by Greg Chase
But Sara’s youthful confidence was forcefully confronted by the threatening reality of being so far from Earth. Turning away from the canyon that spread out below the plateau’s ledge that she’d shared with her mother for the last week, Sara wondered at her own arrogance in thinking she could do anything at all away from Rendition and its Tobes—her sources of power in too many ways. All she had was a poorly conceived plan developed in her luxurious and protected office on Earth. Instead of heading across the rocky field to the pirate ship, she slipped behind an outcropping of rocks. Her tumble down the sand-fall made for an easy, though awkward, descent of the mountain and wouldn’t be noticed from the ship.
She scanned the rocky field at the base of the cliff. She was alone. Now all she needed was a small crater from some long-ago asteroid impact. There were plenty to choose from, but she wanted the smallest she could fit into. Her boots dislodged a handful of pebbles as she stepped over the rim and descended the small depression.
Her hand closed tight on the small pouch that hung from a cord around her neck. She pulled hard, breaking the thin strap. Her fingers carefully sought out the precious capsule from the unsealed pocket. Leaning down, she smoothed out the bag on the hard ground. The soft black suede, a material completely unknown to the barren moon, would be her technology’s only temporary protection on this hostile world. She nestled the treasured item on top of the bag. This was it. There’d be no turning back. She worked at the clasps of her shirt and pants—then tossed them into a pile at the far side of the crater. They’d served their purpose. Anyone who saw them would remark on the clothing’s professional Earth styling, a clear indication Sara had no idea where she was headed when she’d come out here. The underwear went next.
Stark naked, she reached for the small capsule and broke it open. The shimmery, transparent film ran between her fingers like water. If she dropped it, she’d have one hell of a time finding it. Holding it up to the light, it lost even the shimmer—an invisible coating her hand barely registered as matter, more like a wisp of cold air. She was holding Rendition’s latest, greatest technology. She and Joshua had worked around the clock getting it ready in time. But would it work?
Slipping it over her skin had been enough of a challenge in the clean, well-lit, windless laboratory on Earth. Joshua had expressed more than a passing fear that she wouldn’t be able to see the garment well enough to get into it out on some desolate rock in space. He wasn’t entirely wrong, but in order to access the Moons of Jupiter’s networks, she had to wait until she was surrounded by their communications. She ran her fingers along the edge of the film, seeking out the small, removable tab that would indicate the neck. Though she’d drawn the arrows herself on the tab, out on the moon they looked like some kid’s stick-figure joke.
Sara took five calming breaths. You only have to do this once.
Pulling at the tab opened the garment from neck to waist, but that simply turned the outfit into a confusing jumble of nearly liquid transparent film. Her first attempt at stepping into the bodysuit put her right arm in the left sleeve. As her toes struggled into the right armhole, she discovered her error. Holding the film back in front of her, she turned it clockwise and tried again. It felt like an hour of frustrating starts and stops to get the film to evenly cover her body and then another half hour to work out all the wrinkles. Time was against her. Larry and Spike might accept her long absences from the ship, but once they realized she wasn’t in sight, they’d start their search.
She flexed her hands, fingers wide apart, then balled them into fists. There was only so much adjusting she could do. Time for the garment to do the rest. “Encase me.”
Filaments from the microthin fabric extended over Sara’s eyes, down her ear canals, and into her mouth then invaded her vagina so that not a single fraction of an inch was left exposed—not that anyone would ever notice. The shimmer had gone, leaving a completely transparent covering no thicker than a handful of molecules. She ran her fingertips across her belly, along her breasts, and over her tongue. She was even so bold as to touch her eyeball. It all felt completely normal. Had she not known she’d just applied the garment, she’d have had no way of knowing of its existence. And more importantly, neither would anyone else.
It took her a moment to locate the small ball of light at the center of the solar system. Jupiter’s moon-suns being closer and brighter made the search more difficult than it needed to be. From that starting point, she turned her body only slightly toward the monster planet that circled to her right.
Sara spread her arms and legs to become a human antenna. This is it, Joshua. You’d better be right in your calculations, or I’m coming back to Earth to kick your virtual butt. A minute passed, then two. She attempted to calm her fears. Earth was a long way off. She’d need to make that first contact before she could access the solar array. One more minute, then I’ll try the link with Leviathan.
A thin yellow horizontal line crossed in front of her eyes. Then vertical lines transected the first. Sara breathed a deep sigh of relief. Contacting Lev, Leviathan’s Tobe, would have risked her little toy being discovered. It was so much better to have a direct link to Earth. A grid work of virtual lines indicated startup of the new technology. It only lasted for a moment.
Time to put this thing to the test. “Can you hear me, Emi?”
The smiling face of Sara’s sister covered one of her eyes. “It worked, Ra! I just wish I could see you too.”
Tears would have formed in Sara’s eyes, but the film soaked up the liquid before it could form into drops. “I’m standing naked in a dirty, rock-strewn crater on a barely terraformed moon of Jupiter. I think maybe I’m happier you can’t see me right now.”
Emily stood back from the work screen on her desk to give Sara a full view of her professional, rule-the-world attire. “What about me—not what you expected? I’ll confess I strip this stuff off the moment I get upstairs. I don’t know how you put up with this crap for so long, and I don’t just mean the clothes.”
Sara nodded, though Emily wouldn’t see it. “You get used to it. I have a lot to explain and not a lot of time.”
Some reliable person back home had to know the details of her plan, and Sara trusted Emily more than she trusted herself. The burden would be greater than Sara would have placed on her had they been together. But then, Emily had more inner strength than anyone gave her credit for.
Sara did her best to lay out her agenda honestly, doing nothing to ease the blow. As she finished up explaining her reasoning, though, Sara knew she’d still kept large sections of her plan secret even from her sister. If I can’t be completely honest with Emi, is this really such a good idea? But she knew it was a little late for second thoughts.
The gentle blond curls swung side to side across Emily’s face as she rotated in the office chair, an act Sara knew to be her way of processing information. “Dad wouldn’t have liked it, but he didn’t do so well out there. I don’t know how to help, Ra. Sounds like you want me to just sit here and wait, but I’m not sure I can do that.”
“You’re hardly just sitting there. You’ve got a corporation to run. And a very big secret to keep. If things go wrong, and that seems more than likely, I’m relying on you to set the story straight.” Sara knew the look on her sister’s face—the one that said, I’m listening, but I’m also scheming. But that might not be a bad thing, either. The more people with secret escape plans, the better.
“Just be safe. I’ll have everything ready on this end.”
Sara switched off her connection to Emily. The film had worked as intended, but so far, that was just legacy technology made into something she could take off-planet. She reached back into the satchel and pulled out the slick black outfit meant for Praxidike. Emily had laughed at the garment, saying it made Sara look too much like a dominatrix, but all the studies confirmed this to be what women wore on that godforsaken moon, assuming there were any people left there. Sara snickered at her own mental joke. Godforsaken. Ell
ie had insisted on adding a cape to the outfit. She could be something of a prude at times, but the covering conformed with Praxidike attire and had the added bonus of obscuring any network snooping—a backup to what the film should be able to accomplish on its own.
As she slipped into the sexy, formfitting outfit, Sara considered what she knew of the highly radioactive moon. Jess never would have suspected how much of Sam’s life had been transmitted to his daughter. The connection to the Tobes that Sara shared with their god meant she had a front-row seat to his life. He’d made a mistake out there. She could see it as it was happening. Allowing an opposing religion to form in the wake of his miracles had turned his adversary, once just a waif of a girl, into the Reverend Mother Arry. Sara wasn’t planning to fix her father’s mistakes, but turning weaknesses into strengths had been the hallmark of her time running Rendition. Enemies were often more interesting than allies. Again, tears failed to fill her eyes due to the film. In her interactions with Jess, she’d performed the familiar game of keeping her opponent off guard. Playing the scared, innocent daughter hadn’t been an act, but it had also not been the truth. Sara consoled herself with the knowledge that she had succeeded in keeping her mother from asking questions. For the moment, that was what mattered most. Justifying the whys of the plan after its conclusion would be easier than asking permission—as if she needed such a validation from her mother.
Now that the connection had been made to Earth, Sara wouldn’t have to become the naked human antenna again unless she needed the stronger network bond. The big question was how the garment would hold up to the next series of tests.
All right, Superwoman, what do you want to try next? She picked up the meteor that sat exposed in the middle of the crater. Her fingers squeezed hard at the sides of the metallic rock. It didn’t react. There were limits to this new technology. Enhanced strength would have been a lot to expect from such a thin covering. And though she’d begged Joshua for laser eyes that could melt things with an intense stare, that also had proved impossible. As she turned the meteor in her hands, the displays before her eyes gave her all the usual data on size, composition, and likely origins—basic stuff, but the fact that it worked out here was remarkable. The film must be accessing the solar array. She considered throwing the rock, but out on this low-gravity moon, that wouldn’t tell her much.
A slight kick against the ground from the toe of her shiny, thigh-high boots elevated her beyond the lip of the crater. Need to watch that display of strength. She inspected the smooth garment. All the dust and dirt had slid off the fabric as advertised. But a small gash had formed where the metallic rock had scraped her side. Pressing her fingers together at the rip acted like stitches, sealing the tear—easily fixed, but something to be aware of in a fight.
Sara turned to the largest moon she could find. At least I don’t have to do this one naked. The data came in garbled—random screens of information, static, and ghost images. None of it made much sense. Focusing on one piece of information did clear up that screen, but widening her attention again only made things more jumbled. Sara pulled her mind back as far as she could from the network. At a distance, the issue became clear. It wasn’t a network—not anymore—but more like a stadium filled with people, each yelling to be heard. Or more aptly, it resembled individual pages of thousands of books all randomly thrown together but making as much noise as possible in the hopes of telling their whole story in a handful of paragraphs. Well, at least passing undetected shouldn’t be a problem.
The rest of the testing would have to wait. Sara retrieved her belongings and, adding in the heavy meteor, filled the small satchel. Prints from her hiking boots led to the lip of the crater, but once she’d changed, no further marks showed in the fine, silty dust that covered everything around the depression. The new boots, more stylish than the rock-climbing ones now collapsed in her satchel, also proved more adaptable to the uneven terrain—though how much of that new agility had to do with the film, Sara couldn’t say. Taking careful aim with the help of her enhanced vision, she heaved the leather bag as hard as she could toward a cave in the cliff opposite the plateau. It’d be nearly impossible to find by anyone not on foot.
With the film’s connection to both the solar array—and therefore Earth—and the Moons of Jupiter’s network, transferring funds wouldn’t be the challenge her parents had endured when they had first set foot out here. The film would also provide nourishment with energy provided by the solar transfer array—though that wasn’t something she intended to rely on. Food and water still beat some technological substitute.
Sara looked back up the cliff face. Leaving Larry and Spike without a word would create fear that would work its way back to Jess. A knot formed in her stomach. It wasn’t what she wanted. But some mystery would be needed for her legend to take hold. She mouthed a silent I’m sorry that even Spike wouldn’t hear.
She spread out the cape behind her as she turned away from the only support she had readily available. All the tests they’d run on Earth proved the film could make her invisible to the Tobes if she wished, but those were Earth Tobes. No one knew for sure what would happen out among the pirates and Moons of Jupiter. The fine computerized mesh in the cape’s fabric would further disrupt any devices, human or Tobe, that might be aimed at her.
The sheer canyon walls ended abruptly at the valley floor, leaving her little in the way of cover from the plateau above, but only Larry would be able to leave the spaceship to go searching for her. She looked down the gorge. A little dust storm would do nicely right about now. The excitement of adventure was getting the better of her. Reckless. The film might protect her from the bursts of static electricity, but it had its limitations when it came to the impact of rocks and dust hurled against her. Danger wasn’t something to be sought out. It would find her soon enough.
Four hours later, as the final moon-sun set over the mountain, she saw the minute craft lift off the plateau. She ducked into a deep crater to watch in secret as the ship made a painfully slow traverse of the valley, seeking any sign of her. She remained in the indentation for an hour, making sure it didn’t return for a second pass. There were a lot of cliffs and valleys for Rampike to search, and with the moon’s low gravity, she could be anywhere. Again, Sara felt bad for the deception, but they never would have let her go alone. Leaving in secret was the only way.
4
Jess returned the blaster to its holster at the side of her leg. Depleting the energy cell had resulted in fifty holes of varying sizes in the dilapidated cargo container, though none of them came close to the pristine bullseye target. This seemed a lot easier in the adventure novels.
Ramon rubbed at the back of his dust-encrusted neck. “Let’s go into town and get something to drink. You’re thinking too much. Nothing takes you out of your thoughts like a good growler of beer.”
She’d have been happy to remain on the makeshift range far from the outpost and keep firing the weapon—frustration had a way of driving her determination rather than deflating her ego. The only thing she’d learned from the afternoon was that intense emotion didn’t do much for her aim. “I suppose I could use a break.”
The kozane made the walk through the pirate enclave less intimidating. The looks she’d previously gotten, though appreciative, tended to end in a patronizing smirk as if they were saying, Thanks for your help. Now leave—you don’t belong here. You were only a guest. When she was wearing the kozane, their eyes spoke a message of awe if not yet respect.
As she stepped into the bar, she felt as if the entire room had gone dark with the exception of one bright spotlight. “What the hell are you doing here?” She hadn’t meant to shout, but seeing Larry sitting at a table, nursing a beer, unhinged her thoughts.
His slightly slurred speech left her to guess this hadn’t been his first drink of the day. “Looking for you. Have a seat.”
“Where’s Sara?” The all-too-familiar knot in her stomach pulled at her intestines. From the night her daughter
had been kidnapped, years ago, Jess had developed a special gut-wrenching fear reserved for her.
“We don’t know. She gave us the slip. Spike and I have spent the last three days scouring that desolate moon. All we found were her footprints at the base of the mountain. Had anyone else been with her, or if she’d met with some unfortunate event, Spike would have picked up some clue.”
At least he had the good sense not to be cagey with the facts. Sara had disappeared from under the Tobes’ watchful eyes before, but that had been on Earth. Jess considered the possibilities. The most obvious answer would be the Board of Shadows, but something told her the disappearance hadn’t been against Sara’s will. Jess tried to mentally pull at the cords that made up the knot in her stomach and dissect her fear. Had any of the powers among the Moons of Jupiter taken Sara, they wouldn’t have waited three days to wave their prize in Jess’s face. If she’d had an accident, Spike would have seen her on his search. The technological dye Earth’s Tobes had given her ensured she’d never go missing again. And few people outside of Earth knew of her special connection to the technologically based beings. That could only mean she’d hidden during their search. Larry and Spike wouldn’t have expected her to evade them, so she wouldn’t have had to work too hard to stay hidden from them visually though she would have needed some unknown technology to be completely unobserved by the Tobes. This wasn’t some random desire for privacy. Sara must have planned her disappearance before she’d left Earth. To ask Joshua about it could too easily expose Sara, who clearly needed stealth. The young daughter Jess remembered might be impulsive, but the head of Rendition would only attempt escape from those she trusted if she had a plan.
Larry took another drink of his beer. “We didn’t know where to turn. Spike wanted to hit up some of the Moons’ shuttles that he’s done business with, but he’s not all that well connected. The last thing I wanted to do was blow her cover if this was her doing.”