, aren't you? I mean it sounded like a good date, but..."

  "Give it a rest, I was just wondering."

  The two worked late into the night as usual, and Pip left Minu with a chip nearly full of exactly what she was looking for. She spent the rest of the night and the morning going through the terabytes of images, videos, diagrams, tables, charts and instructional manuals. As the sun rose through her tiny window she popped a stimulant and kept working. The videos alone constituted more than a thousand hours in length and would take her a month and a half to watch, if she didn't bother eating or sleeping. The text and image files were an order of magnitude larger. Instead she scanned segments and used Chosen trained speed reading techniques to look for the most relevant parts. Even then it was a formidable task.

  Pip came into the lab early the next morning to find a Minu using the big wall display, her hair in disarray and a cup of the notoriously strong office blend coffee in her hand. "Morning," she said over her shoulder.