Carbon Life

by HR Ringer

  * * *

  Chapter 11: First Mission

  Something very strange is going on in the depths of space. – Carl Sagan, Cosmos

  * ALLIANCE BASE, MARS • WEDNESDAY EVENING, 2180/01/12 *

  The main entry door unlatched, allowing the multiple segments to slide silently into their slots; Xiùlán’s head came up as she listened. The sounds of footsteps, soft, slow, came to her ears, followed by the metallic sounds of the door segments exiting their recesses and once again meeting in the middle of the opening, the sound of the electronic latch locking being the loudest portion of the entire operation. A heavy sigh ensued, followed by the resumption of the nearly silent footfalls coming towards her desk. “You okay, my love?” Xiùlán rose from her chair and looked intently at Traynor; it nearly broke her heart to see the dullness of grief in her normally sparkling eyes.

  “I don’t think I’m cut out for this, Xiùlán,” came the quiet response. “Seeing… Heather…” Sam was having difficulty keeping herself from breaking down again. ‘What must Linn think of me? How can she love someone so bloody weak?’ “… like that?… I kept thinking… of how that could have just as easily…” she held a hand over her mouth and nose, attempting to maintain her self-control. “Xiùlán, what if… what if that had been… you… under that drape? I keep thinking…”

  Xiùlán quickly grabbed Sam by her shoulders and gently shook her, an action for which she was instantly sorry; shaking Samantha was the wrong thing to do. Sam tried to turn away from her lover as the tears overflowed and began running in rivulets down her cheeks. Xiùlán whispered, “By my ancestors, Sà mǐ! You’re letting your feelings drive your imagination,” as she pulled the distraught woman to her, wrapping her in her arms diagonally, one over a shoulder, the other around her waist. “I’m sorry, Sammy… I’m sorry…,” she whispered in her ear. “Ssshhhh… it’ll be okay. Please, calm down, Sà mǐ. Sssshhhhh.”

  Traynor melted into the warm embrace of her lover as she cried her heart out yet again. It had been a tough day, and being told by the program administrators they wouldn’t allow her to leave to attend Heather’s funeral back on Earth — ‘…you’re not family, Serviceman. You may leave if you want to be dropped from the program… means a black mark in your jacket, and you’d have to start over, if there are any openings the following year’. — She whispered, “It’s not right, Xiùlán! It’s just not right, and it's not fair!”

  Yuán pushed Traynor back a bit so she could look in her eyes. “Sà mǐ?” Xiùlán used a hand under Samantha’s chin to tip her head up gently. “Sà mǐ, look at me. There is nothing fair about life, or death, but it’s going to be all right. You’ll get through this. I’m here for you, okay? And I’m not going to end up cold on some exam table, understand?” Kissing her gently on the forehead, she rubbed Sam’s back and added, “Come on… let’s order some food. Have a bite to eat, you’ll feel better.”

  “Not hungry. Just want to crawl in my bed, go to sleep, wake up before all this happened.”

  “Do you want me to order for you? Remember the last time I ordered your supper?”

  One corner of Samantha’s mouth actually turned up in a slight smile. “Puked my guts out.”

  “Right. So, tell me what you want to eat, and I’ll get it coming for you.” Xiùlán was still holding Sam against her, and the pressure and warmth from her body was causing a spike in the heat within her own core. As much as she enjoyed the feeling and wanted to exploit it, she realized it would be completely inappropriate for her to take advantage of Sam’s vulnerability in that way, so gave her an extra little squeeze and added a gentle kiss before reluctantly pushing herself away.

  “I need to finish what I was doing, Love. I managed to contact General Park in Vancouver. She promised to get in touch with the ME regarding Heather’s omnitool. Hopefully we can take a look at the recordings tomorrow. I already informed Mallene to be expecting a call.”

  Sam took a deep, cleansing breath to calm herself; in a sad voice she said, “I’m going to get cleaned up. Whatever you order, make it light, okay?” Traynor walked back into their sleeping area to use the bathroom as Xiùlán placed a food order on her terminal; she had decided to pay for the delivery service herself, rather than ask Sam to chip in. She just hoped General Park would be able to cut through the red tape in time.

  * * *

  Several hours had passed since dinner – Xiùlán was lying on her back in their bed; Sam had finally gone to sleep, lying close beside her with an arm draped across Xiulan’s midriff, face nuzzled into her lover’s neck, her breath warm across Xiùlán’s throat. She could feel Sam’s pulse, almost in time with her own.

  This group, Cerberus. They were supposedly a ‘black ops’ arm of the Alliance, but operated as if they had no affiliation to any but the so-called ‘Illusive Man’. Xiùlán felt a profound anger beginning to well up from deep within her. She decided that doing research on their background wouldn’t provide the answers she needed, particular the answer as to why murdering an innocent woman in an obviously futile attempt to escape capture was considered acceptable. She needed to figure out a way to talk to either Marianna Walsh or Darius Holden, even if she expected neither would be very forth-coming.

  Disturbing Sam just enough so she could roll onto her side and face her, she hugged and kissed her, settled herself comfortably next to her lover and drifted off to sleep.

  * * *

  The trill of the door lock at 0605 wormed its way into Xiùlán’s dream, sounding like a warning of something destructive about to engulf her. The trill occurred again, this time awakening her from her dream. She gently disentangled herself from Sammy’s arms and legs and rose from their bed, put on her short silk robe and walked to the door as the lock trilled yet again. The camera feed revealed her early morning caller was Mallene Calis; she was wearing a long, blood-red cloak with a deep hood pulled well over her head, as if she was attempting to remain unnoticed. Yuán released the lock, allowing the door to open and Mallene to enter.

  “I wasn’t sure the door chime would wake you,” she said as she pulled her hood back. “I really need to speak with you… Traynor as well. It’s important.”

  “Of course, Ms Calis. I’ll wake her. Would you like some tea?” Xiùlán walked back to the kitchen to set a pot of water on the stove as she spoke. “Aglyna T’Sega gave me some of hers to try – I still have enough to make some for the three of us.”

  “That would be very nice, Ms Yuán.”

  Xiùlán smiled at the asari as she came back into the living area and said, “Please, have a seat. I’ll get Traynor up so we can…”

  “…so we can what?” Sam yawned from the bedroom door, attempting to cover her mouth with one hand and clutching her robe together with the other.

  * * *

  Traynor sleepily sipped her tea as Mallene spoke softly. “Your General Park is a real miracle worker, Ms Yuán. The base ME contacted me about an hour ago – gave Heather’s omni-tool to me before they sealed her stasis pod for transport back to Earth.”

  Traynor perked up a bit and asked, “When are they planning on leaving?”

  “Later this morning, I believe. They’re going to use a freight shuttle for the trip.”

  Yuán wanted to know, “Have you reviewed the recorded info?”

  “I have,” Mallene replied as she set the tool in the middle of the table and activated its playback function. “The video portion is hard to watch. I’m actually glad there’s only an audio record of Heather’s death… I don’t think I could bear to witness that,” she finished sadly.

  The three of the them watched quietly as the vid portion played; Sam grimaced and covered her mouth in a vain attempt to stifle a gasp of her own at the sound of Heather’s last breath exiting her lungs through the gaping wound in her throat, as her body collapsed to the floor, just before Corporal Phillips and Gunnery Sergeant McBride entered the restroom and took Marianna Walsh into custody. The audio continued even after Heather’s body was
transferred to a gurney; before she was taken from the restroom, they were able to hear the sounds of a laser-cutter slowly severing the ceramic blade from Heather’s omni-tool. This was accompanied by the sounds of glass shards falling to the sinks and floor, along with the pitiful cries of pain and screams of agony from Darrius each time he was jostled, until the recovery crew was successful in freeing him from the wall to which Heather had pinned him. The sounds faded from that point, as the gurney was taken to a holding area for transport back to the main facility.

  Mallene commented as she shut the playback off, “Her omni-tool continued recording until the ME removed it from her wrist.” The asari’s forehead wrinkled a bit in sympathy as she remarked, “I certainly would have expected those people to have administered medigel before they began cutting through that blade.”

  Traynor frowned as she replied, “Forgive my lack of empathy for that man’s suffering, but I’d say he got no less than he deserved, and he certainly didn’t pay as much for the encounter as Heather.”

  Xiùlán huffed as she stood, finished her tea and said, “Thank you so much for coming to see us with this, Ms Calis. And I agree with Traynor. Neither of them have a very long future ahead of them… the leader of Cerberus rewards people for their failures; I guarantee it will not be pretty when it happens, and that they’re in Alliance custody will not deter him.”

  * * *

  In the days following Heather’s murder at the hands of Cerberus agents, Xiùlán and Samantha had continued training for covert assignments of their own. Xiùlán was mastering the art of infiltration into secure locations; she was already considered a master of hand-to-hand combat, so much so that the only person on the entire base willing to meet her on the mat for a sparring session was her lover, and then only under protest.

  Both women had spent several weeks learning the basics of infiltration, reconnaissance, assassination, and sabotage from a master spy – a salarian whose résumé included time spent with the Salarian Special Tasks Group. The STG was not widely known, which was the whole point of their existence. Salarians were not warriors like the turians and had no biotics abilities (with rare exceptions) as did the asari; they weren’t aggressive by nature, but they were extremely intelligent and used that to their advantage in covert operations.

  Traynor had done her own research on Cerberus, both its history and current objectives. Despite their origins with the Alliance, they were currently considered to be a terrorist organization and known to do business with the Blue Suns and Eclipse when their interactions were totally advantageous for Cerberus. Their ‘humans first’ rhetoric made both merc groups leery of dealing with them, particularly the asari-run Eclipse gang. The Blue Suns were nearly as problematic – the group’s proclivity for employing turians, and worse yet, batarians, crossed the line in so many ways for Cerberus; unfortunately for them, humans were not highly regarded by the rest of the galaxy’s inhabitants, so getting certain things done meant dealing with the mercs on a regular basis.

  Neither of them had found the time to ‘visit’ the Cerberus sleeper agents responsible for the death of Heather Gonzales; Sam wasn’t even sure she should go. She felt a deep-seated loathing for the pair of them, Marianna Walsh in particular. Traynor knew meeting Walsh would not turn out well for either of them; Walsh would be dead, and Traynor would be in shackles inside a holding cell.

  Xiùlán had brought up the subject at dinner one evening. “Sammy, we may never get a chance to speak with either of the operatives responsible for Heather’s murder.” She used her chop sticks to grab a piece of meat and take a bite. “I really think we’re going to have to let this go until we’re out of the program.”

  Traynor’s cold, calculating expression didn’t do Xiùlán’s mood any good. “I can wait, Xiùlán. I have a long memory and a lot of patience. If their boss doesn’t reward that fuckin’ bastard and miserable little bitch for their failure to escape, I’ll certainly give ‘em exactly what’s coming to ‘em; when it happens, they’ll know two things right away… that is was me that set ‘em up, and that they won’t have a chance to tell anyone how they managed to die at the hands of a computer nerd.”

  “What are you going to do, Samantha? How do you propose to get close enough?”

  Traynor’s expression was a bit frightening – it was a side of Samantha Xiùlán had never seen. “Don’t have to be close, Luv. Their equipment will do the work for me. Only regret? I won’t get to watch it happen firsthand.” She paused and drank a bit of water before continuing, “I’m working on that part also. I really do want to watch it happen, and getting revenge is just part of the plan. That asshole that runs Cerberus? He’ll get to see it as well.”

  A germ of an idea had begun forming in the back of her mind – a way to extract revenge on Walsh that the woman would never see coming, would never connect with anyone in the Alliance. She continued to think about it… how to pull it off… whenever she had a few moments of free time.

  * * *

  As they completed their classes under the watchful eyes of their ex-STG instructor, they were informed they would be participating in a ‘pre-grad’ mission, expected to last fourteen days, in the Hades Gamma Cluster. Their assignment would be relatively straight-forward – survive the mission undetected as they explored locations on two of the planets in the Dis system.

  The Alliance was covertly assisting the salarians in looking for any data it could find on the so-called ‘Leviathan of Dis’, found in the bottom of a crater on the planet Jartar by a batarian survey team in 2159 or 2160. Estimated at the time of its discovery to be nearly a billion years old, it was rumored to have been the corpse of a genetically engineered living starship. In 2163 it mysteriously disappeared after a batarian dreadnought visited the system.

  Their other assignment was in the same cluster - they would pay a short visit to the planet Klensal in order to verify or disprove the rumored discovery of a League of One operative near a crashed escape pod. If a salarian member of the League had crashed on Klensal, he would not have survived for long without a shelter and life support – the thin carbon dioxide and ethane atmosphere would have led to a slow death by suffocation once emergency oxygen supplies had been consumed.

  Of interest to Traynor, there was more than just a little danger in visiting either planet – there were reports that small teams from Cerberus were involved in research in the system, particularly on Jartar, and were definitely not welcoming of outsiders.

  Mission planning, with the exception of transportation, was being left to the students. Group leaders would inspect their plans, but would not intervene unless something really egregious stood out.

  Xiùlán and Samantha decided to visit Jartar first, making planetfall in an M35 Mako piloted by a skilled Marine; the Mako would be their shelter from the lack of atmosphere and extremely high surface temperatures between exploratory excursions on foot. They planned to scout the area outside of where the massive starship (if indeed that was what it was) had lain on the surface; Xiùlán's belief was that there was never a ‘clean’ ground mission – there was always trash and debris left behind, and it was generally species specific. She also secretly hoped they would encounter Cerberus operatives while on the ground there.

  She and Traynor added heat-resistant EVA suits to their inventory – the tiny planet’s extremely fast rotation of just under five hours meant they would need to set down at planetary dawn. Xiùlán didn’t think they would be able to stay outside the Mako for more than thirty minutes of the two and a half hour day; they would be highly dependent on surface scans along the edge of the crater, while the Mako’s ground-penetrating radar would be used to search for subsurface anomalies. The pair wanted to wait until they were planet-side before deciding to explore the bottom of the crater – a lot depended on the roughness of the terrain and steepness of the crater walls.

  Their preparations and plans had been approved – they were scheduled to leave in two days.

  * * *

&n
bsp; * HADES GAMMA / DIS SYSTEM / JARTAR • THURSDAY MORNING, 2180/02/24 *

  The frigate SSV Hong Kong, on loan from the Alliance Fifth Fleet at Arcturus, had established a low orbit around the planet after swooping close by Jartar’s surface and dropping the Mako bearing Yuán Xiùlán and Samantha Traynor; their driver was a young Sergeant named Tobias ‘Toby’ Perkins, who skillfully landed the M35 and immediately increased the mass of the vehicle to make it ‘stick’ to the surface of the extremely low gravity planet. “Hope you ladies brought your heavy boots with you – gravity is almost non-existent!”

  Traynor snarked, “Suppose we could simply jump straight up to rejoin the Hong Kong?”

  Perkins laughed and replied, “Not quite, but when you go outside, you will certainly need to watch your step.”

  Xiùlán was using the Mako’s GPR as the sergeant rolled the Mako forward at a walking pace. Traynor had been using the zoomed gunsight of the 155mm cannon to inspect the area ahead of their intended path for anything on the surface that looked out of place.

  After half an hour, the Hong Kong called down for a status report; Sergeant Perkins replied that all was proceeding normally. As he terminated the connection he noticed Traynor looking at him. “Question, Traynor?”

  “Would you mind looking at your view screen, Sergeant?” she asked, referring to the ‘repeater’ of the cannon’s gunsight. “I think I have something.”

  Perkins complied with her request, fine-tuning the focus and pulling the zoom control slightly. “Looks like you did find something, Traynor.” He altered their direction towards the object and increased their speed slightly, moving them closer to the edge of the crater. After half a minute, he stopped a couple of meters from what was apparently an empty food packet, lying in the dust 13 - 14 meters from the crater’s edge. It was the sort of thing normally stashed aboard whatever vehicle in which you were riding.