Carbon Life

by HR Ringer

  Chapter 15: A Shot in the Dark

  Some pirates achieved immortality by great deeds of cruelty or derring-do. Some achieved immortality by amassing great wealth. But the captain had long ago decided that he would, on the whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not dying. – Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic

  * * *

  Samantha Traynor returned from the bathroom and quietly slipped into bed with her lover; Xiùlán wrapped her arms around Sam and hugged her as she gently planted a kiss on Sam’s nose. “I love you, Sà mǐ, [薩米 – Sami] so I want you to listen to what I’m about to tell you and treat my words as solemn advice… advice intended to help keep you alive, from a person that cannot conceive of any future without you by her side!”

  Traynor looked into Xiùlán's eyes… twin pools of inky blackness in the dim light of their sleeping area. Her face was so close Sam’s lips brushed softly against Xiùlán’s cheek as she whispered an answer, “Whatever you desire, my love. You know I’ll do anything you ask of me.”

  Traynor could see the outer corners of Xiùlán's eyes crinkle in response to the unseen smile her last statement had provoked. “Sà mǐ, you are the smartest person I have ever met, so I have a difficult time understanding why you wear your emotions on your sleeves when it comes to your dislikes. I know you detest batarians, particularly after our misadventure on Klensal; everyone in our classroom now knows your feelings concerning batarians, including our batarian instructor. You really need to stow that attitude when you’re in public, darling.”

  “Xiùlán, I… ” Sam started to explain, attempted to make her friend and lover understand.

  “No, Sà mǐ, you need to listen to me, please!” Xiùlán was pleading with Sam, her voice growing ragged even as she continued to whisper. “I don’t want to see your animosity for batarians get you killed on our next mission; worse, your actions could get me injured or killed as well. You absolutely have to maintain total control over your emotions, get over your hate for batarians; pirates and slavers are one thing, but the average batarian is not too different from you or me. They’re all just trying to make their way through life with the least amount of trouble possible. Revealing your presence by killing one during a clandestine mission will gain you… us… nothing but trouble, Luv, and quite possibly result in your death. Control, Sà màn shā, control. You never want them to see you coming.”

  Sam wasn’t sure how to respond, so pulled Xiùlán close and kissed her. “This is important to you, Ai?” [愛 - Love (Sam’s meaning is ‘Luv’)]

  “You are the most important person in my life, Samantha, so yes, this is important to me. Our natural lives are short enough… too damned short compared to asari or krogan.” Xiùlán planted her lips on Sam’s mouth, only pulling away to take a breath and finish with, “I intend for us to live out what years we are granted, together… can’t do that if you get yourself killed by losing control of your emotions when we’re on a mission.”

  The inky-blackness of Xiùlán’s eyes held Sam’s eyes riveted. “It will be as you ask, Xiùlán, and I am sorry for disappointing you yesterday. You know I talked to Dhevile Creg’falak this morning before our class. We came to an understanding, and I will do whatever I need to do in order to make you proud of me.”

  “Oh, Sà mǐ. Don’t ever think I am not proud of you… proud of your accomplishments… of your abilities. You are so very special to me, and nothing… ” Xiùlán began planting little kisses on Sam’s face as she finished, “… will… ever… change… that.”

  Sam kissed Xiùlán, then took one of her favorite sleeping positions… lying on her side facing her lover, cuddled into the nook of the closest shoulder with a leg thrown across both of Xiùlán’s; engulfed in a pair of sinewy arms, Sam wrapped her own arm over Xiùlán’s tight midsection as she placed a kiss on the soft skin under her jaw.

  Xiùlán whispered, “Wǒ ài nǐ, Sà mǐ,” [我愛你,薩米 – I love you, Sami] as she kissed the top of her head.

  * * *

  It was early morning, and Traynor’s backside felt cold. Reaching around behind her, she blindly patted with her hand, expecting to find Xiùlán had retreated to the far edge of the bed, only to discover the bed empty behind her. Looking around, she could make out a bit of light seeping under the door; glancing at the chrono beside the bed confirmed it was really early – 0535, or oh-dark-thirty-five, as she liked to call it.

  Throwing the covers off, she rose and stepped into the bathroom; after relieving her bladder, she splashed a bit of water on her face, pulled on her robe against the chill in their room and went out to their main living area.

  Xiùlán was sitting at her desk talking to someone whose voice sounded vaguely familiar. Sam caught her attention and mouthed the words, “What’s up, Luv?”

  Xiùlán raised her hand, one finger up as she returned her attention to her monitor, she silently asked Traynor to wait for her to finish. Seeing the tea kettle by Xiùlán’s side, she grabbed her mug and poured some tea for herself before sitting in one of the upholstered chairs, feet and legs folded underneath her. She didn’t have long to wait.

  Xiùlán stood as she cut the connection. “That was Mallene Calis. I asked her to see if Serrice Council would be willing to design an add-on for my omni-tool.” She paused to take a sip of tea.”

  “What type of add-on? Bet it’s a weapon,” came the snarky reply.

  “You’re actually correct. I want them to design a mod for the mini-fabricator that will allow it to produce a shuriken [手裡劍]; more correctly, an xīlā shǒu lǐ jiàn [希拉手裡劍 - hira shuriken] – that is, a Japanese throwing star.”

  Xiùlán displayed a photo of a four-bladed disk, all in black except for the edges of each curved blade, which were honed razor sharp. “It occurred to me that if the tool can fabricate a straight blade that can be launched when my fist strikes something solid, why not a small, multi-blade weapon the tool can launch with a spinning motion when I flick my hand at the wrist?”

  “Sounds intriguing,” Traynor replied, then asked in a thoughtful voice, “How far would this… spinning star… be able to travel? Is it accurate? Is it capable of penetrating armor?”

  Xiùlán leaned back in her chair as she answered, “It’s not intended as a killing weapon, although it can be deadly. Its primary use is as a nuisance… a distraction, and it’s only accurate out to about 8 or 9 meters. It’ll stick in armor, but won’t penetrate. Actual targets are primarily the more exposed parts of the body: the eyes, face, and head.” She took a sip of tea before continuing. “Adding a bit of quick acting poison to the edges of the blades on those stars made of steel, made it quite deadly back in the day; today, the poison would have to be tailored specifically to the target’s physiology, and the mini-fabricator makes a white-hot piece of ceramic that would burn off any organic poison.”

  Traynor thought for a few moments, then replied, “Easy enough… always figure a batarian enemy!” She responded to Xiùlán’s perturbed look with “What!? We’re certainly not likely to run into any other races on the missions for which we’re training. Secondary race might be human, if we get to go after Cerberus. They’re not likely to send us out against known biotics, so that eliminates the asari and about half the human and half the krogan population. So, batarians or some humans. Simple.”

  Xiùlán shook her head in mock annoyance. “You really aren’t going to let the batarians off the hook, are you?”

  Traynor smiled. “Not likely.” After a brief pause, she continued, “So, when will this mod be available? Sounds like a complicated bit of software.”

  “Ms Calis will call back when she has a definite answer. Once the code is written, it’ll be an easy download from the Serrice Council Secure Extranet site.”

  “Good. Don’t want to have my omni-tool sitting in a workshop somewhere waiting for someone to return from lunch. Speaking of which… ” Traynor looked at the chrono on the wall, “I’m starved, but it’s still too early for breakfast to be served. L
et’s get through our morning exercise routines so we can shower and get dressed; by the time we’re all done, we can go get some breakfast!”

  “Great! I could really go for some pan fried green onion pancakes, maybe with an egg. Nice hot cup of tea! Mmmm! Can’t wait!”

  Traynor wrinkled her nose as she snarked, “Maybe for you! I’ll steer clear of the pancakes. Maybe a nice omelet… ” The women continued their friendly banter as they spent the next thirty-five minutes performing their Tai Chi routines, after which they showered, got dressed and left their quarters for the Mess Hall.

  * * *

  Traynor’s next class was being taught by a salarian member of the Union’s STG – their Special Tasks Group. Lieutenant Ganto Imness was on short-term loan to the Alliance for this one program, after which he would return to the 3rd Infiltration Regiment.

  Traynor was impressed with Imness’ background and the STG in general; their sole focus was on gathering intelligence before committing themselves irreversibly to whatever task was assigned to them, and they always had an alternate, backup plan ready to enable successful completion of their mission.

  Of all the special knowledge the Lieutenant shared with the class, Samantha was most intrigued by the software Imness had allowed her and several of her classmates to add to their omni-tools. The mini-program would allow her to modify a personal shield generator so it could be used to assassinate someone; once so modified, all one had to do was infiltrate and replace the target’s personal shield generator. It would be a simple matter afterwards to set up a situation that would cause the target to fear an attack. The instant the shield was activated for protection, it would quickly and silently crush the person wearing it. Once complete, the program would self-delete from the mini-computer, leaving nothing to trace. The death would appear to be nothing more than a shield malfunction.

  After passing the hack on to his students, the salarian added one more mini-program to their omni-tools, recommending as he did so that everyone in the class use it faithfully to remotely test their personal shield generators before they put them on, every time before they put them on.

  Traynor’s fertile mind now had the answer she had been looking for regarding Marianna Walsh and Darius Holden, the pair of low-level Cerberus operatives responsible for the death of her friend Heather Gonzales. She began designing code in her head as the class continued… code that would allow her to remotely hack a shield generator actually being worn by someone, rather than having to substitute a previously modified device. It would be a lot less trouble, with less chance of something going wrong in the execution of the hack. She also needed to add the scanning program to Xiùlán’s omni-tool and make sure she was using it… Traynor was certainly not going to allow her lover to be killed by anyone using her own shield generator against her.

  * * *

  Xiùlán and Sam had been splitting their class time on Mars with more frequent short missions in the nearby systems; systems of interest to humans were usually a bone of contention with the Batarian Hegemony. The pair made several low-profile trips to the Viper Nebula, home cluster for batarian colonization on the second planet orbiting Bahak. Aratoht was nobody’s idea of a garden world; air pressure of just over half that of Earth and low atmospheric oxygen content were a deterrent to large-scale colonization by humans. The Hegemony had been quietly colonizing Aratoht’s Polar Regions, where the planet’s heat was manageable due to heavy rainfall.

  As colonial statistics were tightly restricted by the Hegemony’s Information Control Department, Yuán and Traynor had made a total of four landfalls of three-days duration each near the fledgling colonies to gather information deemed crucial to the Alliance’s long-range defense plans; as the system’s Mass Relay connected only with Charon, the military felt the name ‘Viper’ to be quite appropriate – a snake coiled and ready to strike in the Local Cluster and shortly after in Arcturus.

  Of special interest was the discovery of an extensive mining industry; massive quantities of the high-density planet’s rich lodes of ferrous and heavy metals were being retrieved for off-world shipment through extensive use of slave labor; Traynor was quick to point out that this planet most likely would have been their new home if they hadn’t escaped their captors on Klensal.

  The batarians had spent untold billions of credits and endured thousands of casualties in their efforts to prove humans were cowardly weaklings for abandoning efforts to colonize such a rich planet; the Alliance chose to concentrate their colonial efforts on planets that could support human life without the aid of domed habitats and rebreathers. What the batarians scornfully attributed to human spinelessness, the Alliance saw as a prudent use of scarce resources, both in materials and in personnel.

  On their last planetfall, Xiùlán and Sam were two klicks apart from each other covertly observing a military base when Sam had the misfortune of being discovered by a batarian patrol; she quickly subdued the pair and hid them within the fractures in the massive rock formations common to the area. After waiting for an hour to see if their absence was noticed, Xiùlán joined up with Sam so they could relocate to a position south of Traynor’s location, where they continued their observations for another six hours.

  As they were so far north on the planet, there was no ‘sunset’ or ‘sunrise’ – the sky simply darkened a bit as the sun hugged the horizon for a few hours, similar to the ‘midnight’ sun effect in the northern reaches of the North American continent on Earth. It was during this period of twilight the pair was able to actually enter the base and record video footage of the soldiers, slaves, weapons caches, vehicle depots and the like.

  Making their way back to their extraction point was made more difficult by the increased patrols looking for the intruder or intruders responsible for beating two of their comrades senseless and leaving them to cook in the rocks west of the base. After dodging patrols for over four hours, they were finally able to meet their shuttle and head back to the SSV Agincourt; after a shower, change of clothes and some hot food, they attended the debrief with the ship’s captain, who was quite interested in their reasons for being so late for their rendezvous with the shuttle, as was the Alliance information officer assigned to record and analyze their observations.

  Upon arriving ‘home’ after their latest mission, Yuán had an incoming message alert. Dropping her gear bag at the entrance to their sleeping quarters, she keyed on her terminal and read the message twice before closing the interface and looking at a waiting Traynor with a small smile. “Mallene Calis responded to my inquiry about modding my omni-tool. Serrice is creating the software… should be ready by middle of next week.” She paused to perform some mental calculations. “If Serrice stays on schedule, I’ll have it installed on my omni-tool a couple days before we have to leave again.”

  “That should make you happy. Give you a day or so to practice using it before we go out again. I’m looking forward to seeing exactly what type of bladed circle it makes,” Sam said with an evil-looking grin. “Come on; let’s get our stuff put away so we can go eat.”

  Xiùlán smiled as she pointed to the flashing alert on Sam’s desk. “Better take a look at your own terminal, Sà mǐ. Looks like there’s a message waiting for you as well.”

  Traynor went to her terminal and keyed it on as Xiùlán walked past, headed for their bedroom. She had just grabbed her gear bags when she heard a choked exclamation from Sam. “Those miserable bastards!”

  Xiùlán turned back with a frown and waited for Traynor to explain. “Someone got to ‘em in the lockup, Linn! They’re dead… throats cut, just like Gonzales!”

  Fearing she already knew the answer, Xiùlán asked the question. “Who is dead, Sà mǐ?”

  “Our pals from Cerberus! Walsh and Holden… night before last, in their bloody cells! Someone managed to get past all the fantastic security there and slice their necks open from ear to ear!” Traynor hung her head as she leaned on the edge of her desk for a few moments before allowing her body to drop heavil
y into her chair. “Bloody fuckin’ ‘ell!”

  Xiùlán thought for a moment, then asked, “Surely there must be surveillance vids? Or witnesses? Someone must have seen something out of the ordinary… ”

  “Security vid’s been scrubbed clean, most likely by a self-deleting virus. No witnesses either – and that’s probably a good thing… no need in having anyone else dead because of this!” Samantha leaned back in the chair, hands balled up with her palms over her eyes and knuckles on her forehead. “Bollocks! I really wanted to quiz that little bitch before those two were transported off-planet! Learning who was behind the operation that got Gonzales murdered is gonna be nigh on impossible now!”

  “Well, we do know Cerberus was involved… that narrows the field somewhat.” Xiùlán paused to think for a moment, and then asked, “Did Dhevile Creg’falak reveal if he thought anyone in our two-day batarian familiarization class stood out as a possible Cerberus sympathizer or operative? You told me he was really scrutinizing everyone on the second day.”

  “Apparently no one looked like an alien hater… except me on the first day,” Traynor replied with a frown. “I’m sure someone in that class set up the attempted hit on ‘im. Perhaps when that failed, it was decided to simply eliminate the possible threat of betrayal by Walsh and Holden.” Traynor brought her hands down and started composing a message for Corporal Claudine Phillips as she explained, “I’ll send a note to one of the two Marines that took Walsh into custody – Corporal Phillips… see if she can meet us in the Mess Hall. Maybe she’ll have some insight into what happened.”

  Xiùlán replied, “Sounds good. I’m going to get cleaned up and changed. Hopefully Phillips will be able to meet us during lunch.”

  * * *

  * MASS RELAY – GEMINI SIGMA – HAN SYSTEM *

  2180/06/28