by M. D. Cooper
“Need to make sure I’m not booby trapped?” Jessica asked with a wink.
The colonel glanced at Jessica’s ample bosom. “Something like that.”
SUBVERSION
STELLAR DATE: 3241794 / 08.19.4163 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: GSS Intrepid, Deck 42 officer’s lounge
REGION: LHS 1565, 171 AU from stellar primary
“Do you think it’s wise for us to meet like this?” Hilda asked while casting furtive looks around the empty room.
“Of course,” her companion replied. “There is nothing strange about the two of us meeting in the open. We should behave as though we’ve formed a friendship. Officers of our rank meeting for drinks is nothing strange.”
Hilda nodded and forced herself to relax. “What did you want to discuss?”
Her companion leaned back and took a sip of whiskey. “It’s time for us to move beyond talking about stopping the Intrepid. We need to begin to take action.”
Hilda shook her head. “I don’t know how that is going to be possible. Colonel Richards has everything locked down tight. You should know that better than I.”
“I know how to get around her security—that should be obvious,” the other responded.
“I suppose you would,” Hilda smiled slowly. “I assume you have a plan?”
“I do. We’re going to need to get the first mate out of stasis for it to work. I’m going to need your help with that.”
“I can’t believe the colonel just shot him like that.” Hilda’s voice took on a bitter tone. “I’ve known Mick for a long time, the captain hand-picked the two of us for this trip. She could have reasoned with him.”
The other nodded. “Yes, but you know how she works. Shoot first, second, and third. Maybe ask questions later.”
Hilda snorted. “You can say that again. She’s like a cold machine—maybe that’s what happens when you have been altered as much as she has.”
“Who’s to say?” her companion shrugged. “Either way, we get Mick and then we’ll stop the ship, take it to civilized space and stop this research.”
The pair spoke softly for several minutes of the plan and how it would play out. A nano cloud shrouded their conversation, altering the sound-waves beyond to that of an innocuous conversation should anyone happen to listen in.
After Hilda left the other sat for several minutes, considering their next moves. Tanis was proving to be a larger complication than anticipated—though in retrospect that should not be a surprise. Removing Tanis was out of the question, she made the game much more interesting.
Who would have thought that so far from Sol there would be such an excellent opponent?
INTERLUDE
STELLAR DATE: 3241794 / 08.19.4163 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: GSS Intrepid, Security Operations Center (SOC)
REGION: LHS 1565, 153 AU from stellar primary
“That didn’t really get us anywhere,” Tanis said. “I don’t know if the fact that she was dumped on us by some fugitive makes her more or less likely to be a mole of some sort.”
“I think a legitimate mole would be harder to find. Consider Collins. There was nothing at all to clue us in about him—except that he was a total ass. I can’t imagine the same people did this hack job on Jessica. As soon as her record was accessed it threw up flags everywhere,” Terry replied while rubbing her temples.
Tanis nodded. “You have a point, but it could be a way to throw us off.”
“By making us more suspicious?” Ouri asked.
“Wheels within wheels…” Tanis sighed. “Well, I guess we’ll see what the docs and the psych AI have to say. If she’s clean, her unbiased, outside opinion could be really useful.”
The other two women nodded.
“I have some other news.” Terry flipped through some of the plas in front of her, finding a specific sheet. “There are a few folks in the colony roster that look a bit more suspicious now than they did before, but they’re all still in stasis.”
Tanis glanced through the records. All of the people listed had made more contact with Collins than would have been expected under normal conditions—though under normal conditions there wouldn’t have been anything suspicious about it.
“I guess we keep them on the ‘do not wake’ list for now, then—none look like they have skills we’d need right now anyway.”
Terry nodded. “Already done. I don’t have anything else at present.”
“I do have a few reports of a guy named Randall Erick causing some problems,” Ouri said. “He’s a drive engineer who got pulled out to help on the crews. He’s been posting plans on the board for how to get to Sirius and then back to Earth. He’s not exactly fomenting a mutiny, but he bears watching.”
Tanis looked through the man’s recent actions on the shipnets. “He has been a bit more vocal than you’d expect based on his past behaviors.”
“A lot of things can make a person react differently out here,” Terry commented. “Knowing that we’re essentially just drifting through space for a hundred years, counting on 58 Eridani to pull us in, is a bit unnerving.”
“No argument there,” Ouri said. “Most of us planned on simply going into stasis in one star system, and then coming to in another.”
Terry shrugged. “It doesn’t feel much different than being out past Eros. Out there Sol was just another star, not a lot brighter than it is from here.”
“I don’t know that it’s Sol, as much as the fact that there are no humans for light-years. Plus, with us heading between stars, no ship could boost out to us and then slow down without a star to loop around.” Ouri’s face was clouded with concern.
“I don’t think there’s that much to worry about,” Tanis said. “If we had to—and were willing to—use the colony supplies we could practically build a second starship.”
“We might have to.” Joe entered the SOC’s conference room and sat with the other security heads. “I’ve done some external visual inspections out there and its baaaaad.”
“I was getting that from following the engineering solutions boards,” Tanis said.
“Could we take the cruisers to New Eden if we had to?” Terry asked.
“Sure,” Joe nodded. “The cruisers could get there and brake around the star no problem, but they don’t have room for all the colonists.”
“I wonder what the GSS crew are thinking,” Amy said.
“Most of them expected to spend about 90 years in stasis with a few years helping build the space station and beanstalk for New Eden. Some of them must be starting to have second thoughts about this trip.”
“Interstellar travel isn’t exactly safe as houses,” Ouri replied. “Everyone knew when they signed up for the first re-usable colony ship that they might end up joining the colony.”
Terry nodded. “I have a few GSS crew on my team. They went through full colony screening even though they really aren’t signed up for it.”
“They’re certainly a group that will bear extra watching,” Tanis said as she brought up the meeting’s agenda. “I want to get the currently awake crew sorted out in two shifts. I have both Reddings after me now to thaw more engineers out and we can’t even vouch for the ones that are.”
The team dove into the logistics of wrapping up all of the crew assessments, deciding to bring additional AI help online and a few other crewmembers with investigative skills out of stasis.
The meeting wrapped up ten minutes later and Joe followed Tanis into her office.
“We haven’t had much time together since getting back.”
Tanis stopped and leaned against her desk. “Not a lot, no. Hard to believe we’re so busy when we have over a hundred years to drift our way through space.”
“Once we get the engineers all staffed up I imagine things will die down. Then maybe we can find a quiet corner of the ship again,” Joe winked at her conspiratorially.
Tanis smiled back. “I bet there are a lot of free cabins in the cylinders right
now. I think we’ve earned a bit of a sojourn.”
He gave her a quick kiss. “I have to jet, though. My boss wants all the weapons on the ship manually accounted for and that includes fighter load-outs.”
“I bet she can wait a bit longer for that,” Tanis said as she pulled Joe close.
Joe chuckled. “Maybe you don’t know her; she’s a real hard-ass. She doesn’t like it when things aren’t done on her schedule.”
Tanis gave Joe a long kiss as she ran her hands down his back. “What a task master. Doesn’t she know you’re a hero? You need to be rewarded.”
Joe snorted back a laugh.
“What?” Tanis asked.
“Nothing, you just went a bit off the rails on that one. Not your best work there.”
Tanis folded her arms and gave her best scowl. “She doesn’t like to be antagonized, I thought you knew that.”
“Sorry, boss-lady. I’ll be less antagonistic next time.” Joe ran a hand down her face. “But I really do have to go, I only have two fly-boys out of stasis and they’re already down there counting rounds. I need to join them.”
Tanis nodded. “Off with you then, say hi to Jens and Aaron for me.”
“Will do,” Joe said as he dashed out of the office.
Tanis linked to the psych AI that was examining Jessica.
Tanis detected some hesitation in the AI’s mental tone.
Tanis smiled grimly. She knew that the TBI had a habit of cultivating overly eccentric and aggressive behavior in some of its agents. Such agents could be used for dirty work and then discarded if things didn’t go well.
The TSF had done a similar thing with Tanis, after all.
Tanis closed the connection with the AI and leaned back in her chair. Being in the chair, in the SOC again, felt like failure. She should have been done with protecting the Intrepid from threats, she should be sleeping off the rest of the trip to New Eden.
Tanis snorted. “You know me too well, old friend. But you should also know that I won’t absolve myself of the oversights that led us to this point.”
“At least that makes one of us.”
NEW ORDER
STELLAR DATE: 3241800 / 08.25.4163 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: GSS Intrepid, Officer’s Mess
REGION: LHS 1565, 171 AU from stellar primary
Tanis sat in the officers’ mess with her team leads, which now included a newly minted Second Lieutenant Jessica. Despite the fresh set of eyes, they had made little progress in their investigation; all personnel had either come up clean, or close enough as to make no difference.
“Dead ends all around,” Trist said as she picked through a salad. “I don’t see signs of tampering in anyone’s records. Nothing that my routines can pick up, anyway.”
Amy nodded. “I haven’t found anything with my team either. We’ve been locking down the weapons stores and so far everything is exactly where it’s supposed to be.”
I’ve found a few small data errors, when comparing current information to the crystal backups we had at departure. I’ve traced them all to Collins, which I think is fortunate,” Terry added.
Tanis took a bite of her BLT and chewed thoughtfully. “It has been only a week. On the MOS we often went months with nothing.”
“So if there are any malefactors on the ship, then they only have twelve hundred months to choose from before we get to New Eden,” Joe’s mouth had a wry twist. “We’re going to run ourselves ragged attempting to anticipate threats for that long.”
“Not a bad tactic,” Ouri said.
“You need to figure out how to bring out any sleepers who may still exist on the ship,” Jessica said. “Like Joe says, looking under every rock will just reveal smaller rocks.”
“Or there’s no one else,” Amy said. “I mean, who would stay on the ship after Collins aimed it at a star? I think maybe we’re free and clear.”
Tanis cast an appraising eye at Amy. Her attitude seemed overly nonchalant considering what the Intrepid had been through. If anything, they should be more suspicious than ever.
“Believe you me, girl, something is still rotten in the state of Denmark,” Trist said. “Sue and I have been analyzing the attack patterns the RAI used when it had control of node eleven, as well as some of the data from the fights with servitors and security drones. From what we can tell it was too easy.”
“Too easy?” Ouri’s eyebrows rose. “I watched people die in those attacks.”
Trist raised her hands. “I didn’t say it was a cake-walk, but it was easier than it could have been.”
“I know.” Tanis nodded. “Its tactics were weak. Any one of use could have done better. The RAI should have assaulted the command deck with everything it had and destroyed key stasis chambers. But it did none of those things.”
“Maybe it didn’t have the access,” Amy suggested.
“It did,” Terry disagreed. “With Amanda in its thrall it had the power to get into any system it needed. It also had whatever net access and nano-control it wanted.”
“It should have crushed us,” Trist said.
No one spoke for several moments as the statement sunk in. If the RAI threw them a softball, then there was a chance that Collins wasn’t behind it, but someone wanted them to think he was.
Jessica suddenly laughed.
“It’s Myrrdan! He was on the MOS when you were building the ship. I always assumed that maybe he dumped me on it because he wanted me out of the picture, but respected me as a foe or something.”
“Is that some sort of ‘honor amongst enemies’ thing?” Amy asked.
Jessica ignored her and carried on. “The thing is…that doesn’t fit his M.O. He’s not like that. For him it’s all in the game. He dumped me here because he wanted to keep playing with me. He’s here on the Intrepid.”
Tanis raised an eyebrow. “That seems like a bit of a stretch.”
“I don’t know,” Trist said. “The data model makes sense. He didn’t want the Intrepid to fall into the star, because he’s still here. But why? Is it some new challenge to mess with a colony ship, or does he actually want to get out to a colony?”
“It sure is a lot of effort either way,” Amy shook her head. “Who would want to spend hundreds of years to mess with a ship of colonists?”
Joe and Tanis gave each other sidelong glances. They knew what it was that could interest a person like Myrrdan: the picotech.
Tanis looked away and noticed that Amy was giving her a funny look. Ever since her abduction by Collins the former Marine seemed cooler than ever. Tanis wondered if she felt guilt at being caught off-guard. If there was some sort of mental trauma at play perhaps a psych AI should talk to her.
“I think we need to take a look at the passes,” Jessica said. “Some of those folks were just too clean. Everyone has something that they’d rather not talk about—some blemish on their record. Too many of the folks on your original list came up without so much as a late roll call. Myrrdan will be hiding in the best place—we just have to figure out what that best place is.”
“We did recruit the cream of the crop,” Ouri said. “Our roster is filled with exemplary people.”
“Speak for yourself.” Trist smirked. “But robo-doll-cop here does have a point. There are a lot of super-squeaky clean folks here. Makes me uncomfortable.”
“I wish you’d stop calling me that.” Jessica’s face contorted into a sulk that didn’t fit her manufactured sexuality.
“It’s what you get for turning yourself into the obvious incarnation of the naughty police officer.” Trist moved her hands in a curvaceous pattern. “Not that I’m complaining.”
Jessica cast Trist an appraising look and Tanis sighed inwardly.
“Easy there, Jessica, no fraternizing with your teammates.” Joe grinned.
Ouri coughed and nearly spat out her coffee.
“Don’t play that game with me.” Jessica leaned on the table, locking eyes with the commander. “Your fearless leader is more modified than I am by a long shot; she just hides it in a standard-looking package.”
“You haven’t seen the colonel in just her flow-armor then.” Trist threw Tanis a wink.
“Dear god,” Tanis murmured as she put her head in her hands. Jessica certainly seemed to bring out the lascivious behavior in the group. “None of us here are natural humans. Even Ouri, arguably the least modified among us, is nowhere near vanilla. We’ve all added hardware and tweaked the genes in our favor.”
Joe snorted. “I didn’t know Trist still had genes. I thought she was made out of green jelly now.”
“That’s Miss Green Jelly to you, mortal.” Trist grinned.
“No hard feelings, Jessica.” Trist clapped the former TBI agent on the shoulder. “We’re just blowing off a bit of steam—not too often that we’re stymied.”
Jessica flashed a smile. “No problem. I might have to go back under the knife myself. These hips weren’t made for bearing colony brats.”
“No? Were they made for bearing Terran men?” Trist snorted and she laughed at her own joke. Jessica threw a carrot stick at her.