by M. D. Cooper
With that the battle was joined. Kris was skilled, something Tanis already knew, and both of the women’s limbs flashed out and were blocked or deflected by the other in turn. It was as though they were participating in a complicated dance and each had the moves down perfectly.
Even so, Tanis felt that she was at a bit of a disadvantage. No tells were offered by her opponent. Normally a grimace or a look in the eyes would give intentions away, but the featureless mask prevented that. She wanted one of these suits even more.
The moment of reflection almost caused her to fall for a feint, and she blocked the real strike at the last moment, wincing as the blow deflected off her forearm. Kris’s attacks were powerful; she was most certainly cybernetically enhanced.
She wasn’t the only one; the TSF didn’t let you above commander if you were just flesh and blood. A little carbon nanofiber here, some titanium there coupled with some X5A sinew and then you were all you could be.
“You’re not too bad,” Kris commented with a hint of appreciation in her voice.
“Not too shabby yourself. Why don’t you give up and we’ll call it a draw.”
“Not very likely,” Kris said. “I’m going to collect that credit on your head and retire somewhere real nice. Maybe New Eden.”
“Any way we could fake my death and split the take?” Tanis asked. “This job doesn’t pay for shit.”
Her comment caused Kris just a moment of pause and Tanis used that to make a daring attack with both her left foot and right arm. The blows wrenched Kris’ and dislocated her shoulder. A follow-up strike to the base of her skull ended the fight in Tanis’s favor.
The black figure went down in a heap, and Tanis waited for the TSF team she had called during the fight to secure the body. She had no idea how Kris had planned to get off the ship, that was something she would have to ask the woman.
“Put her with our collection. We’re gonna have us a nice long talk. And save the suit, but make sure it doesn’t have any surprises. I can think of a really good use for that puppy.”
CHAPTER 22
STELLAR DATE: 3227282 / 11.25.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: GSS Intrepid, Mars Outer Shipyards (MOS)
REGION: Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation
Trist had been moved to the medical facilities on the Intrepid, a place Tanis was already quite familiar with after her mods for the trip to Cruithne. After a couple of days the thief was well on her way to full health, though portions of her body were now made up of silbio, the value of which was greater than most people would make in a hundred years.
They were sitting in one of the lounges in the medical facilities, each with a cup of coffee. Tanis was taking hers black, something that a lot of time in the field forced you to like whether you preferred it or not, while Trist was drinking some concoction that could only have come from Ganymede; it consisted of several different spices, milks, creams and possibly some actual coffee.
“I gotta hand it to you folks,” Trist said. “You sure know how to make a girl feel at home—if home were a fluffy, cushy prison.”
“You’re not a prisoner…exactly,” Tanis replied.
“Kinda feels like it with virtually no Link access, no permission to leave my room unless I’ve got a couple of burly types with me, and no knowledge of what my future holds.”
“Well, what do you think we should do with you?” Tanis asked.
Trist cast her a sidelong glance. “You’re not tricking me with that one. I’ve been around long enough to know someone’s looking to see if I’ll hang myself with the line they give me.”
Tanis smiled. “Sorry.”
“Just sorry? Why am I the one guiding this conversation? Didn’t you come here to see me?”
“I did, I’m just trying to decide exactly what to do with you. You won’t testify against the STR, which means that I don’t have a lot of use for you. However, sending you back out into the system is a bit of a death sentence and I don’t feel totally comfortable with that either.”
“What? The cold-as-ice Major Tanis Richards, the Butcher of Toro, would feel bad about me getting my head blown off? I think your reputation is a smoke screen.”
It was Tanis’s turn to cast a glance at Trist. “I thought you had no Link access.”
“Oh I don’t, at least I don’t now. I managed to slip past the safeguards a few times until some broad named Amanda gave me the smackdown. Took me a bit, but I got past her eventually and was wandering through some personnel files when some guy named Bob came into my mind and told Sue and I that if we even sent a photon across the Link he would turn our brains off. Was a real jackass about it too.”
Tanis’s eyebrows rose considerably. “You got a visit from the Intrepid. He doesn’t deign to speak to us mere mortals much anymore. You should be honored…or possibly scared witless that he addressed you.”
Trist’s eye widened. “He wouldn’t really…”
“Who knows; he’s a very advanced AI, there aren’t any others like him in the human sphere.”
Trist whistled. “Good thing I hadn’t implemented my plan to get past him.”
“Good thing indeed. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to offer you this deal.”
“Finally we get to it.”
“We’ll grant you and Sue immunity from extradition in the SolGov territories. Any past crimes committed in those areas, or against organizations based in SolGov controlled space will be pardoned. In exchange for that we require your testimony against Trent.”
Trist considered it for a moment. “Not going to be good enough. STR will come after us, or even if it doesn’t we’ll live our whole lives waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“Well, we can’t get you pardoned by the Jovians, they won’t budge. It’s possible they will once we nail the STR, though.”
“No, I’ll tell you what I’ll do it for. I want in.”
“In?” Tanis asked, though she was pretty sure that she knew what Trist wanted.
“Yeah, in. I want to be on the colony roster.”
Tanis raised an eyebrow, wondering how the GSS would feel if she circumvented them to get a known criminal onto the Intrepid.
“You do have decent credentials, but you really don’t pass a lot of the other screening parameters.”
Trist crossed her arms. “And I want my mods upgraded. I want a real eye with all of the extra performance and I want a normal-looking hand. Everything state of the art.”
Tanis leaned back and took a sip of her coffee. Stuff tasted like bile. “How much of you is still human?”
“Fifty-fifty, depending on what you count my new secret ingredient as,” Trist said. “Sue would, of course, like her specs upgraded as well. I’ve got the full requirements in a file that I’m sending you.”
Tanis received it and looked it over. It was quite the request, though honestly not even worth mentioning in the grand scope of the Intrepid’s construction, or even the cost of her more basic security enhancements.
“I’ll have to discuss your addition to the roster with the colony leaders. As for the mods, I’ll schedule the surgeries as a show of good faith.”
Trist all but beamed. “I’ll give you the testimony of a lifetime.”
“Just stick to the truth.” Tanis sighed.
CHAPTER 23
STELLAR DATE: 3227284 / 11.27.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: GSS Intrepid, Mars Outer Shipyards (MOS)
REGION: Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation
“I don’t know how much I like this plan.” Trist fidgeted. “I sort of get the feeling that I’m bait.”
“That would be because you are bait,” Tanis replied. “However, you’ll be very safe bait, especially since you are just their secondary target. They’ll be jumping at the chance to get at me with the minimal protection I’ll have on Mars 1.”
“Yay, so I’ll be secondary bait right next to the primary bait.” Trist sighed. “How did I get myself mixed up in this?”
“I believe it was by leading a life of crime and wrongdoing,” Joe’s tone was caustic.
Trist turned on him. “Yeah, you try growing up on the lower Callisto rings. Either you dish shit out, or you eat it. I chose not to do the eating.”
“She does have a point, sirs,” Williams said. “I’ve been to Callisto; it’s nice up top, the part most tourists and visitors see, but down below it’s a real heap—the classic scenario of the poor maintaining the system for the rich. They could probably run it cheaper with bots, but why fix what they can ignore?”
“Be that as it may.” Tanis checked over her equipment one more time. “It doesn’t change the fact that our course of action is fixed. We’re going to Mars 1 to give our depositions. We’ve got our route covered and while I expect that they’ll attack before we make our destination I don’t think it will be anything a few squads of Marines can’t handle. Mark my words, by the end of this day we’ll have Trent.”
Trist’s expression grew dark and Joe, Williams and Tanis all got a glimpse of a very different woman than the one she had seen recovering in medical.
“Any chance I can get a few minutes alone with him?”
“Probably not,” Tanis replied. “Though for what it’s worth, I echo your sentiment.”
“Don’t worry,” Trist turned her hand over and flexed her fingers. “I’m pretty sure I could remind him.” She glanced up at Tanis and Joe. “Sorry, I guess that sounds a bit stupid—but he did kill my best friend. I’m finding that pretty hard to let go of.”
Joe’s expression softened placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s not an easy road you have ahead of you.”
Trist’s expression flashed confusion and mistrust. “I was under the impression that you don’t think I’m all that trustworthy.”
“The jury’s still out on that as far as I’m concerned, but I do know what it’s like to literally have to face your demons,” Joe said. “Just keep a clear head and don’t get in the way.”
Trist opened her mouth to give a retort, but Williams used a Marine sergeant look on her and she shut up.
Tanis didn’t quite know why, but she found herself liking Trist more than she would have expected, and also a bit annoyed with Joe for his attitude toward her. Being in MICI had made her world mostly full of shades of grey. She sometimes forgot that his was likely much more black and white.
No time to think about that now, she put her analysis of Joe aside and got back to the task at hand. “Enough chatting, let’s get this show on the road.”
…………………………
Williams liked Major Richards, which is why he had assigned himself to the team which was her escort detail. One/one had also volunteered to be the escorting fireteam—apparently they had taken a liking to the major as well. He hadn’t often witnessed an officer impressing the enlisted so quickly; especially a Micky officer.
In his estimation it was a shame that she would be shipping out on the Intrepid. The TSF needed more people like her. Even her number two, Commander Evans, wasn’t a bad sort. He certainly had proven his bars in piloting that freighter.
However, Williams did have some misgivings about this venture. The major was walking into an obvious trap—planning to spring it in fact. The last time she deliberately sprung a trap she had ended up on a dock surrounded by nearly a hundred mercs all gunning for her.
His thought process caused him to recheck the route and ensure that all teams were in position. The rest of his platoon would be making a show of patrolling certain areas on the ring. The Mars 1 authorities had raised quite the stink when they caught wind of this venture, but they were brought to heel by the TSF. Preliminary Micky reports indicated M1 security would have their people out in force on the ring as well. Several pundits on the nets were postulating that M1 security didn’t want to garner the reputation the MOS had for shoddy security—or they wanted all the glory for themselves.
Probably both.
Looking at the intel that was coming in from the tactical net, Williams could see the positions Mars 1’s security had taken up; some were decent and others looked poor to say the least. Hopefully they wouldn’t get in the way too much. In his experience killing local cops always made the brass grumpy.
The team left the Intrepid and crossed the dock with no trouble. From there several tubes and a maglev took them to the connector elevator that ran down to the MCEE and then Mars 1. They secured a car and the eight of them rode down in silence, the only movement being the weapon ready checks which everyone except Trist made periodically.
The Mars 1 ring generated its gravity from centripetal force as it rotated around the planet at the geosynchronous orbital distance. As a result the side facing the planet was “up” and the side facing out into space was “down.” The ring’s top level sported a full ecosystem with hills, lakes, even a few oceans. It was larger than the all of Earth’s continents combined and it was also the location of the team’s ultimate destination: the federal courthouses.
Far below, at the lowest level of the Mars 1 ring, the elevator lock cycled open. After sending out probes, the team debarked in careful formation.
Jansen and Lang were in the lead, followed by Williams and Joe, then Tanis and Trist. Cassar and Murphy brought up the rear. The hard stares the Marines were casting cleared a path faster than the presence of their high-powered pulse rifles. Because the ring was not a pressurized system like a standard station, each member also carried a small slug thrower.
In the corridors the team moved through, the twenty-fourth century architecture was nearly something to stop and marvel at. The designers of the ring had added a twist of art deco to their creation. Unlike most stations, which were more utilitarian or very high-tech flashy, Mars 1 was built with an element of garishness. The sweeping archways and overt embellishments of every doorway drew the eye and amazed with the boundless attention to detail.
After clearing security, a process that simply involved a quick check of their ID’s and extensive scowling by the Marines, they entered a maglev station that took them seven thousand miles east around the ring.
“So far so good,” Joe murmured.
“Oh great…you had to say that,” Jansen said. “Er…sir.”
“Relax, Marine.” Williams scowled. “This won’t be anything we can’t handle, nothing worse than what we’ve seen before.”
“Aye Staff,” Jansen replied, taking a deep breath. “It’s the lack of activity…I wish they’d just attack already.”
“Don’t worry,” Tanis said. “You’ll get your wish. We’ve got to change trains ahead and I anticipate that to be their first probable ambush point. When we debark, stick close to the wall on the right and keep your eyes peeled. When we round the first corner, we may encounter some company.”
“You do have people there, right?” Trist asked Tanis. “And I really wish you’d give me a gun.”
“Yes. No.”
“She’d make a good sergeant,” Cassar said.
Williams smiled and Tanis took it as a compliment. Everyone rechecked their weapons as the maglev began to slow; sidearms were loosened in holsters and extra clips were moved into readily accessible positions.
The station was decidedly upscale with a broad atrium ringed by catwalks, a lavish fountain and a small food court on the far side. It looked empty, strange at this time of day, though nothing was flagged as hostile on the Marine’s systems.
“Let’s do this,” Tanis said and the escort began to move off the train.
Directly into a storm of particle beams.
“Fall back,” Williams shouted at Jansen and Lang who were out front while everyone else took protective positions inside the train. The two Marines jumped backwards and Joe and Williams pulled the doors shut.
“Injuries?” Williams calle
d out.
“No sir, armor appears to have absorbed it all,” Lang said. Jansen reported the same.
An explosion rocked the car and Tanis had a sinking feeling.
“Two on that catwalk above.” Williams called out. “Cassar, Murphy, get suppressing fire on those bastards. I see muzzle flash coming from that food stand at ten o’clock. Jansen, you and Lang move down one car and see if you can’t flank them. I’ll hold their attention.”
“Two more at three o’clock from around the fountain.” Tanis relayed information from Angela’s scan. “One/two is also advancing from where we thought the ambush would be, but they’re under fire as well.”
“Sounds like a party.” Joe took aim at the fountain, blowing off bits and pieces in an attempt to decrease its cover.
“Someone is not going to be happy that you are chewing apart their art.” Cassar said.
“What they get for putting a fountain in a train station.” Williams snorted.
“Time for me to use my new toy.” Tanis began to pull her light armor off. Underneath she wore the glossy black shimmersuit she had appropriated from the assassin, Kris. She issued the command and the suit flowed up over her head completely covering her.
“I feel like I’m suffocating every time it does that,” Tanis said.
“Good look on you though, sir.” Joe grinned from where he was taking cover.
Tanis slid two long blades into the covered sheaths on her arms and with a silent command to the suit, faded from view.