Crystal Deception

by Doug J. Cooper

  He wasn’t done. “My question is whether you’re conspiring with Criss. Or perhaps he’s deceiving you?”

  “Deceiving me?” Her twirling accelerated.

  He pushed onward. “Your signature is all over this. The only thing we don’t know is if you and Criss are working together.” He paused. “Come to think of it, Criss is so much smarter. Maybe he’s playing you. Maybe you’ve become a willing pawn in his game.”

  A tear rolled down Juice’s cheek and she blinked rapidly.

  He pointed at her. “Innocent people defend themselves. They don’t cry.”

  “I’m trying to stop something bad from happening.” Tears streaked her face. “Why are you acting this way? I’m on your side!” There were no tissues in the room, so she wiped her face on her sleeve.

  “Do you admit it’s possible?” Sid insisted. “You’re smart enough to know it is.”

  “Lots of things are possible,” she said, regaining some composure. “But that’s not the same as saying they’re likely or true. I think the four-gen—Criss—is concerned about being taken by the Kardish. I think he believes Sheldon is involved. I think he thinks you and I can help him. If you won’t help, then I’ll find someone who will.” She crossed her arms across her chest, then leaned forward like she was about to stand.

  Cheryl reached her limit. She grabbed beverages from the service unit and hustled next door. “Water and coffee,” she announced as she entered. She set the cups down and surveyed the scene. “What happened?” She handed Juice a napkin so she could wipe her face and looked at Sid like he was some sort of monster.

  Both Sid and Juice remained silent, looking neither at her or each other. Sid took a sip of his coffee and grimaced, overacting a bit.

  “I said black,” he growled peevishly. He stood up and turned to the door, nodding ever so slightly to Cheryl to indicate that he thought Juice was clean. As he stepped into the hallway, he heard Juice say quietly, “You did.”

  Sid went next door as Cheryl steeled herself to play good cop.

  “So tell me what happened, Juice,” she said, trying for a compassionate tone.

  “He thinks I’m the one trying to kidnap Criss.” Juice’s downcast expression revealed her emotional turmoil, but she was no longer crying. “He is a serious jerk.”

  “The man’s an ass in so many ways,” Cheryl agreed, not needing to act. “Did he tell you why he thought that?”

  “I’ll be honest with you. He was coming at me fast and from all directions. First, I was the one running some evil scheme. Then Criss and I were. Then Criss was duping me and I was a puppet.” She looked up at Cheryl. “Why would I become involved in such a lunatic idea? My work is what I care about.”

  Cheryl gave it a last shot. “Can you think of any reason why Sid would be so insistent?”

  Juice tilted her head and studied Cheryl for several seconds. “You’re in on this. You’re both working me. Is he watching right now?” She looked up at the ceiling and yelled, “Hey butt brain, I was here to help.” She pushed back her chair and stood up.

  Sid rushed in before she could leave. “Juice, would you give us one more moment? Please, sit down.”

  “I just was and it wasn’t fun,” she said. “I think I misjudged you both.”

  “Okay,” said Sid. “I was rough on you. It’s an important part of the process of confirming that you’re not involved in any way.”

  Cheryl looked at Sid with mixed feelings. There was no doubt he was effective at this sort of thing, but he’d been too rough on Juice given that the DSA research team had cleared her.

  “That’s what you do, isn’t it, Sid?” Juice responded, her tone carrying both an accusation and observation, and uttering his name as if it were a four-letter word.

  Good for you, girl, thought Cheryl.

  “You came to Crystal Fab and assessed Criss. And now I’m getting the treatment.” Hands on her hips, Juice continued. “I hope you were more respectful to him than you are to me, I’ll say that.”

  Sid sat down and motioned for Juice to sit as well. She laid her hand on the back of the chair but remained standing. Cheryl could tell that she was no longer actively trying to leave, but she hadn’t yet committed to forgiving them, either.

  “Everything you said about me is true,” Sid wasn’t looking at either Juice or Cheryl, but at a spot halfway between. “I’m an ass and…what was it…butt brain? Yeah. I say and do things that hurt people, and I’m sorry about that.” He shifted his gaze to Cheryl. “We accepted the role of serving and protecting the Union. That means sometimes we’re required to do things we wish we didn’t have to.”

  He had Cheryl’s attention. Are you speaking to me or to Juice? she wondered.

  “All three of us here are the good guys. Starting now, we’ll treat each other that way.” He put his hands flat on the table and looked at Juice. “We’d like you to be part of the planning team. We need to sort out what’s going on with Sheldon, Criss, and the Kardish. You have unique relationships with two of the three. Will you help us figure out our next steps?”

  Cheryl hoped Juice would recognize her apologetic smile as genuine, adding, “While that setup was stressful, it allowed us to assess your motives. We had to go through that exercise before we could ask you to join us as a partner. Juice, a lot of lives may depend on what we do next. We had to be sure. I hope that makes sense to you.”

  Sid and Cheryl stood up, slowly gathered their things to create some delay, and started for the door. Come on, Juice, Cheryl willed her. You’re the only one who can make this decision.

  They were in the hallway when Juice called, “Wait,” and followed them out. “Before I do anything, I really need to check in. Sheldon’s probably called me three times already. He’s so anxious to get the project moving.”

  Yes! Cheryl thought, having to stop herself from grasping Juice in a hug.

  Juice began to make the call, but stopped when Sid held up his hand. “Everything we do as a team must be coordinated.”

  Juice nodded absently, examining her com.

  “I think she should make the call,” said Cheryl. “She should tell him that things are moving quickly, and she’ll need to spend several days down here over the next few weeks to help manage everything. This’ll give us flexibility without raising suspicion over her absences.”

  “That’s good,” said Sid. “I like it.”

  “Also,” she continued, “we need to send a message to Criss. He needs to know what we’re planning. If we don’t have him on our side, it’s hard to imagine this going well.”

  “Bad news, folks,” Juice said. “My com appears to have died.”

  “Com feeds have been restricted across the base,” Cheryl said. “It’ll work in a special room we’ve set up.” She pointed to a door down the hall.

  * * *

  Criss watched Sid, Cheryl, and Juice walk into the special room at Fleet base.

  Sid checked his com and then looked at Juice. “We have preliminary feedback on the three leads from Criss. One is pretty damning for Sheldon and his relationship with the Kardish. And the dates on the information go back to when you were in high school.”

  “Told you,” Juice muttered under her breath.

  “The other two will take more time to flesh out, but it seems they also show that Sheldon’s been scheming since long before you were hired and Criss was created.”

  She nodded and this time kept silent.

  “Could Criss have planted these leads? It seems like it’d be so easy for him.”

  “No way,” said Juice, shaking her head. She explained about the restrictor mesh and confirmed that she had designed it, built it, and wrapped it around Criss herself. She was certain he wasn’t able to reach onto the web and change anything or take any kind of independent action as long as the mesh was in its current isolate mode setting.

  Criss privately agreed. Juice’s mesh did an excellent job of keeping him caged.

  With the okay from Sid, Juice called
Sheldon, who was ecstatic to hear that Fleet was finally on board and committed to the project. Before the call ended, Sheldon reminded Juice that she should do whatever was necessary to keep the project moving forward as quickly as possible. Sheldon’s motives had become so transparent to Criss that he had anticipated this response, almost to the letter.

  With that chore out of the way, Juice asked, “So how do we communicate with Criss? I’ve never thought about it and I’m curious to learn what you guys have developed. I know it’s a one-way conversation, since he can’t send out any sort of response.”

  “It is a one-way conversation,” said Sid. “What should we say to him?”

  “The truth,” she said. “He should know that we’re developing options to flush out Sheldon and the Kardish, that we’ll need his help, and that we have his back—figuratively speaking of course.”

  “We need to hear his views as this thing unfolds,” said Sid. “And he can talk only to whoever is standing next to him. Are you willing to listen to his suggestions as our plan develops? Would you help us hold that part of the conversation?”

  “Of course. What is it you’re not understanding about me? So, how do we call him?”

  “We just did. Let us know what he thinks.”

  Indeed, Criss watched and listened everywhere, all the time. The vast number of devices integrated throughout society transmitted sound and image onto the web and served as his “eyes” and “ears.” He watched Juice look at her com and then make a facial expression he recognized. It was one she used when she was disappointed with herself.

  He had recently devised a way to listen in many places that humans thought were secure. He could combine the signals from all devices near a particular location and, with sophisticated amplification and filtering, use this blended feed to pick out, enhance, and listen to “private” conversations in adjacent rooms.

  Thus, he knew that most of the powerful people in the Union leadership believed the focal issues were the politics of ship building, challenging the Kardish on their long-term intentions, and securing their own positions of personal power. The advent of a powerful crystal was interesting, but it was not a central driver in their short list of challenges.

  And he knew that Victoria Wellstone had a relationship with the Kardish that went beyond the financial. Since he had been watching her, she’d traveled to the Kardish vessel on a small ship that was making a three-gen crystal delivery, stayed for the better part of a day, and then returned to Earth on a ship transporting raw crystal flake back to the planet.

  Chapter 9

  The next day and on the other side of town, Sid led Cheryl and Juice into the DSA imaging center, a facility designed to let agents see things from afar. The center operated a broad assortment of scope and dish technologies. Some were positioned in space to view terrestrial activities. Others were on the planet’s surface, aimed to examine activities of interest above Earth.

  They passed along a corridor that, like a balcony, overlooked the main operations floor of the center. They all looked down as they walked, fascinated by the frenetic bustle of the personnel at the various operations benches. These were teams of dedicated specialists hustling to provide real-time intelligence to agents working missions around the globe.

  “This is us,” said Sid, stopping in front of a door. He had arranged this visit for two reasons. One was to get a high-level briefing on the Kardish. He wanted to learn what he could about his enemy. The other was to introduce everyone to the new member of the team.

  As they stepped inside, a lone figure stood up from a chair. “Everyone,” said Sid, “this is Captain Sparrow.”

  “Please, call me Jack,” said the man, stepping forward with his arm outstretched.

  “Juice and Cheryl, Jack is a Fleet mission analyst.”

  As everyone shook hands, Sid completed the introductions. “This is Captain Cheryl Wallace and Dr. Juice Tallette. Cheryl is the captain of the Alliance. Juice is an expert in crystal technology and Criss’s guardian. She can provide us a lot of insights as we brainstorm.”

  As they took their seats, Sid tilted his head ever so slightly at Jack, privately acknowledging that he had just been awarded yet another bogus title. In the past year alone, Sid had introduced him as an admiral, a political aide, and a geologist. They both had standing authority to assume whatever rank or title they deemed necessary, albeit temporarily, if it provided value to a mission profile.

  Jack, or Wynn Riley, when he wasn’t using his mission pseudonym, was Sid’s regular partner and close friend. Jack, in the game ten years longer than Sid, had recruited him into the DSA from the training camp four years ago. And Sid had been a great recruit. He was one of only a small handful of agents who ever worked missions as an improviser. Jack/Wynn was also accomplished. He was the only operative qualified to serve on missions as both a ghost and a toy-master.

  After a few moments of chitchat, a Fleet commander entered the room. They all stood again and met Commander Benton, Fleet’s formal liaison with the DSA, and someone who had spent most of the past decade studying the Kardish.

  He took a seat and got right to business. “Let’s take a look.”

  He tapped on a panel in front of his chair, and a three-dimensional floating image of the Kardish vessel appeared over the table. It looked something like a whale, with a bulbous head at the bow that tapered off to a narrow, finned tail in the stern. It was black, smooth, and unquestionably menacing.

  They all studied it and then Cheryl broke the silence. “I can’t get a sense of size. There’s nothing to compare it to.”

  “It’s hard to judge size when something’s floating freely in space,” agreed Benton. “But there’s no doubt that it’s huge.” He shifted in his chair to look at her. “The comparison I use most often in my presentations is this: if we stood it on end, it would be as tall as Mount Everest.”

  “Whoa,” said Juice. “That’s more than a hundred blocks in a city like New York.” She leaned forward. “Can we see a close-up?”

  Benton nodded. He moved his hands on the panel and the focus started to zoom. It kept zooming, giving them the illusion they were approaching the vessel at high speed. Soon the vessel as a whole disappeared, and they saw just a portion of its exterior. The zoom continued, but from that point onward, the view didn’t change.

  “We’re now looking at a section the size of this room,” said Benton.

  “I don’t see any features on the outside,” said Cheryl. “Doesn’t equipment poke out anywhere? There should at least be seams for doors or hatches.”

  “We’ve examined every inch of this thing. The whole vessel has a smooth skin.”

  Cheryl became animated. “Can we see the Alliance in a side-by-side view?”

  “I think I can do that.” Benton looked down as he moved his hand across the panel. An image of the Alliance popped up next to the massive Kardish vessel. It looked tiny in comparison.

  Sid, studying the images, saw the Kardish vessel as a shark eyeing its next meal. “Isn’t the Alliance our latest and greatest class of ship?”

  “Yeah,” said Cheryl, decidedly less animated than she had been moments earlier. “It’s the biggest and baddest ship in Fleet’s inventory.”

  Benton looked at each of them in turn. “While I haven’t been briefed on your mission, I’ve been asked to spend a few minutes bringing you up to speed on the Kardish. So here’s the first part of your lesson.”

  They waited expectantly.

  “This vessel is the same one that arrived twenty years ago.” He pointed at the image as he spoke. “It’s never left. For two decades, this same ship has been sitting up there in orbit. We know they’re in the crystal business. They ship us raw flake and have amassed a huge inventory of the finished product. But beyond that, we really don’t know why they’re here or what their goal is.”

  “It’s really been the same ship?” Sid looked at Cheryl and then Jack. “How did we not know that?”

  “More confident
ial info,” said Benton. “Turns out there’s been years of infighting about this at the highest levels. The politicians keep looking for leadership from Fleet Command, and Fleet doesn’t want to be caught holding the hot potato. The two have been tossing the problem back and forth for literally two decades.”

  Benton slumped in his chair, and Sid could detect a certain resignation in him as he continued. “Two camps have developed. One says we don’t know what sort of weapons they have, and it’s best not to find out the hard way. Since they’re being nice to us, why turn them into adversaries without a really good reason? The other camp says we should challenge them and show them what the Union stands for. They think we’re sitting ducks and need to show some spine.”

  Sid probed deeper. “Suppose we decided we had to take action. Does Fleet have anything on the shelf, even something experimental, that could bring that thing down?”

  “Even if we could, we don’t want to,” said Benton. “Let’s suppose we could fire a magic weapon and bring the monster down in a single shot. In this fantasy, that single shot is the start and end of the fighting. So I’m describing the absolute best case.

  “Now, if that mountain fell from the sky and crashed into an ocean, it would cause a tidal wave bigger than anything in human history.” Benton used his hands to mime a large explosion. “If it crashed into land, it would create a new Grand Canyon. Everything anywhere near that hole would turn to vapor.”

  * * *

  After the briefing, Juice watched Benton leave for his next appointment, her mind whirling with more classified information than she’d ever expected to hear.

  “Juice,” Sid asked, “would you give Jack the background and then update all of us on Criss?”

  “Sure.” She looked at Jack, who, while slumped in his chair, watched with alert eyes. “As a mission analyst, you’ve certainly used systems run by a three-gen crystal.”

  He nodded. “Of course.”

  “So you appreciate how impressive they are. Those crystals have the intelligence of a typical person. Criss is a thousand times more capable. This is much more than the intelligence of a person compared to, say, a dog or cat. It’s more like a person compared to a goldfish.”