by Zach Winderl
“You solid?” he asked, turning to face her inside his helmet.
For a time she continued to stare into the void surrounding them. She floated motionless, velocity equal to the ship on the float.
“I don’t know whether I feel more alone out here staring at the nothing or dirtside surrounded by people I don’t know.” Her voice sounded low and tinny in Atom’s helmet. “I’ve spent so much of my life alone or pretending to be someone I’m not, I’m not really sure who I’m supposed to be inside.”
“Sometimes alone is a good thing,” Atom replied.
“But not all the time.”
Atom held up his hands in a suited semblance of a shrug.
“I don’t want to change who I am. I just need to find a place that I fit. I need to get to a place where I can stop listening to others tell me who I am and who I’m supposed to be.
“My family tells me one thing, society tells me something else. I’d rather they all just mind their own business. I want to make my own decisions, listen to my heart, settle down somewhere and just be myself. Maybe I’ll get married and start a family, or maybe I won’t. None of that is for someone else to tell me.
“Maybe I’ll continue on taking lives, but only if I want to. That’s easier when there are no connections.” Lilly pivoted her space suit to meet Atom’s eye. “It’s easier to kill what I don’t know. Although, that’s never really stopped me.
“Do you have trouble killing?” she asked.
“It’s happened a time or two. I actually found it easier with the people I didn’t know. Granted, I’ve never had to put down a friend, but I’ve had to end acquaintances. I knew their darkness, which made it easier to pull the trigger.”
“Are we friends?” Lilly’s bluntness caught Atom off guard.
Before he could reply, she continued. “I suppose I best watch myself.”
She turned and began floating back towards the hatch. Just before she swung herself into the ship, she turned back to Atom. “I know how you float. I’ve put you down, but I also saved you a couple times.”
Then she cut the connection and the hatch cycled, leaving Atom floating alone in the Black.
***
The One Way Ticket dropped into the Kipling System without fanfare and slipped into the scattered inbound traffic. Answering a trade call, Atom dropped the ship on Seeonee. The planet’s broad, fertile plains and shallow seas provided the majority of the system’s foodstuff and with a thinner atmosphere, the planet sat as the system-hub for larger planet-bound transport ships.
Daisy dropped the Ticket to the surface with barely a shudder.
Without ever leaving the ship, Atom brokered a hold full of corn that stacked neatly about the Hellkite. The magnetic crates cocooned the baug’s ship in a shroud of corn.
Almost as soon as the hold sealed, Daisy kicked the engines to life and lifted from the surface.
Within a day, they dropped on Kafiristan with legitimate trade papers.
“I go alone for the time,” Atom said to Hither on the stairs to the hold. “I have a contact to make and, in the meantime, I want you to line up a buyer for all this corn.
“I don’t like having the hold this cramped.” He reached up and rapped his knuckles on one of the crates stacked to create a low ceiling to the stairwell. “Plus, I feel like it sends the wrong signal to Lilly. I don’t think she could leave without serious damage to her ship and probably ours as well.”
“Done and done.” Hither grinned. “What’s the next step?”
“Depends on what this contact has up their sleeve. I don’t think we can just walk in and shoot Migori without slamming our escape route shut.”
“Isolate and execute?”
“Seems the best approach from here.” Atom snatched Margo up by the back of her jumper as she rounded the corner and attempted to dodge past the pair. “If that turns out to be the case, I’ll either attempt alone, or bring on Shi as a possible snipe option.
“Realistically, I have no intel. That means I need to go collect.”
Hither wrinkled her brow in thought. “Not much to go by.” She closed her eyes and smoothed her countenance with a deep breath. “Just keep me posted. I’ll run things smoothly on our end. You need more, just relay through Kozue and we’ll be on the spot.”
Atom mocked a salute and trotted down the stairs with a wriggling Margo in one hand. He followed the corn tunnel to the side hatch and plunked his daughter in the waiting pram. After a quick check of his rail-pistol and backup weapon, he straightened his brown coat and slapped open the hatch.
“I hope this meeting involves food,” Atom grumbled as he powered Margo out into the brisk mountain breeze.
The city sat surrounded by a ring of processing plants and crowded landing pads. Beyond the border of civilization, a line of craggy hills gave the impression that the One Way Ticket had landed in the bottom of a wide, flat bowl. In the midst of the productive turmoil, the planet’s capital city spread in a mix of stone and plasteel buildings, business and residence interspersed with commercial districts.
Atom frowned as he exited the landing pad and slipped onto a conveyor walk. “Where am I supposed to meet this boke?” He glanced around at the scattered drift of pedestrian traffic hopping on and off the conveyance.
“I have coords,” Kozue said. “Looking at them now. It appears to be an office building, belonging to a shipping company. I’ll guide you. Just follow the pram.”
With half an eye on the pram’s trajectory, Atom wandered along the bustling streets. The section of the city adjacent to the port overflowed with warehouses, offices, quick-stop diners, and four-seat noodle vendors. The surrounding swirl of humanity consisted of porters and mech-loaders, although the occasional pairing of uniformed security officers, or a group of riotous spacers stood out from the bustling throngs with their wandering saunter.
Atom wove after the pram. Kozue guided at an easy pace that flowed with the general traffic.
“What’s our timing look like?” Atom asked as he lost track of the number of warehouses passed. “I feel like we’re stuck walking in a straight circle here. Or maybe I just get uncomfortable not knowing what I’m walking into.”
“Twelve minutes at our current pace.” Kozue hesitated. “That’s interesting.”
“What?” Atom perked up.
“Every passing security detail has had two members, but there is a group of seven approaching on a rough intercept vector.”
“Trouble?”
“I’m not sure. I’m jumping surveillance feeds and it would appear that they are more worried about what’s behind them. Although, the woman I estimate is their commander appears to be using her handheld pad to track you.”
“Why would you say that? Have you hacked her system?”
“Unfortunately, she is using a high security system that would take more effort to get into than I care, or need, to tie up at the moment.”
“How then?”
“Geometry,” Atom could hear the shrug in his wife’s voice. “Her vector has continually arced to track and intersect your own.”
Atom hopped forward a couple steps and caught hold of the pram, wrestling it from Kozue’s automated propulsion systems and dragging it out of the surging tide of traffic. He stood motionless, watching and measuring. Margo shifted in the pram, sitting sideways so she could see her father and the street. Her serious demeanor mirrored Atom’s.
“Take Go back to the ship,” Atom said after a moment of reflection. He keyed a sequence into the controls and closed up the protective shield. “I know I usually take her with me, but I usually choose my own jobs. This feels so out of my control, I don’t know where she will fit into the plans.”
“Understood,” Kozue replied without hesitation, pulling the pram from his hand and guiding it out into the flow of foot-traffic.
“How long before the trackers find me?” He watched the pram disappear.
“They are around the next corner. If you move forward and me
et them on the side street, there will be more freedom to act as you see fit.”
“Firm.” Atom reached under his coat and popped the straps loose on both pistols. Then, cracking his neck with a slow roll of his shoulder, he stepped out into the traffic and made his way toward the corner.
With purpose he strolled around the corner, whistling a light melody as his eyes skimmed the surroundings. The traffic died at the corner, leading Atom to surmise the byway offered access to a row of warehouses and little more. No vendors lined the streets. Atom’s ditty fell silent as a feral grin spread across his face.
The trackers rounded a corner a hundred or so yards away, caught sight of Atom, and froze.
“Afternoon,” Atom called out as he kept his pace and drew near.
The uniformed guards looked to the woman standing several paces in front. She waved them back, tucked her pad away, and advanced. Confidence leant gravity to her expression as she approached Atom with her hands held wide, away from her gun.
“Atom Ulvan?” She stopped several paces away.
“Depends on who’s looking,” Atom replied with a friendly nod.
She took a deep, calming breath. “I received word from Alderon Bronte that our plan was in motion. We have a simple task for you, assassinate General Lelani Motoki Migori. His loss should throw the Migori advance into enough chaos that we should have time to launch a counter-strike.”
Atom thrust his hands into the pockets of his coat and stared at the woman.
“Why don’t you just do it?” he asked, rocking on his heels.
“Honestly,” she lowered her voice and stepped closer. “If it looks like it came from outside our han, it should cause more confusion for the Migori. We’re hoping that the confusion will force them to halt their attacks long enough to figure if there is another player on the board ….”
“And that buys you more time.” Atom nodded in understanding.
“It buys a window for that counterattack to work. This system is rightfully ours and we plan on taking it back.”
“Have you applied to the emperor?”
“And received the reply that it will be looked into.”
“Meaning …?”
“We’re on our own.” The woman bowed from the waist. “And so, we have sought the aid of the Tribes.”
Atom looked over her shoulder at her contingent. “And the plan?” he asked.
“Take these.” She pulled a small package from a pouch on her harness. “They will identify you as a Migori inspector. You will use them to gain access to the orbital platform they have taken as their forward operating base.”
Atom studied the woman in silence. Her dark features masked any hint of emotion. She held out the package to Atom. He shifted his eyes from her narrow face to the package.
“Before I take this on, there are a couple things I want to clear up. Why do I have to jump through all these hoops when I could just take my ship up and dock at that station? I could work out a supply run angle and have my mech rig something that would make all the kids dirtside ooo and ah. And speaking of that, why wasn’t I stopped on my inbound drop?”
The woman looked at the unaccepted package and then sighed. “First off, you weren’t stopped because the Migori don’t want to damage the infrastructure of the system. It’s the highest yielding system in the sector. Even though leaving trade open makes their job more difficult, they see the disruption as more economically harmful in the long-term.
“They have opted to keep most of their operations in the black. The Migori have landed a police force, but have kept their planet-side operations to small-squad engagements.
“As long as you pass their customs inspection on any trade transactions, you are free to come and go as per usual business. Granted, your everyday inspections are going to be a touch more thorough, so take that into account if you plan to up or download any goods from your ship.
“And to answer the first part of your question, the orbital platform is a no-fly zone for civies.”
“That makes sense.” Atom reached out and took the package from the woman. He popped it open to reveal a palm-sized, bifold pad with a rough printed badge tucked in a leather sleeve. He examined the badge which sported an unflattering headshot and the name Flynn Mosby stamped below. “How do I get past their security?”
“Press your thumb to the key of your new pad.”
Atom did so and the pad sprang to life. With a flash of light the screen adjusted and displayed Atom’s face along with alias information. He flipped through different screens, looking over his new credentials. Passing through the work screens, he found several personal folders, one of which contained pictures that had been altered to include him.
“Nice touch, with the pictures.” His eyebrows climbed in appreciation.
“We tried to be as thorough as possible.” A sad smile crept to the corners of the woman’s mouth. “This task is of utmost importance to us all.”
“Appreciated, I’ll just be on my way then. I have a fortress to find a way into.”
“That’s not all.” She caught his arm as he turned to go. “You must kill us.”
“Come again?” he asked, turning his head back to her.
“We are Adlerians, known to Migori intelligence.” She gripped his arm, her fingers digging in like talons. “Killing us adds credence to your identity.”
Lights exploded behind Atom’s eyes as her fist caught him in the side of the head, just above the ear. With her gripping hand, the woman spun Atom, throwing off his balance, even as his hand flipped back his coat.
Stumbling to the side, he lashed a foot out that connected with her leg.
The woman dropped with a grunt.
In that moment, Atom spun to regain his balance and as he rose, coat swirling, his pistol barked out in rapid sequence. Three members of the patrol dropped before they could draw their guns.
The other three scattered.
The woman scrabbled back towards the gutter, her leg dragging at an odd angle.
Without thought, Atom put a round through her chest.
Seeing their leader mortally wounded, the others charged with a suicidal tendency. Atom dropped them before they had covered more than a couple steps.
For a moment he stood, motionless except for his whispering coat. He looked over his shoulders to see the busy street behind him turn into a chaotic surge as the locals fled the sound of the gunfight.
A pair of security personnel rounded the corner with guns drawn, yelling for him to drop his weapon and get on the ground.
“Hold up.” He held his gun skyward. “We’re on the same side here.”
With guns trained on him, the pair approached, as if drawing near a wounded wolf. The two officers flanked Atom and halted several steps away.
“On the ground,” one of them growled. His gun quivered in his hand.
Atom stared down the barrel longer than necessary and then he knelt with exaggerated slowness. Raising his eyebrows and maintaining eye contact with the officer, he set his rail-pistol on the ground.
“My badge in in my pocket if you’d care to check.” Atom leaned to the side, nodding toward his coat pocket. “I’m a plain. I followed a trail to these Adlerians. They were on course for an infil. I got ‘em before they could.” He grinned.
The grin remained even as the second officer circled behind and kicked him down to the ground. Kneeling on his bac, she patted him down with rough hands. The woman maintained the pressure even as she flipped his coat and pulled his secondary from his back holster. She tossed the weapon out of reach and fished in his pocket.
“He’s proper,” the woman said after overriding his pad to pull credentials.
Atom strained to look at the man standing over him. “See, like I said, I’m a plain.”
A ragged cough snapped his attention back to his surroundings. A few feet away, the woman still lay in the gutter. Her hand slipped into her pocket. Fighting against the officer on his back, Atom managed a glance in time
to see the Adlerian grin.
Blood stood out against the whiteness of her teeth.
“Too late,” she gasped out as the standing Migori officer whipped his gun from Atom’s head and placed two more rounds in her chest.
Before the light seeped from her eyes, Atom heard a soft click.
“Bomb,” he yelled and tried to curl in on himself in spite of the other officer’s weight on his back. He remained curled with his eyes squeezed shut for a few breaths before the standing officer’s laughter alerted him to the fact that their surroundings remained quiet.
“You’re a twitchy one,” the woman laughed as she rose from where Atom had bucked her off. “I’d say she just had a suicide switch to make sure we didn’t take her alive.”
“She was already dead.” Atom sat up and looked over the dead woman.
The guard pulled the woman’s hand from her pocket and pried a small cylinder from her grip. The Migori’s face dropped as she revealed the trigger. “What is it?” she asked, holding the device out for Atom’s inspection. “If it was a bomb, wouldn’t it have gone off when she popped the trigger?”
“Not necessarily,” Atom said, holding out his hand for the device.
The woman tossed it in his direction.
Atom caught it and held the simple trigger with exaggerated care. He rolled it around in his palm.
A sudden silence tickled the back of his mind and he perked up like a dog hearing a distant whistle. The hubbub of the city had fallen quiet. The only sound to reach his ears came in the form of distant murmuring of human voices.
He cursed.
“Let me see my pad,” he demanded, rising to his feet and holding out his hand. The guard shrugged and handed it over. Atom examined it for a moment and then looked up in frustration. “It’s dead. I’m fair certain she just set off an EMP.”
As if in response, a ship in a decaying orbit streaked across the sky to slam into a distant hill. A geyser of flame erupted from the wooded slope, followed by a roil of angry, dark smoke. Seconds later, the shockwave rattled the buildings around.
Atom’s eyes widened with fear. “Go,” he whispered. “Kozue, is she ok?”
Only silence replied.