by M. D. Cooper
Drew sat down on a stool behind his counter. “Right. Hypothetical. Now what say you hypothetically buy a new unit or get out of my shop.”
Jesse’s face turned dark. “That’s how it’s gonna be? No deal, no haggling, not even the slightest of implied warranties?”
Drew didn’t say anything as he stared at the two girls.
“Damn you!” Jesse spat. “That’s the last cred I’m dropping in your shithole. I’m taking my business to Blaine. At least he knows what the word quality means.”
“You do that.” Drew scowled.
No one moved for several moments. Drew and Jesse stared at one another while Trist did her best not to burst into laughter.
“Oh fuck it,” Jesse said as her eyes flicked up to the left. “There, the creds are transferred, gimme a new goddamn unit.”
Drew unlocked a door behind the counter and pulled out an interface unit. “Pleasure doing business with you.”
“I’m sure it is.” She turned and left, Trist following behind, hiding a smile with her hand. Once they were on the street she turned to Trist. “Why didn’t you help me in there?”
“Cause I saw you cook that unit last night. I could even see the scorch marks on it in that poorly lit hole of Drew’s.”
“What? You’re the honest thief now? How’s that work?”
“I’ve done my evil deed for the day. I got a hold of a sweet manifest. I have transit times, dates, crate numbers, the whole shebang.”
“So what, there are manifests everywhere.”
“Yeah, but this one has shown me a bit of a security hole, and I plan to slip into that hole and slip out with some sweet shit heading for the GSS Intrepid.”
“That colony ship they’re building out at Mars that nearly got blown up awhile back?”
“Yeah, there’s some serious high-end neuro conduit and supplemental processors in the shipment; stuff that if we found the right buyer we could retire on.”
“Seriously?”
“Would I joke about something like that?”
Jesse stopped and peered intently at her friend. “Hank, is she lying?”
“So when do we leave?”
CHAPTER 19
STELLAR DATE: 3227242 / 10.16.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: District 9B2, Ring 14, Callisto Orbital Habitat (Cho)
REGION: Jovian Combine, Sol Space Federation
“Status on disabling the biosensors?” Jesse asked.
“Almost there,” Trist whispered in response. “I just need to finish the loopback so the secage doesn’t notice a drop in signal strength.”
“I doubt that the secage monitoring this place would even notice.” Jesse cast a disdainful eye down the corridor they were in. “Looks like even ChoSec forgot this place existed decades ago.”
“People may forget, but the AI doesn’t. If I don’t cover our asses we’re gonna find some guard’s stun gun up them.”
“That may not be so bad if he’s any good with it.”
“Ugh.”
Trist finished with her rewiring of the circuitry and slipped her tools back into their case. Jesse picked up the cover for the section of conduit they had exposed and held it in place while Trist fastened it.
“We good to go then?” Jesse said as they stood.
“As far as every surveillance circuit is concerned, we’re totally invisible.”
“Just what I like to hear.”
The two women slipped down the corridor toward their goal, the large double seal of the Norcon Warehouse A2-34-B. Their silsuits set to their standard thieving camouflage.
They reached the seal and Jesse slapped a wireless hack pad over the section of wallplate they knew the door control conduit ran behind. “Little bit of this, little bit of that and”—the door chirped and opened—“we’re in just like we work here.”
“Why do they always bicker when we are in tense situations?” Trist asked.
“’Cause they like to up the odds. We’re getting too good at this, not as much of a rush for them.”
“I don’t know how much I like the idea of my AI putting me at risk for a rush.”
Throughout the conversation the two women took stock of the warehouse. It wasn’t too large, only about a half kilometer across with direct access to the west docks on the far end. The pallets destined for the GSS Intrepid were in section A1-4 of the warehouse, several rows over. They strode past the towers of cargo until they came to the items they were looking for.
Crates from STR Con were stacked in orderly piles and they pulled the topmost down and checked its ID. This one contained some high-end self-organizing circuits. SOCs were very useful when a small component needed to be extremely diverse and even change its own function based on need. They also weren’t cheap. Popping the crate open Jesse slipped several packages into her duffle.
“Next.”
They opened several more crates and pulled odds and ends that would sell well and not result in too many questions. Both women would have loved to take everything they laid eyes on, but there was no way they could sneak several tons of equipment out of the warehouse.
“Look at that,” Trist said. “Silbio.”
“No way.” Jesse checked the ID on the crate. “I didn’t know they had perfected that stuff well enough to start shipping it willy-nilly around the Sol system.”
“I guess they did. Too bad it’s in those big tubs, we’d be able to retire off what that stuff is worth.” Trist broke the seal on one of the tubs and peered inside at the dull blue of the silbio mixture.
“Don’t get carried away,” Jesse said.
“Said the thruster calling the rocket hot.”
“It’s an adaptation?” Trist asked.
“What was that sound?” Jesse held up her hand and looked around.
Trist and Jesse stuffed several more items into their duffels and turned to slip out the far end of the warehouse. They stepped around a tower of plas products to find themselves face to face with the muzzle of a projectile weapon.
“You two ladies had best step back into the aisle there.” The man waved the gun and the two women slowly backed up. To their left the five visitors Hank had identified came into view.
The group of five reached the two women. They consisted of four women and a lanky man in the front. He grinned and Trist decided it was one of the least appealing smiles she had ever seen.
“You two ladies are messing with things you shouldn’t be,” he drawled. Behind him, his four female associates spread
out to better cover Trist and Jesse with their weapons.
“You don’t look much like the security detail yourself,” Jesse said. “I’m sure we can just live and let live.”
“See, I don’t think that’s how it’s going to work.”
“Why’s that?” Jesse asked.
“Well, you’re here for a reason, and so are we. You’re here because we let you get the manifest for this shipment, and we’re here to make a fucking mess of it and you. Then we stage it to look like you two fought and killed each other.”
“You’re kidding me,” Trist said. “I busted my ass getting that manifest. No one ‘let’ me get it.”
“You’re hot shit, but not that hot,,” a girl holding a very large rifle sneered.
“She’s right,” the lanky man said. “You’ve been had. See there are people, people we are associated with, who don’t want this stuff to get to its destination. Law forbids blocking the sale when a buyer is willing to pay full price, so our employers are required to fulfill the order. It sorta irks them to have to do it, so we’re going to fix things up so they don’t have to.”
“I don’t get that at all…STR doesn’t want to sell its stuff?” Jesse asked.
“I think they don’t want it to get to the Intrepid,” Trist said.
“Oh, you are bright,” the man with the projectile weapon said.
“’Nuff talk,” the lanky man shouted. “Let’s just finish this and get out of here.” He leveled his blaster at Jesse and fired a round directly into her face. Brain matter and metal from her AI sprayed out the back of her head.
Trist screamed incoherently and lunged at the man. Three shots from the girl with the rifle caught her in the torso before she took her second step. The scream died in a long gurgle as she clutched her chest and stumbled backward. One of the other girls fired a few more shots into Trist, causing her to topple over into the open tub of silbio.
“Nice shooting, Kris,” the lanky man observed. “Set a det and let’s get out of here.”
One of the girls knelt down to set a charge; moments later they were gone.
INTERLUDE
STELLAR DATE: 3227278 / 11.21.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Mars Outer Shipyards (MOS)
REGION: Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation
“About time this shipment from STR showed up.” Jens looked the pallets over as they were unloaded from the freight transport to Mars Outer Shipyards dock T5-7A.
“They had some excuse about a breakin at a subcontractor’s warehouse,” Petrov mumbled, examining the shipping manifest. “Looks like everything made it though. Manifest does say that they had to repack some things and reseal one of the silbio tubs.”
“Are you serious?” Jens said. “You can’t just unseal and reseal those tubs. If a single milligram of that stuff is contaminated there’s gonna be one hell of a suit on STR.”
Petrov nodded and grabbed a scanner to get a reading on the resealed tub. He scowled at the display and shook the device before getting another reading. “I think something’s wrong with my scanner.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Jens said.
“I read massive bio signals in here.”
“Massive? How’s that happen?”
“Uh…Jens…I think there’s a body in here.”
Jens couldn’t speak for a moment…Lieutenant Collins would be all over his ass, the major would want a full investigation and the rest of his day would be shot.
“How could that slip by on the other end?”
“You gotta calibrate properly for silbio. The whole mess is technically organic, so it would just read as ‘alive’ to any regular scanner.”
Jens sighed and got on the Link to call in a medic team to take possession of the tub. The body was probably dead, and that was going to generate a mess of paperwork.
Petrov chuckled, “How the hell do you RMA something like this?”
CHAPTER 20
STELLAR DATE: 3227279 / 11.22.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Mars Outer Shipyards (MOS)
REGION: Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation
“When will she be conscious?” Tanis asked.
“Not too long now,” the medic said. “Her AI apparently linked in with some of the silbio and put her in a sort of pseudo-cryo; it used some of the stuff to seal her wounds, too.”
“Have we got anything from her AI on what happened?”
“Not yet, the AI completely ran out of power trying to sustain the cryo. It’s in hard shutdown; it’ll take the girl’s command to get it to re-init.”
“It’s always something.” Tanis sighed.
The medic blinked rapidly. “Looks like she’s coming to; let’s go see what she has to say.”
The girl—woman, Tanis corrected herself—lying on the slab was shorter than average, probably only five and a half feet. Uncommon to see in an age when nearly all children were more designed than simply “had.” She appeared somewhat dazed as she looked around the medroom; the one organic eye blearily attempting to focus on her surroundings.
“Hello, miss. I’m Dr. Anne Rosenberg. You’re on the Mars Outer Shipyards; you’ve been shot, but you’re going to be OK, thanks to your AI.”
“My AI? I…I can’t hear her! She’s not here!” A look of panic spread across the woman’s face.
“Relax,” Dr. Rosenberg said. “She ran your internal power down and you’re going to need to run her through her startup sequence—though I strongly recommend that you don’t do that until you are better rested.”
“I’m Major Richards,” Tanis said. “We don’t have any ID on you and you really weren’t expected on MOS. Do you have any idea how you ended up here?”
“Name’s…Trist. I remember being on Callisto R14…I remember dying.”
“You would have if your AI hadn’t plugged you up with the silbio. Saved your life.” Dr. Rosenberg gave Trist a soothing smile.
“I’m guessing you weren’t in that warehouse on Callisto to give our shipment your seal of approval, were you,” Tanis asked.
Trist chuckled; it was low and throaty. “Only the best in the Space Force I see. Yeah, I was there with my friend—Jesse—we were lifting some stuff.”
“The report I was delivered said that your friend took a bullet to the head. Care to elaborate on what happened?” Dr. Rosenberg shot Tanis an incredulous look and she realized perhaps a little more tact wouldn’t have hurt.
“Aw shit…Jesse.” Trist’s eye lost its focus and she shuddered, trying to keep control of herself. “Any chance I can just go back to being dead?”
“I don’t really think that’s going to get on the list of options,” Tanis replied. “I’m sorry about your friend…sorry I brought it up like that.”
Trist grimaced, but nodded slowly.
“Look, why don’t you just start at the beginning, and take me through it.” Tanis said.
Trist didn’t say a word for several minutes, Tanis suspected that she was having a conversation with her AI about their options. Then, slowly, she proceeded to explain how she had acquired the manifest of items being shipped to the Intrepid, broken into the warehouse and been ambushed by some unknown thugs. The last thing she remembered was being shot after seeing Jesse die.
“So I’m guessing that for whatever reason, the shipment still got sent here, and somehow, me with it,” Trist concluded. “How did that happen anyway?”
“Gunshots alerted a security drone that was patrolling the warehouse you had been in. It arrived on the scene to find a detonation charge planted on one of the opened crates. The charge was disabled and when crews arrived to check everything over they found that some items were in duffels, but otherwise all the cargo was still present. For whatever reason they didn’t see your body and just sealed the silbio up again—I don’t know how they thought that was going to pass muster. The official record was entered as some sort of dispute between thieves with one fatality. They surmised the other must have run
off after the gunshots to avoid detection.”
Trist looked perplexed. “You’ve asked me a lot of questions, but I have one. How am I still alive? I have this distinct impression that I was dying when that loud-mouthed bitch shot me.” She ran a hand across her torso, almost as though she expected to find holes where the rounds had impacted her.
Dr. Rosenberg provided the answer. “Your AI managed to interface with the silbio and programmed it to form a seal on your wounds and put you into a semi-cryo state. It was really quite an ingenious bit of work; you are lucky to be alive.”
“Sue is pretty damn clever; I bet not any AI could have pulled that off.” Trist grinned.
“I wouldn’t get too excited,” the doctor cautioned. “No one has ever done what she did with silbo, Somehow the process has caused it to bind to your DNA with consequences I can’t quite foresee. You wouldn’t be the first human to be a bit more silicon than flesh, but this is different.”
Trist grimaced, and then gave a half smile, “so when someone asks animal, mineral or vegetable I can say all three?”
Tanis found the attitude to be a bit too blasé and Angela added her own internal comment,
“I’m glad it’s so beneficial to you.”
The doctor gave Trist a caustic look. “I’d say that the majority of the benefit is yours. You’d be dead otherwise.”
“I do kinda like being alive.”
Tanis took the opportunity to redirect the conversation, “and while it’s great that you’re alive, you’ve got some things to answer for.” She kept to herself that this could actually be a blessing in disguise. This woman might have seen something that would help them. “There will most likely be charges of trespass from Callisto, and then there’s the cost of our tub of silbio. I think that it will run you about a century’s wages.”