by M. D. Cooper
A walk-in clinic could solve his weight issue in a day, which meant he actually wanted to be as large as he was. Jessica couldn’t figure out what that said about him, but it certainly was well outside of normal.
“Hello, I’m agent Keller and this is Agent Angharad,” Jessica offered both introductions and her hand.
The man leaned back and folded his arms behind his head.
“What can I do for the TBI today?”
Jessica smiled, the man wanted to do the information dance. She was more than happy to oblige him. In her experience suspects gave away more than they held back when they tried to be evasive.
“We just thought perhaps you were lonely and wanted some company. Cruithne is sometimes an unwelcoming station,” she replied.
“Lonely on Cruithne?” The captain laughed and Jessica had to force herself not to stare at how his flesh rippled. “There is more company here than anywhere in Sol. I don’t think I’d need to stoop to the TBI for that.”
“What about in the black? What sort of company do you keep then?” Jessica asked.
“The crew and I play a lot of cards; I’m sure you have played a hand of poker around a commissary table in your day.”
“I imagine you take passengers from time to time, I noticed you have more berths than it would take to crew this ship. I imagine they must entertain as well.” Jessica filed away his use of the word commissary. Civilians usually called them mess halls or break rooms.
“We have,” the captain nodded. “It’s a nice bonus for the crew to fleece a few passengers in a game.”
“Did you take any crew this past trip? I see you came in from High Terra just a day ago.”
The captain’s face fell, lined with sadness. “Unfortunately we did not. I wish we had as the cargo didn’t earn us quite what we’d hoped.”
“I’m sure you wouldn’t mind showing me your manifests so that I may verify this and note it in my report.”
Now they were getting to it, this is where excuses would be made and the warrant would have to be used. His reactions would likely tell her everything she needed to know.
“Now, Agent Keller, that is not something I like to give out to authorities. A lot of my customers prefer discretion, it’s why they ship with me.”
“I can imagine. Based on the dock master’s records, you have hardly unloaded any cargo and none of your crew have gone on-station yet.”
The captain nodded as she spoke.
Jessica continued. “Yet when I walked through your cargo holds I couldn’t help but notice a lot of fresh scuff-marks from crates and other cargo. A cleaning servitor was also exiting a berth that appeared to be unused. It would seem to me that you have not reported all of your activities. Now provide me with your full manifests.”
The captain grumbled and leaned over his desk. He began assembling the data on a sheet of plas. Jessica expected it to be entirely falsified and when the captain completed the document she sat across from him to examine it.
“This seems to back up what you’re telling me, Mr. Swenson, but it doesn’t match the facts at hand.” Jessica locked eyes with the man and saw worry creep into his.
She wasn’t surprised. From what she could gather about the way things ran on Cruithne the law didn’t dig any deeper than it had to. If a manifest was needed, it was provided and accepted. So long as all of the right people were suitably compensated.
From the way Angharad shifted behind her, Jessica wondered if she was one of the compensatees.
“You see, I know how much fuel you took on before you left High Terra and your vector and boost are on record. I also know what your fuel situation was like when you arrived on Cruithne. This manifest”—she waved the plas in front of him—“doesn’t match up.”
“Your calculations are off, maybe you need a lesson in space travel.” The captain was blustering now, unprepared to have to defend himself further. She saw his eyes dart to Angharad expectantly.
Jessica’s voice rose in volume as she spoke and by the end she was standing with hands on the captain’s desk. She leaned over, her face inches from his.
“I do not need a lesson, certainly not from you. You forget that High Terra makes its mass compensation data available to the TBI. We know how much your ship weighed when you left, and I was able to request the tether load data when you docked here. I know what your ship weighed when you arrived. I also got the mass compensation data for right now and I know you transferred more cargo than you have on this manifest.”
“Now give me the real manifest!” she yelled.
There was a moment of silence, the captain appeared shocked before an expression of smugness fell over him, and Jessica felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Agent Keller, it is time for us to leave, you have what you came for,” Angharad said quietly.
Jessica turned to the TBI AI.
“Why am I not surprised? I figured you for dirty from the get-go. I have a warrant and I intend to execute it. I will search this ship’s computers until I find out precisely who was here and what they brought onboard.”
The AI’s face was impassive. “You will not. You will leave this ship with me now and file your report with the manifest you have.” The security drones shifted to either side of her, flanking Jessica. “If you do not, you will find yourself returned to High Terra in a most unconventional manner.”
Jessica looked back at the smiling captain and snatched the plas from his desk. “Very well, let’s go.”
Jessica’s mind raced as she tried to think of a way to stop Angharad. She tried Net access only to find it was blocked; a call for help would go nowhere—not that Jessica thought anyone would answer. The AI and her drones would be hardened to EMP and a pulse rifle would not disable them quickly enough. Her options were decidedly limited.
Her mind raced and she took a deep breath to calm herself. There had to be a way out of this. If she didn’t get the real manifest from this captain she would have to go back to High Terra empty handed.
It was no easy task. Even without her two security drones, Angharad would be nearly impossible to defeat. The small voice of rationality in Jessica’s mind screamed that she was a fool to consider confrontation with the AI.
She thought through the route back to the station. There was a narrow hatch where they would have to file through one at a time. Jessica determined to make her move there.
As they approached the hatch, one of the drones moved ahead of Jessica and passed through first. She followed it through and in a swift motion dove to the right of the corridor and swatted the drone into the bulkhead. Her armor’s power assist gave her the strength to seriously damage the drone and embed it into the side of the corridor.
The next drone was racing through the hatch as Jessica dropped to the deck and fired three shots from her ballistic sidearm into the drone. It fell in a shower of sparks and Jessica pointed her weapon at the portal.
Angharad was there with a pulse rifle drawn. Jessica and the AI stared at each other in silence before Jessica spoke.
“I’d lower that if you know what is good for you.”
“That is good advice,” Angharad replied. “Your handgun can’t stop me like it did those drones.”
“And your pulse rifle isn’t going to get through my armor any time soon.”
“The crew will be here any second, surrender.”
Jessica didn’t move for a moment, but then lowered her weapon.
“Very well, we’ll do this your way.”
Angharad gestured with her rifle and Jessica began to rise. She twisted to get an arm underneath herself and quickly kicked out a leg. A hidden compartment on her shin slid open and a plasma wand shot out.
The wand flew through the air and caught a startled Angharad under the chin, embedding itself to the hilt. Jessica reached for her sidearm and fired several shots into the AI’s head—blowing it off in a shower of sparks.
AI didn’t keep their brains in their heads, so it was not a fatal wound, bu
t it did cause the construct to topple over. Jessica grabbed Angharad’s pulse rifle and fired several shots into her exposed neck. The AI’s body convulsed for a moment before falling still.
Jessica scanned the corridor. The sound of footsteps came from the ship’s entrance, likely the hulk coming to finish what Angharad had failed to do.
She quickly stood and tore open the side of the drone embedded in the wall. Sure enough there were several small concussive stun grenades in a launcher. She grabbed two and lobbed them down the corridor as the man came into view.
The grenades worked as advertised and he went down in a heap. Jessica turned and raced back toward the captain’s quarters, reloading her sidearm on the way.
The expression on the captain’s face was priceless as she used another of the grenades to disable his door-lock before crashing through.
“Now, where were we?” Jessica asked.
The captain’s bluster was gone and within minutes she had the real manifests. There was a veritable treasure-trove of illegal cargo, but no Myrrdan, not even cargo that could have concealed Myrrdan.
Cruithne was a dead-end.
She had the captain order the crew to quarters and walked him to the dock, half as a prisoner, half as a human shield.
Captain Clyde was waiting for her.
“You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that,” the captain said with a hint of a smile on her face. “Folks don’t usually ruffle feathers like this on their first day.”
“What can I say?” Jessica said. “I didn’t like the way he looked at my breasts.”
A ghost of a smile played at the edges of Clyde’s mouth. “Hand him over to us, and a copy of whatever evidence you have. We’ll see that he’s dealt with.”
Jessica wondered if he’d be dealt with for his crimes or his failure to keep control.
“What’s left of Angharad is also on the ship. You’ll want to clean that up and send her back to High Terra.”
Clyde’s eyes widened. “Really? She’s one tough customer, but it means your time on Cruithne is over.”
Jessica had suspected as much. Angharad had to be connected at the highest levels. Whoever she reported to would not be happy and would be quite unwelcoming. Clyde must be beholden to someone else—or maybe really be an honest cop on Cruithne.
“No problem. Any ships headed to Mars?”
CHASING MYRRDAN
STELLAR DATE: 3227239 / 10.26.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Mars Outer Shipyards (MOS)
REGION: Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation
Jessica was developing a strong distaste for space travel. Before this assignment the furthest she had been for work was Luna with a couple of vacations on Venus.
Those trips had been on commercial liners with all the comforts of home. Her precipitous exit from Cruithne had put her on a scow without any passenger amenities and a distinctly limited supply of sexual partners.
Customs was a brief affair. Mars, though it had a semi-autonomous military and security forces from Terra, was more than willing to cooperate with the TBI and its agents. Jessica was on a maglev within half an hour of arriving on the Mars1 ring.
She couldn’t help but admit that there was a certain charm to the Mars1 ring that wasn’t immediately apparent on the vids. The passage outside her train was a large, vaulted corridor featuring art-deco accents. She had never seen anything like it on High Terra with its function over form styling.
The rivalry between High Terra and Mars1 had been going on for centuries. Mars1 was the original planetary ring, but High Terra claimed superiority in all areas. The two rings competed in every way from design to political clout to sporting events.
The maglev rose up to the top level of the ring and she was amazed at how much open space the ring had. High Terra was more urban than not, while Mars 1 was almost entirely parkland. From what she could see there were raw wildernesses on the ring.
The maglev continued to rise above the surface of the ring and the train accelerated to over a thousand kilometers an hour before giving a slight jolt as it flew out into open space. The local web indicated that the train would accelerate toward Mars and skirt the exosphere before using its own velocity to escape and arch toward the far side of the ring. It was a bit disconcerting to essentially be in a train floating through space, but it did shave over twenty-thousand kilometers off the trip.
Jessica spent the trip alternating between dozing and reviewing her leads on Myrrdan.
During the trip to Mars she had learned that Myrrdan had been spotted on the Mars1 ring and later on the Mars Central Elevator Exchange. A contact in Mars Intelligence had placed Myrrdan there via a tap on communications in and out of a front that sold false identities.
Mars Intelligence had managed to work out a common signature the identities used and had tried to track their use but were stymied when the IDs started popping up in use all over the MCEE and Mars1.
If Myrrdan had secured one or more of the IDs he was covered by a seemingly random pattern of use. At least random to Mars Intel.
Jessica had been after him for over a year and was beginning to get a feel for his games. He could only feint so many times before the feints showed the true action rather than hiding it. Suspects always gave away more information when they got clever in their attempts to be elusive.
The pattern here was the same as the one she had followed on High Terra. That time it led her to Jameson and a dead end. The same patterns were at play here—but this time she could see the dead ends for what they were.
If her hunch was correct he was headed to the Mars Outer Shipyards and now so was she.
The maglev train would intercept one of the elevators that rose up from Mars1 to the MCEE and from there she could catch another train that would take her up the stalk to the Mars Outer Shipyards.
Other than some amazing views, the trip was uneventful—though when she stepped out onto the station platform she was surprised about the level of security on the MOS. What was more interesting was that, in addition to station security, she saw a few MSF and even TSF uniforms.
A quick scan of local news sources informed her of the colony ship Intrepid and its various security issues. Jessica found herself wondering if perhaps Myrrdan was trying to sneak aboard the colony ship, or if it was coincidence.
It would be the easy conclusion, but with the colony ship being constructed, there were hundreds of freighters at the shipyard at any time, not to mention several TSF frigates under construction at the far end of the shipyard.
Jessica decided to head for the stationmaster’s offices to see if she could get direct access to the records for the ships under construction to see if anything stood out.
Getting directions on the local net she discovered that she was roughly a hundred kilometers from the stationmaster’s offices—which was more of a complex than an office. She managed to wedge herself into a crowded connecting train, glad that she had decided to send her armor directly to her lodgings.
As the train accelerated and gently jostled its passengers, Jessica felt a sharp prick in her left shoulder. Reaching up to rub it she couldn’t help but gasp as her eyes locked with what had to be her quarry.
Myrrdan!
The time it took the woman standing over Jessica to respond seemed like an eternity. There didn’t seem to be a connection to the broader shipnet, but the localnet had an identifier and a date. She was on the Intrepid, likely many light years from Sol.
“Yes it is.” The woman’s expression appeared compassionate; she seemed to expect confusion.
Jessica’s subconscious took in the fact that the woman standing over her wore a TSF uniform and the insignia of a lieutenant colonel, but where there should be a TSF badge, there was an icon which have represented the Intrepid. She looked young, but had an air of command about her that said she had earned that rank the hard way.
Her conscious mind, on the other hand, was roiling with the knowledge that she was on a one way trip to
a colony she never wanted to see—her career, her life, everything she had worked so hard for was gone.
All because of one man.
She realized the woman had started speaking.
“I’m Lieutenant Colonel Richards, we’re not yet at the colony as we’ve had some problems. We were looking for people with specific skill-sets and your name came up. However, there’s some issues with the data regarding how you got approved for the colony roster—so finding you raised questions, not answers. Can you help shed any light on this?”
“Myrrdan,” Jessica muttered softly.
The woman raised a hand to her chin, looking thoughtful. “I recall hearing something about a terrorist on High Terra by that name.”
Jessica sighed. “That’s the one. I was on the team attempting to apprehend him. I followed him to the MOS, but he got the drop on me while I was hunting him down. Next thing I know I’m staring at you.”
The colonel seemed nonplussed, but she did lean back and give Jessica an appraising look. Jessica took the time to slow her breathing and force her mind to calm.
“You don’t think you guys could just pull over and let me out do you?” Jessica asked.
The other woman laughed. “I don’t know if that would make my day simpler or a heck of a lot more difficult. The question on my mind, however, is before you were stashed on this ship in a stasis-pod, were you any good at your job?”
“Before I got stashed in this pod I would have said yes. My record is damn good, though you’ll have to take my word for it—unless you brought along a lot of databases a colony ship would never need.”
“I still have data about all personnel on the MOS while we were docked there, so I have a summary of your record. It says you were good, but there are a few annotations here and there.”
Jessica chuckled, “I imagine there are, most of them are probably even true.”
“I’m going to take you to the hospital get you all checked out—give you the opportunity to talk to someone about what happened to you and then we’ll see what shakes out.”