by M. D. Cooper
Tanis altered the state of the plas on her arms to allow motion at the joints and reached up to her head. There she extruded a thin rod of metal. She took it into her hand where it formed a gleaming blade which she lowered to Adrienne’s left leg.
Adrienne’s face slipped into an expression of fear. “Who…who are you?”
“Oh, I forgot to mention. You may have heard of me. The media called me ‘The Butcher of Toro’.”
Angela replied.
She began slicing into Adrienne’s leg, though the skin, which appeared to be almost like neoprene in composition. Adrienne’s eyes bulged in pain, and her arms flailed, pounding the deck on either side of her. Tanis felt resistance as the blade met the cartilage that served as bone. She grimaced inwardly at the feel of it.
“Excellent.” Tanis slid the blade out of Adrienne’s leg. A panel on her torso slid open and she pulled out a med-patch which she slapped on the wound none too gently. “The nano in here will hold you together long enough to get to a medic.” Tanis was about to extrude more flowmetal to bind her captive when the door crashed open and a terrifying figure stood in the entrance.
True to the strangeness of the locale, the muscle was unconventional. It was a woman, though that was evidenced only by the stylized breasts on the gleaming black torso. All of the woman’s limbs were gleaming black as well. They were also all very thin, nearly emaciated, a look that was offset by the woman’s head, which was a large ovoid devoid of any features.
“Hurting Adrienne was a mistake.” The voice emanating from the woman’s featureless head was soft and sultry, a rather odd combination considering the delivery.
“Possibly,” Tanis agreed. “But it was a calculated mistake; does that make it any better?”
The figure raised its hands and Tanis realized they weren’t hands at all, but merely the ends of the gun barrels. Handy…and disturbing.
Tanis dove to the side, or more accurately cantered to the side as the guard fired on her. The initial shots missed, but then a few impacted Tanis, some ricocheting off her chest, a few hitting solidly enough to crack the plas covering her body.
Tanis angled forward, pulsed her hover system to its maximum and balled her hands into hard plas fists. She smashed into the woman, and they flew through the opening into the bulkhead beyond with enough energy to lodge the woman’s head in the wall. Not waiting to see how long it took the freakish enforcer to extricate herself, Tanis sped down the hall at top speed. She burst into the bar area and wove past the sinuous dancers and the human furniture.
Outside the bar she made a quick course adjustment to avoid colliding with several hovers that floated by. She raced behind one and angled herself to float horizontally alongside it. The man driving the hover cast her a strange look, but didn’t say anything. No point in getting involved in other people’s issues on Cruithne.
Angela deployed nanoprobes and they watched the black-skinned woman emerge from the bar and scan the traffic outside. She moved into the throng and started making her way in the direction Tanis had gone. Most likely she had access to external cameras that had let her know which way to go. Tanis slipped ahead of her cover and raced through the crowd, still horizontal, and hopefully out of sight. Her earlier wanderings proved beneficial as she made use of several establishments and predictable throngs to mask her escape. Moving through a maze of levels and across the main hub of the station she worked her way toward her departure craft.
The original exit plan for leaving Cruithne wasn’t so precipitous as reality dictated, however, the times on the departure clearance requests displayed submission times only minutes after their arrival on the station. It was almost as though Angela knew her. Less than an hour after the confrontation in Adrienne’s dressing room, Tanis was pulling away from Cruithne and heading back toward Mars.
Trent. Not surprising; it just added fuel to the reaction when it came to hunting him down. The real key now was to see if the information would help her trace who was paying Trent’s salary.
CHAPTER 10
STELLAR DATE: 3227189 / 08.24.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: GSS Intrepid, Mars Outer Shipyards (MOS) REGION: Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation
Tanis eased into the chair at the head of the SOC’s conference table. Her leg muscles were still sore after being pulled out and replaced; high heels adorned her feet to ease her down after having her feet en pointe for days. The flowmetal still covered her head, but she had gotten an additive to change it to her skin’s color and texture. In a few days she would have it removed, but first she needed to debrief her people and be brought up to speed.
“That was some crazy jaunt you went on.” Evans’ voice held a hint of reproachfulness. “And that getup you went in. I don’t know how you stood it, barely being able to move for days.”
“It really wasn’t that hard.” Tanis shrugged. “Once I was on my way I was pretty much committed to seeing it through.”
Everyone else filed in as they spoke and once they found their seats Tanis called up the data she had retrieved on the table’s holo.
“So all roads lead to Trent right now. He’s the guy who did the nuke job, and the guy who hired the mercs. We haven’t worked out who he’s taking orders from, but it has to be someone with deep pockets.”
“It seems weird, sir,” Ouri said. “Why would they have those mercs ready to disrupt the VIP event if the nuke was supposed to have gone off? If it had, we certainly wouldn’t have been throwing any parties.”
“Don’t forget,” Lieutenant Amy Lee said, “the ball was supposed to happen four days earlier, but was postponed because one of the transports from Venus was delayed. They must have had the mercs on standby or called them back in after the nuke failed.”
“Right you are.” Tanis reached up to run her hand through her hair and was reminded that she currently didn’t have any. “Damn cover…” she muttered.
“It’s a good look for you, Major.” Evans grinned, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Gonna get your skin back?”
Tanis regarded him for a moment, tempted to spit a glob of metal over his mouth. She decided not to, but only because it abused and undermined her authority. It was still a close call.
“Yeah, I’m trying to get the procedure scheduled for tomorrow. I know I really can’t feel it, but I swear this stuff itches like mad.”
“So what’s our next move?” Terry Chang asked, steering the conversation back to the topic at hand.
“Well, we need to figure out who Trent works for. Hopefully some of this data”—Tanis gestured to the holo—“will help us out. That’s going to be you and you.” She gestured to Terry and Ouri. “You’ve got the lab AI and feel free to ask Angela for help as well; we’ve got to figure this thing out before we get hit again.”
Everyone regarded her seriously and nodded.
“I also noticed in your reports that there have been several anomalies lately.” Tanis brought up the pertinent data.
Ouri nodded. “We’ve had some little bits of sabotage on some inbound shipments. We’ve traced most of it back to various anti-colonist folks. Stuff from Earth is especially prone to being tampered with. The effects have been minor, but it’s the things that seem to be happening after cargo gets checked in that is upsetting me.”
Tanis had not read the reports in detail and signaled for Ouri to summarize as she scanned them.
“Well, we had one in
stance of some lithium being ‘misplaced’. It was put in a cargo pod when it was due for engineering. That was relatively benign. We’ve had some other instances of equipment that checked out fine upon arrival, but was broken when time came to use it. As much as I hate to say it, I think we have someone inside of our security curtain.”
“I’ll spend some time looking over various logs, but you folks know what to do there. See who was on, who was around, that sort of thing. Also, it’s possible that someone is managing to use of someone else’s access. Check and see if there is anyone that seems to be in certain areas without going through any surrounding checkpoints.”
Ouri nodded. “Good call. I wasn’t going to do that since I didn’t think anyone could penetrate the exterior with fake credentials, but you’re right; once in, they could get to more benign areas with less overview.”
“Well folks, you’ve been doing good work; I’ll leave you to continue it.” Tanis rose. “I’ve got to go face the firing squad now.”
“Otherwise known as Admiral Sanderson?” Evans asked.
“So he found out, did he?” Ouri asked.
Tanis grimaced. “He got back from Mars early and tried to find me for a progress report meeting. Apparently he wasn’t pleased that my progress had me elsewhere.”
CHAPTER 11
STELLAR DATE: 3227211/ 09.15.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: GSS Intrepid, Mars Outer Shipyards (MOS) REGION: Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation
Tanis and Commander Evans were relaxing in the officer’s mess, enjoying a bit of time away from the SOC and a few of the perks of rank. Tanis had to admit that she was enjoying Evans’ company quite a bit of late. She had even privately admitted to herself that if they weren’t both military she would consider pursuing him—maybe it would be possible after they got underway and were no longer officially in the military. In the meantime she would take what time in his easygoing company she could.
“So how are things looking out there?” Tanis asked before taking a bite of her sandwich.
“Tidy as you could dream. Not a single ship is deviating a millimeter from its plotted course.” Evans leaned back in his chair and took a long drink from the cup of coffee in front of him.
“Those rumors of ‘Trigger-happy Joe’ I spread about must be doing their work.” Tanis grinned around her mouthful of food.
“Ugh…were you raised in a barn?”
“Sewer, actually.”
“Really?” Evans’ expression was a cross between shock and curiosity.
Tanis nearly choked as she laughed. “Now that was a funny look…of course not,” she said when she was finally able to breathe.
Evans grinned sheepishly. “You have an amazing poker face. Remind me never to bet against you.”
“You’re in luck, Commander; I’m not a betting woman.”
“You’ve been here over a month; eventually you could just call me Joseph.”
Tanis’s face grew more steely—not from the flowmetal, that had been removed and her natural features were back in place. “Now, Commander. I don’t think that would be appropriate. It’s imperative that we keep our relationship strictly professional.”
“I…er…I didn’t mean that, sir.” Evans spoke.
Tanis gave him a dead serious look for a long moment before breaking into a wide grin.
“Damn!” Evans shouted. “That’s just cruel…you took a decade off my life.”
Tanis chuckled. “Don’t worry, Joseph, you can get it back in regen.”
“There; theatrics aside that wasn’t so hard was it…Tanis.”
“You’re mighty forward for being so jumpy.” Tanis smiled.
“I must have a split personality,” Joseph replied. “But keep that on the QT, I don’t want to lose my pilot’s credentials.”
“No fear of that; you’ve got things in such good shape I’d let it slide even if it were true. Your wings are top notch.”
“Well, with the number of people applying for this colony we’ve got top people in pretty much every profession on tap.”
“It certainly is handy.”
“So… anything of interest happening on the dock side of things? Bombs, kidnappings, rumors of dire plots?”
“Unfortunately it’s been quiet as a mouse.”
“How’s that unfortunate?” Joseph asked.
“See, that’s why you’ll never be a real intel officer. With what those guys were willing to do up to this point, you can bet they haven’t given up yet.”
“Or maybe I’m smart enough to know that if I make everyone think I don’t have an eye for this stuff I’ll still get to fly a fighter from time to time.”
Tanis pondered that. “You could have a valid argument.”
“Hah! I knew you secretly wanted to be a pilot.” Joseph grinned.
“That’s where you’re wrong; I’m actually certified to fly R1 through R17 spacecraft.”
Joseph’s face showed his appreciation. “Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Stand-up comedy. I tried once and totally bombed.” She was once again expressionless.
He chuckled. “I don’t know about that, you have pretty decent timing.”
“Yeah, but if you think I’m totally infallible you’ll expect perfection all the time.” She took another long draught of her coffee—good strong stuff. “On a slightly more serious note, I do have to meet with the captain and admiral. The MOS stationmaster is making noise and filing some annoying requests with the courts. We’ve got to head him off at the pass before he undoes all of our security enhancements.”
Joseph gestured magnanimously. “Go ye forth and meet with your betters.”
Tanis stuck her tongue out at him as she rose and left the room.
The bridge wasn’t far from the mess, only a half kilometer up the length of the ship plus three decks. A tube and a maglev train had her debarking at the command deck’s main hall. Walking past the corridors leading to various offices, and the desks of the flunkies who jealously guarded access to those offices, she entered the bridge’s foyer. What she saw startled her quite a bit.
Where a couple of couches and chairs used to be was now a tall white woman surrounded by an array of holo interfaces. Taking a second look, Tanis realized this woman seemed to be merged with the ship somehow. Her hands were racing over the interfaces and thick strands of what couldn’t possibly be hair waved slowly around her head as she concentrated on the displays around her.
As she approached, the woman looked up and Tanis found herself staring at shockingly brilliant blue eyes, a stark contrast to the sea of white that was the woman and her instruments.
“Major Tanis Richards. So glad to finally meet you; I’m Amanda.” The woman extended a hand which Tanis shook—the other still racing over the holo interfaces.
“I’m…pleased to meet you,” Tanis said, regaining her composure and accessing security logs, trying to determine how a person such as this could make it onto the ship without her knowing about it. “Though I must say I am unsure of who you are.”
“What? Other than Amanda?” Her laugh was cheerful and light; something that Tanis found difficult to harmonize with her clearly cybernetic exterior.
“Sorry, I mean what you’re doing…what your job is. Wait…Amanda. Isn’t that what the ship’s AI has been calling itself lately?”
“Major, that hasn’t been the ship’s AI—that has been me.”
“But I’ve been contacting the ship, how is it that I am getting you?”
“It’s something the Reddings had been working at for a while. The Intrepid is too vast an AI to easily communicate with humans. I’m effectively the ship’s avatar.”
“So you’re partially the ship?” Tanis asked.
“So you’re just going to be…installed here for the whole trip?” Tanis asked.
“Oh of course not.” The silvery laugh sounded again. “That would be fairly taxing. No, there is another woman like me being prepared—Priscilla. I met her the other day. We’ll be doing a ninety-day on/off rotation. The Reddings are concerned that without the time off it will be hard for our minds to remain…well…normal.”
“This must be quite the unique situation. I can’t say I’ve ever heard of anything like it before.” Tanis felt like her eyebrows were in her hairline.
“That’s because there hasn’t been anything like it before,” Amanda responded. “Bob is an incredibly advanced intelligence…”
“Bob?” Tanis interjected.
“That’s what I call the Intrepid’s AI—mainly because I couldn’t refer to him by such a bland, and rather asexual term. He’s most certainly male, and Bob fits him nicely.”
“Never thought of him as a ‘Bob’.” Tanis said.
“So I guess we’ll be talking a lot. I talk to, or thought I was talking to, the ship a lot.” Something about Amanda was making her a bit uneasy…not surprising really, the idea of someone being melded with the ship in this way was rather surreal.
Amanda nodded. “Pretty much everything going to the Intrepid from the human side goes through me. Even a lot of AI use me, since Bob is far more advanced than any of them. Not that he’s a snob, but they’re really quite beneath him.”
“He’s really that high grade?” Tanis asked. “I mean the AI that run Mars 1, or the Callisto rings for that matter, must be far more advanced.”
“The plural is the key there,” Amanda said. “Hundreds of AI run those rings. Bob is just one guy, keeping an eye on the whole show. It was partly out of need that the Reddings made him so advanced, and partly—I’m convinced—that they simply couldn’t stop themselves from doing so once they realized it could be done. It would be like if you realized you could raise all children so they could read at six weeks. Wouldn’t you do it? Wouldn’t it be a crime not to?”