by Amy DuBoff
Coraxa’s colonists and ecosystem had been studied for generations. Despite those efforts, it was still impossible to predict who’d develop abilities—there was no apparent genetic link, and no one born offworld had ever developed the abilities, even when fed a diet of plants and animals from Coraxa. Given that unpredictability, it was considered an honor to have telepathic gifts emerge.
Gifted from a young age, Ava had been recruited into the FDG at eighteen with the promise of using her abilities for good. Most of the time, she believed she was able to make a difference for the better. But times like this, when she had to violate someone’s mind against their will, turned Ava’s stomach.
It’s for the mission, she reminded herself.
She deftly navigated the layers of Stewart’s mind, seeking out information residing just below the surface of his consciousness. Funny thing was, the more someone wanted to hide something, the easier it was to locate.
Ava found the information related to Stewart’s work. “What is the password?” she asked in a soothing mental tone.
He struggled against her for a moment, then gave in. The alphanumeric string filled her mind, and she memorized it.
“Thank you,” she told him, then retreated.
As soon as she broke eye contact with Stewart, he took a sharp intake of breath. “How did you do that?”
“Wouldn’t we all like to know,” Ava replied, then stepped over to the computer terminal. She entered the password she’d extracted from Stewart’s mind.
The display screen flashed acceptance of the access code.
Samantha grinned at Nick and Edwin. “She’s good.”
“I don’t want to make a habit of it,” Ava said under her breath. “Where’s that external drive?”
“I’m on it.” Nick plugged in a portable drive to copy the encrypted files off the local network.
Ava scanned over some of the folder and file names, but the technical terminology may as well have been in another language. Combing through the information was someone else’s problem.
“What do we do with him?” Edwin asked with a nod toward Stewart.
“Will someone come looking for you?” Ava asked the captive.
“They should be here any minute,” Stewart replied.
“Then we leave him,” Ava concluded. “And we get out of here ASAP.”
“Transfer is at ninety-two percent,” Nick reported.
Ava nodded. “Gear up. We’re busting out of here as soon as it’s done.” She slipped her helmet back on and verified that no new enemies had yet registered on the sensors feeding into her HUD.
“Done.” Nick extracted the drive and handed it to Ava.
She placed it in a secure compartment in the breastplate of her armor. “Good job, all. Let’s get out of here.”
Edwin, Samantha, and Nick headed out the door.
“You shouldn’t dig into this,” the prisoner cautioned before Ava left the room.
“Why?” she wondered.
The man shook his head. “Unless you want to be in the middle of a war, you should leave well enough alone.”
“Are the Nezarans planning a move against the Alucians?”
Stewart barked a laugh. “You think this is about the Nezarans?”
“Well, this is a Nezaran facility—” Ava began.
“Right, yeah. Have fun with those files.” Stewart shook his head.
“No, tell me.” Ava took a step back into the room, fixing her gaze on Stewart. She reached out for his mind.
“We have company!” Edwin shouted over the comm.
Answers would have to wait. She tore her gaze away from Stewart and assessed the enemy situation on her HUD. It was only five soldiers, but they were between her team and the exit.
Ava detached her plasma rifle from the holster integrated into the back of her armor. Looks like we’re shooting our way out.
CHAPTER TWO
Ava took a blind shot over her shoulder while she ran. “Remind me to yell at the boss for sending us in here without backup.”
“We weren’t supposed to meet any resistance,” Samantha said while taking a quick shot at one pursuer.
They were trying to incapacitate rather than kill, but the enemy was being a pain in the ass about it. Ava’s team had been able to force the enemy into a side hall so they could go around them to access the exit, and they were running for their lives.
A plasma beam streaked past, two centimeters from Edwin’s head. “Play nice!” he spun around and shot the offending pursuer in the leg.
Ava brushed her left hand over the drive tucked away in her armor. Whatever we have here, they don’t want us to leave with it.
Too bad.
They reached the secondary entrance they’d flagged as an emergency egress point while planning the op. Fortunately, the facility didn’t seem to be fully staffed with security or they would have been trapped.
Ava ushered her team through the exit and laid down one more barrage of suppressive fire to buy seconds for the run to their landing pod on the surface of the barely habitable moon.
The team piled in through the back hatch, and Ava took the controls. Even before the pod’s door had sealed, she lifted the craft from the ground. The gravitic engines launched the craft on a steep, upward trajectory at a dizzying speed. They slipped off their helmets and allowed themselves to relax.
“That was close.” Nick released a slow breath as the artificial gravity kicked in.
Samantha slumped back in her seat. “Didn’t they run any thermal scans of the facility before we went in? It should have been obvious it wasn’t abandoned.”
“Yeah, someone certainly knew it wasn’t,” Ava replied. “But they lied on the report so we’d go in anyway. Whatever information we have, someone wants it very badly.”
“Don’t accidentally drop the drive and smash it to bits,” Edwin jested.
“No worries. It’s right up against my boobs—I protect that region at any cost.” She patted her chest.
Edwin cast her a sidelong glance.
Ava narrowed her eyes with playful challenge. “Yes, warrior, that’s closer than you’ll ever get to them.”
He shrugged. “I will continue my admiration from a respectful distance in the shower.”
Samantha smacked him upside the head.
“What? Yours are nice, too,” Edwin added.
Samantha exchanged an exasperated eye-roll with Ava and left it at that. It’s not like the ladies hadn’t done their own comparisons of their male counterparts—they were just more discreet with their conversations.
Operating on auto-pilot for the rest of the short voyage, the pod looped a quarter of the way around the moon before meeting up with their stealth interstellar FDG ship, the Raven. At four hundred meters long, it was just large enough for a small crew to not go crazy if they were cooped up for more than a week or two. The back third was mostly engine, and a cargo hold underneath the matte black vessel provided berthing for two pods.
The pod directed itself into an open bay door protected by a containment field. As soon as the pod was on the deck in its usual slot, a door slid closed over the hold’s opening.
“Time to go hand over the loot.” Ava rose from her seat at the controls.
Edwin’s eyes gleamed. “I have to, uh, file my report with the combat data.”
Ava sighed. “Damn it, that’s right…”
“What now?” Samantha asked.
“You’ll see soon enough,” Ava grumbled, shooing her team from the pod.
She parted ways from them when they headed for the showers so she could debrief with their field captain. She’d been under Major Marcus Widmore’s command for the past two years, and he was her favorite commanding officer to date in her nine years with the FDG. Though he’d been rough on her at times, he was fair and had never sent her into a mission without a thorough, accurate briefing. Until today.
Widmore was in his office behind his compact desk. He leaned forward in his chair
. “I saw the footage—”
Ava slammed her hand on the interior control panel to close the door. “With all respect, sir, what the fuck?”
“I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have sent you in there alone if my intel had been accurate.” Widmore looked genuinely contrite.
Ava’s shoulders slumped. “We weren’t properly equipped for a firefight like that. We almost…”
“But you made it out.” He leaned forward in his chair. “Were you successful?”
“Yeah, barely.” She retrieved the portable drive from the pocket on her chest and tapped it against the open palm of her left hand. “What is this?”
“I don’t know for sure. The higher-ups have been tight-lipped about the whole thing.”
Something about his tone indicated he might know more than he was letting on, but Ava was too tired to argue. “The guy I spoke to said this wasn’t just about a potential civil war with Nezar. Whatever it is, there’s some fucked up shit going on down there.”
“I got that impression.” Widmore took the drive from her and stared at it in his hands. “Right before you docked, word came down that they’ve increased the security clearance on the op.”
“Retroactively? That—”
“I know. Just… Let’s see how this plays out.”
Ava searched his face. He did know something else he wasn’t saying, but she could see the consideration in his eyes. Whatever he wasn’t saying, it was because he believed it was in her best interest for her not to know. “Yes, sir.”
He nodded. “Now, get cleaned up and rest. We’ll debrief back at HQ.”
***
Colonel Tyson Kurtz reviewed the information extracted from the NTech lab. It confirmed his worst fears.
Damn it! Those sick bastards don’t know when to stop. As he flipped through the pages of lab reports on his tablet, his face paled the more he saw.
They were going to lose containment on the situation if they didn’t act fast.
NTech, the preeminent research institution in the sector, was based on the planet of Nezar.
The Nezaran Coalition was the most aggressive of the three planets in the Alaxar Trinary that were near the border of current Etheric Federation territory. A group of Torcellans and humans had set out to the fertile system, colonizing Nezar, Alucia, and Coraxa.
While Alucians valued peace and harmony in the Torcellan way, Nezarans had followed in the grand human tradition of conquering and expanding.
Caught in the middle was Coraxa, a lush garden-world with such unique properties that once other races learned of its existence, they searched for ways to exploit it and its people.
As a policy, the Etheric Federation didn’t get involved in civil disputes. However, Alucians had expressed a desire to join the Federation, so the tension with Nezar was a concern. Kurtz himself had gone to meet with the leadership of the Nezaran Coalition three years prior, and they insisted there was no cause for concern. All the same, the FDG was poised to step in covertly if the situation continued to escalate—and it was undoubtedly trending in that direction.
Kurtz dialed President Alastair Connors of the Alucian Alliance. Few individuals had a direct line to someone in such a position, but Kurtz’s task demanded the utmost discretion, and that meant no intermediaries.
The president answered after ten seconds, his piercing violet eyes and white hair from his Torcellan heritage contrasting against the dark background of the room. “Colonel, do you have news?”
“The team was able to retrieve the data archive, sir. It’s not good.”
President Connors sighed. “What did you find?”
“They’ve completed their first human trials.”
“This is a goddamn nightmare.” He wiped his hands over his face. “Is the FDG prepared to take action?”
“We’re standing by to assist, sir, but we’re in a tough spot so long as Alucia isn’t officially in the Federation.”
“I know, I’m working on it.” The president paused. “They’ve built a new lab on Coraxa. We need to get someone on the inside to find out what they’re doing in there.”
Kurtz nodded. “I know just the person.”
***
The hot water washed over Ava’s body, releasing the tension in her muscles from the last several hours. She could use more than that, but it would have to wait until she was back in her private cabin at FDG headquarters. No need to add any more ammunition to Edwin’s arsenal.
She turned off the shower and stepped out, wrapping a towel around herself. The shared bathroom was large enough for six people at once, but she had the place to herself at the moment.
I wonder if we’ll get any answers back at HQ? Given the major’s reticence, she doubted it. But she could hope.
Ava dressed in a clean shipsuit, her standard garb while on any spaceship or station. The interior elastic material fit snuggly against her body like a second skin, providing protection in the event of a rapid decompression. A black outer layer offered pockets and weapon holsters for practical use, and quick-release pouches in the collar and around the cuffs contained an emergency helmet and gloves to complete the pressure suit. Given the amount of tech packed into the garment, it was surprisingly sleek and flattering—though it always did take several minutes to get used to each time she put it on.
Her team was waiting for her in their shared quarters down the hall. The four of them had slept, eaten, and trained together nearly every day of the week for the past four years, and it had made them as tight knit a group as any in the FDG.
Having three Weres on her team only added to that. They were a pack. Ava was honored to be a part of that group—to be one of them, even though she didn’t have the Kurtherian nanocytes that granted their extraordinary abilities to change forms and heal.
Though she was officially in command, any time they weren’t on an active op, she would rather just be one of the team. They were friends, and that friendship kept them safe when it mattered most.
“Learn anything?” Nick asked as soon as Ava stepped through the door. He was perched on his bunk above Edwin’s, to the right of the compact room.
“Squat.” Ava closed the door and leaned back against it.
Samantha, on the upper bunk to the left, tilted her head, her eyes flashing the slightest hint of yellow. “We can’t do our job effectively if they keep secrets from us.”
“Don’t I know it.” Ava shook her head.
“We can’t let it happen again,” Edwin growled.
“What am I supposed to do? Marcus was fed bad intel—he didn’t know, either. We have to go in and do what we’re told. We’ve trained to be prepared for anything, and we showed that today.”
The large warrior crossed his arms, highlighting the substantial muscles under his tight t-shirt. “I still don’t like it.”
“Well that’s the nature of the job. Quit moaning,” Ava shot back.
She pushed off the door and took the two steps to her bunk. “We got the job done today. That’s what counts.” She collapsed on the mattress.
Edwin eyed her from his bunk across the narrow gap between them. “By the way, the video will be paired with ‘She Can Move’.”
“That song is terrible.”
“But oh so appropriate.”
Ava rolled over to face the wall. Edwin was lucky he was half a meter taller than her or he’d have a boot in his face.
She quietly plotted the manner of her retribution—a practical joke that would leave Edwin begging for mercy. He’d never see it coming.
***
Moving into Stage Three so soon wasn’t part of the plan, but Andrea Mason didn’t have a choice. With the project accelerating, she’d need to do some swift housekeeping.
She strode down the hall with her lab coat fluttering behind her, examining the specimens to either side of the corridor. Early in her career, research subjects had been living, intelligent beings; now they were only tools.
One of the female specimens glared at her from
inside its cell as she passed. “You can’t keep us here. Let us out!”
Andrea stopped and pivoted on her heel. It figured that one would speak up. “We can do whatever we please. You should have read the contract more closely.”
“No contract could justify holding innocent civilians captive like this for… stars know how long it’s been!”
“Oh, but you’re our employees.” A devious smile touched Andrea’s lips. “It’s all laid out very clearly in the contract. If the work demands you become permanent residents, then it’s within our rights to enforce that clause.”
The woman in the cell snarled. “I never signed up to work here!”
“But you chose to immigrate to this world. Like I said, the terms were clearly stated.”
“That agreement was two thousand pages long! No one could be expected to read—”
“That’s too bad.” Andrea resumed her walk past the cell.
Deep down, she knew she was being a heartless bitch, but it was part of the job. When she began working for NTech right out of her graduate program in genetics, a new universe of ethics opened up. No longer was it black and white, good and evil of science and morality, but rather endless shades of gray. To advance, one must push the boundaries of established norms.
Sometimes, testing those boundaries meant inconveniencing a few people. But for the good of the science, and for the Nezaran Coalition, she had a duty to take whatever steps were necessary to achieve the desired ends. In this case, that meant crafting a new tool to carry her people into the future.
Andrea reached the ‘observation room’, as they had dubbed the administration center for the subterranean lab. A series of computer stations were arranged in the center of the room, with monitors mounted to the walls displaying footage of the holding cells and treatment rooms. A door to her right led to the rest of the facility, and one on the left provided access to a lab space.
Tim was seated in a rolling chair amidst the central stations. He did a full spin in the chair and stopped, facing her. “Please tell me we get to do something, already. I’m going out of my mind down here.”