by M. D. Cooper
“I wouldn’t,” she replied calmly. “You know that. You saved my life down here, Rogers. Maybe you’re not as comfortable on the ground, but it doesn’t mean you’re bad at it. Kylie trusts you on away missions. She looks to you for how you judge character. She defaults to you, so that means you must have some merit, doesn’t it?”
Rogers pursed his lips and gave Ricket the once over. Well, her eyes seemed sincere enough. Even though she was an experienced woman, and an accomplished agent, there was something naïve about her he liked. Something about her that begged to be protected. “If I was a better judge of character, I wouldn’t have led Kylie into a trap. Liberty pulled one over on me.”
“No one is infallible.”
“No?” Rogers shook his head. “Maybe not, but if we hadn’t come here, those people in the apartment block might still be alive.”
“Oh Rogers,” Ricket whispered and put a hand on his shoulder. “No one can read the future, not that I’ve met. Besides, chances are they were dead before we docked. Don’t carry the guilt of the dead with you. It’s a burden none of us can bear alone.”
“Good thing I’m not alone then, eh?” Rogers attempted one of his charming grins, but his heart really wasn’t in it.
Ricket smiled and the corners of her eyes crinkled. “You have a good crew behind you. And a good captain in front of you. We’re all doing what we can to find Paul before…no one wants Paul to turn out like his father with a trail of dead systems behind him. Kylie knows. That’s why we rushed to Chimin without vetting the source.”
Rogers supposed that was true, but he heard something in Ricket’s voice he hadn’t heard before when she talked about Kylie’s father. “What guilt are you carrying?”
Ricket shook her head but then sighed. “If we’re confessing…”
“Don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Rogers held is hands up.
“The Transcend should’ve acted sooner. Nadine was in place for five years. I was sent in because the Hand—Petra in particular—worried that Nadine couldn’t do her job. She loved being a junker too much. If she had gotten Kylie to her father years earlier, stars, even six months sooner, we might not even be here on this rock.”
Rogers understood her meaning. Hubei would still be a breathing, thriving world with families, kids—all of it. “That’s Nadine’s guilt, not yours,” Rogers said.
“I’m not guilty, Rogers.” Ricket’s eyes narrowed and Rogers saw fury in them. “I’m angry. Nadine was an agent and she let her feelings for Kylie get in the way.”
“Yes, they are. We’re trained to deal with stuff like that. Sure, we fall in love sometimes, we’re human, but we still have a job to do. Important work.” Ricket tucked her hair behind her ears and looked like she was going to say something else.
“What is it?” Rogers asked.
“Nothing…I…guess I didn’t realize how disappointed I was in her until now. I’m sorry for my part and what it’s done to Kylie.”
“You have nothing to apologize for. You were there for Kylie. Got her off her father’s ship.”
“Or maybe she got me off. Maybe I’m losing my edge.”
“We’re human,” Rogers said. “We’re allowed to feel, to love. We disappoint each other, doesn’t mean we give up, right?”
Ricket raised her eyebrows. “I guess so.”
“Nadine was good at her job and I think…I think she really liked being a junker.”
“I guess all of us got hurt in the end, didn’t we? In our own way.” Ricket stepped forward, a touch too close to Rogers, and placed a hand on his chest. When her gaze lifted to his eyes, Rogers felt an almost electrical pulse rush between them.
Before that moment, Rogers had thought his attraction to Ricket had been one-sided. She was a beautiful person, more than just pleasing to the eye, and also smart and cunning. Different from other scores he had made around the systems he traveled. Plus, she was a crew member. Rogers had no plans to make a move that might be unwarranted. He’d lived through the complications of a crew relationship between Nadine and Kylie.
Rogers wasn’t ready to dive into something like that.
“Something else on your mind?” Rogers asked.
“Nothing I’m ready to share,” Ricket said. She turned toward the panel Rogers had slammed his fist into, eyes narrowing. “Hold up, what’s this?”
Part of the covering had come loose, and her long fingers slipped along the edges while Rogers did the same along the other side. They both pulled at the edges and the front of the console flipped open.
A blast of cold air hit them as the peered inside to see a large room filled with tall cylinders
“A chiller on the bridge?” Ricket asked, laughing softly. “These guys must get the munchies a lot.”
“Must be a cargo they really want to keep an eye on. Something they’re transporting off Chimin,” Rogers said.
“Yeah, I didn’t really think it was for chips and beer.” Ricket laughed. “Which means that whenever they secure their cargo, they’ll be back to load it up. I wonder what it is? This chiller isn’t big enough for meaningful cargo.”
“Guess we’ll have to ask them when they show up,” Rogers said with a wide grin.
“I’ll pass the info to Kylie.” Ricket’s eyes flicked to the left as she sent a message across the Link. Her concentration face was one of the cutest Rogers had ever seen—so he looked away, focusing on the back of a chair as Ricket spoke.
“Well, at least someone sounds good,” Rogers said aloud.
“You were saying?” Ricket asked Rogers, raising her eyebrows.
Rogers pulled the sidearm off his hip to check its charge. “I was talking about the captain after all. She’s always good when she’s rushing into battle. Why don’t we go see who she’s shooting at?”
Ricket nodded as they jogged toward the airlock, armor returning to stealth mode.
BREAKOUT
STELLAR DATE: 11.04.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Northern Lift 13
REGION: Chimin-1, Hanoi System (independent)
Kylie rode the lift down to the CSF precinct where Winter and Bubbs were being held. If Raynes—or whoever he was—had no qualms about wiping out entire housing blocks, there was no reason to trust that her crew would ever make it to the prison transport.
She checked over her rifle, reviewing the charge, sights, targeting. Once satisfied, Kylie held it across her chest, and drew in a deep breath, entering her zen place. She pictured the CSF’s lobby; where the front desk was, the lift to the holding cells, the chairs, the desks and hallways beyond it. Noting all the places where the enemy—for that’s what they were—could take up defensive positions and pin her down.
A thick plas table sat next to the lift— she could kick it over, using it for cover after exiting the lift. Then she’d move to the sergeant’s desk, keeping behind it while lobbing a grenade overtop. With luck, that would keep them busy long enough for her to get to the holding cell lift.
Of course, maybe they’d be open to a chat and they could sort this out without violence.
Right! Kylie thought with a laugh. Not a lot of people in her life just wanted to talk. Better to be safe than sorry.
Marge sent an affirmation as Kylie stepped off the lift into the precinct’s waiting room. There were no people waiting in the chairs, and the same sergeant was at the desk, glowering at her as per usual.
Then, weapons-fire poured out of a back hallway, the rounds and pulse blasts shed easily by her flow armor. Even so, Kylie kicked the aforementioned plas table over and ducked behind it.
Kylie sent a signal to her armor, and—true to its name—it flowed up over her head.
Thanks, Tanis, I owe you a few beers for this stuff.
Marge flushed out a cloud of nano that scanned the room, looking for threats.
The desk sergeant peeked out of cover and received a round in the head. Then another fake CSF officer leant out from behind the front desk and Kylie fired on him as well, her trio of shots catching him in the chest.
Three more of the enemy moved out of cover and fired simultaneously. Kylie’s armor locked up to protect her from the shots and she fell back behind the thick plas table.
“Give it up, Rhoads! You’ll never get past us.”
“Oh yeah? Want to make a wager on that?” As the fake cops continued to call out to her, Kylie grabbed the two grenades and primed them to let out a debilitating light pulse.
“We’re on the same side. Stand down and we’ll explain. Take you to the chief.”
Same side? How could they even say that? “I don’t go around killing men, women, and children!” Kylie called back, as images of those dead children and parents in their apartments flashed before her eyes, visions she wouldn’t soon forget.
“This is a war,” one of the enemies called out. “There’s always collateral damage, but we’re talking about saving millions, billions of people from being enslaved to AI. We dictate our future, no one else!”
Her armor filtered out the bright pulses of light, but she had seen that the CSF officers’ eyes were unshielded. With any luck the light show would be enough to momentarily paralyze them.
She didn’t wait to confirm the grenades’ effectiveness and jumped over the table, rushing to the sergeant’s desk before firing on the three officers who had staggered out of cover.
Kylie leapt over the desk and saw two bodies where she’d expected to see just the desk sergeant.
Kylie bent over and lifted the woman by her collar. The cop’s eyes rolled back in her head, and Kylie realized that the pulses had given her a seizure.
“Ugh…” she moaned.
“Where’s Raynes? Where is he?” Kylie lifted the woman into the air and shook her into a state of semi-consciousness.
“You’ll never find him if he doesn’t want to be found,” she moaned. “He knows this place like the back of his hand.”
“Who are you?” Kylie demanded. “You, Raynes, all these people, why are you here? What the hell do you hope to accomplish?”
The woman shook her head. “Why bother answering? You’ll only kill us, even though we’re on the same side.”
Kylie’s nostrils flared as she grabbed the woman’s face, making the sergeant’s lips pucker out. “Stop saying that or I’ll smash out every single one of your teeth. I’m nothing like you.”
The woman’s eyes widened, and she lifted her arms to hit Kylie, only to have them easily swatted away. “What kind of abomination are you?”
“The kind that’s going to kill you,” Kylie whispered and felt that burning desire to do just that.
So Raynes had lied—not that it was terribly surprising.
Shit. Kylie returned her attention back to her prisoner. “Where’d Raynes take my people? What the hell is he going to do with them?”
The CSF agent shook her head. “They’ll be our greatest weapon against the AI. Their sacrifice will be noble and just. Join us, Rhoads. You know in your heart—”
“I know shit!” Kylie punched the woman in the gut, watching her fold over with pain. “Where are my people? Where would Raynes go if he wanted to hide?”
The women moaned and Kylie hit her again.
“Where!?”
“Facility 99,” the CSF officer wheezed, her head lolling to the side. “That’s where base of operations is. Where we’re developing—” the woman clamped her mouth shut, a look of fear crossing her face.
“Guess I know where I need to go next,” Kylie said
The cop shook her head. “You’ll never get through. They’ll kill you. They’ll unleash a world of pain on you, your people. You’ll never see your crew alive again.”
Kylie smashed a fist into the base of the woman’s skull and dropped her like a sack of potatoes. She had heard enough bullshit from this blubberer.
But her words were no comfort. If he didn’t want them dead, then what did he want them for? Kylie shuddered as her mind started constructing ‘what if’ scenarios, each one worse than the last.
Kylie swore under her breath as she sent an update of what was going on to Rogers and Ricket.
Marge said.
Maybe not, but that didn’t mean Kylie wouldn’t.
Time to put this mess to bed.
FACILITY 99
STELLAR DATE: 11.04.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Northern Lift 17
REGION: Chimin-1, Hanoi System (independent)
Kylie met up with what was left of her crew outside the lift that would take them to the bottom-level farming operation and Facility 99.
She noted with approval that Rogers and Ricket wore flow armor, each of them armed with rifles, sidearms and carrying satchels of grenades. “Nice to be back together again. And we all match,” Kylie said in an attempt to lighten the mood.
“Gotta wear the uniform,” Rogers said with a grin.
“We can do some good here,” Kylie said, her tone more serious. “But let’s not kid ourselves. They probably know we’re coming and they’ll be ready for us.”
Kylie brought up the map of the outer-level farm, sharing her view on the team’s combat network. Facility 99’s fields were set up in a grid covering over a dozen square kilometers, with structures set into the rock on either side. Irrigation systems and field-working equipment were to the east, with harvest processing and storage to the west.
Marge chimed in.
“Wh
at do you mean?” Ricket asked. “No mods at all?”
Rogers grinned. “Low tech, eh? That opens up some options.”
Kylie had to admit that it lined up with what the woman in the precinct had said.
“OK, then. First thing we’re going to want to do is take out the lights—try to take out these fake cops before they hurt any of the workers or use them as human shields,” Kylie said.
“You really think they’ll go that far?” Rogers asked.
Ricket glanced at him. “You saw the videos. We have to assume the worst. Not to mention the fact that these bastards have murdered children to cover up whatever this is.”
“Hopefully we’ll soon find out.” Kylie pressed her lips together and tried to ignore the images swimming before her eyes.
What if the workers are already dead? What is to stop Raynes from killing the workers once we get there? She shook her head. Thoughts like those weren’t going to help anyone.
Still, it was hard to shake the experiences she’d had on Peter Rhoads’ ship. Kylie was growing tired of the blood and death on her hands—both directly or indirectly.
“We can go invisible.” Ricket gestured at her body as it disappeared from view. “Why kill the lights?”
“Surprise, and less EM for the flow armor to deal with,” Kylie replied. “Stuff can mess with stealth too. Best to have every edge we can get.”
Ricket shrugged. “You’re the boss, Boss.”
Kylie suppressed a small grin best she could.