by M. D. Cooper
Markus nodded as the overseer left his office.
Now Steven was a problem.
In every way that Luther was distracted and unconcerned with details, Steven was obsessed with minutia and strict adherence to procedure.
The overseer’s assistant was new to the position, and obviously working to prove his worth. Unfortunately, he did that through pointing out Markus’s failures and questioning all of the platform administrator’s decisions.
He wasn’t the first sycophant Markus had endured, but he would very likely be the last.
Once he heard Luther pass through the outer office he called James on the comm.
“Boss?”
“Sorry for hollering at you,” Markus said. “Luther was doing that thing he does when he wants to act like he cares about what goes on here. Usually, if I yell at someone it makes him feel like stuff is being done. You happened to be handy.”
James chuckled on the other end of the line. “I’ve done that myself, when he does one of his bi-annual visits to the yards.”
“So long as you don’t try to pull it on me, we’ll be fine.”
“You? Never.” Markus could all but see James’s grin on the other end of the comm.
Markus chuckled. “Of course not. Speaking of visits, I’ll be by later this afternoon to review the shipments with you.”
“You bet, I’ll probably be out in the east yard.”
Markus closed the connection. James had given the signal that an anticipated shipment of volatiles and tech had arrived, and had passed all checks undetected. Markus would inspect them this afternoon, but they would be nowhere near the east yard.
With a long sigh he rose from his chair and locked his terminals. He was starting to feel his years; all the subterfuge needed to pull off his plan had made for a marked reduction in sleep. It had been weeks since he’d had a full night’s rest.
Every day was filled with more to do than the last. Thus far, the Endeavor he’d embarked on seven months ago remained secret, but it was the hardest work he’d ever undertaken.
It would only continue to do well if he got some food—saving his people was not work to be accomplished on an empty stomach.
He nodded to Agnes as he walked through the outer office and into the hall. The administrative wing was always a bustling hive. The business of a mining platform never stopped. Now, with the upgrades underway it was doubly so.
Temporary desks filled every available space, and plas sheets covered every one of them. Holos and 2D displays tracked progress and monitored critical systems.
Markus nodded to his people, and, as he turned toward the cafeteria, he spotted just the person he didn’t want to see, Steven.
“Administrator Markus, just who I was looking for,” the diminutive Lumin called from down the hall.
Markus sighed, he’d been seen, there would be no escape.
“Adjunct Steven, what can I help you with today?”
If there was one thing that Markus liked about Steven it was that he stood on ceremony and formality without fail. As a result, he was never derisive toward Markus or his people. He may have treated them all like his own personal servants, but at least he was formal and polite about it.
“I wanted to discuss the work being done to harness asteroid P30987. It’s behind schedule and we’re losing money by the hour.”
Markus nodded and continued walking out of the administrative wing into the corridor that led to the cafeteria and upper shops.
“The initial schedule is off, yes, but our overall timeframe is still in place.”
“I don’t follow,” Steven replied. “P30987 should have been harnessed in the reaping yard by now but you have it holding a hundred kilometers west of the station.”
“You do realize that we’re in the midst of outfitting the reaping yard with new MDCs?” Markus worked to keep his annoyance to himself.
Steven flipped through the sheets of plas he carried. Finally finding the right one he nodded his agreement. “I do, but it shows that the yard should still be fifty-percent operational and you could be pulling that rock apart.”
“We could,” Markus agreed. “But pulling something the size of that rock, as you put it, apart and sorting the materials would create a hazard for the upgrade crews and slow both projects down. Once the new MDCs are in place we’ll be able to carve the asteroid up twice as fast and utilize the new sorters that we have installed. We’ll actually be several days ahead of schedule, but I didn’t want to get too aggressive in the projections.”
Steven frowned and sorted his plas. “I suppose that makes sense. I’m sure you know how important it is that we don’t slow in our production during these upgrades.”
Markus knew because he was the one that crafted the proposal, but he refrained from reminding Steven of that fact.
“I do, I am certain we will continue to meet our schedule.”
"And what of the cargo you are holding in the east yard?"
The question was innocent and spoken with no hint of subterfuge, but Markus felt a cold sweat building on his brow.
"You'll have to be more specific," Markus replied blandly. "We are holding a lot in the east yard these days."
Stevens cast a sidelong look at Markus. "Yes, I suppose you are. I was curious about the shipment that came in today from the Polaris manufacturing platform. I was certain you had routed some of the cargo to the east yard."
Markus grunted in response. "Unless I'm mistaken, all that cargo ended up in the north and under yards."
Steven glanced at his plas. "Hmmm... so it did."
"We have a problem," Markus said as he squeezed onto a stool in the crowded bar.
James took a long pull from his beer. "How is that news? We always have a problem of some sort."
"This is a little problem," Markus replied.
James's shoulders slumped. "I guess it was just a matter of time."
Markus nodded. It was a foregone conclusion that a Lumin would eventually discover what they were doing. Sarah had insisted on a contingency plan to deal with any errant Lumins at one of their first meetings.
"Who is it?" James asked.
"Our little friend in high places."
James grunted, "I'm not surprised, the little prick always has his nose in everything. He was bound to pick up a thread sooner or later."
"Well, it's sooner," Markus said.
"When should I enact the scenario?" James asked.
"Do it tomorrow. Luther will be off-station and Steven will be guaranteed to respond."
"You got it, boss. Tomorrow. I have it on good authority that Steven likes to sleep in Luther’s quarters when he's away."
“Any other whispers reach your ears?” Markus asked. “I can’t imagine Steven picked up on anything himself, we must have had a leak.”
“To my knowledge we’ve identified all the Lumin informants and have fed them what we wanted them to know,” James replied.
“Either we missed someone or we have a traitor in our midst.”
James nodded slowly. “I’ll get Sarah on it.”
ACCEPTABLE LOSS
STELLAR DATE: 3246713 / 02.05.4177 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Mining Platform SK87
REGION: Noctilucent Space, Sirian Hegemony
In the middle of the third shift, a warning klaxon sounded, breaking the relative silence of the station's night. The alert network picked up the warning signal and emergency crews assembled to respond.
There was a reactor leak on a tug working in the east yard.
The pilot reported to the overwatch night crew that he had attempted to power down the reactor, but it wasn't responding.
"Have you tried the emergency overrides?" the comm operator in overwatch asked.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" the operator's voice screeched out of the speakers in overwatch. "Do you think I got this job yesterday? Of course I tried the overrides. There's nothing I can do; this sucker is going to blow!"
Markus
stumbled into the room, rubbing his eyes.
"Situation?"
"We have a tug stuck in the east yard with a reactor leak. It was moving some equipment to another net to make room for an inbound shipment and it’s tangled in it now. I don't know how we'll get it out of there.”.”
"Who is in there and who do we have nearby?" Markus asked.
"Huan is in the leaking tug. Irek is working the other side of the yard, should I call him over?"
Markus nodded. "Yes, see if he can get Huan out of the nets and kick him away from the station. We can get a rescue craft in position to extract him from the tug."
Platform tugs didn't have escape pods or room for EVA Suits. The Lumins had done the math and determined that hauling around that extra equipment around—not to mention inspecting it—was too expensive and not worth the cost.
Tug operators were expendable.
Markus picked up a headset and spoke calmly, "Huan, we're going to get you out of there. Irek is coming over to pull your tug free and kick it to meet a rescue shuttle. You'll be at the bar joking about this in no time."
"Gods I hope so, boss, I don't fancy being here when things heat up."
"You won't be, don't worry."
Time slowed to a crawl as Irek secured the cargo he was moving and boosted his tug across the yard. It only took ten minutes, but felt like forever as the second tug worked its way through the acres of nets. The east yard was all but overflowing with ore from a smaller asteroid that had been recently pulled apart. The freighter scheduled to make the pickup had been delayed, and an inbound shipment had turned the yard into gridlock.
Eventually Irek's tug reached Huan's and the two large manipulator arms began to untangle the incapacitated tug from the nets around it.
"How you doing, Huan," Markus asked.
"Anxious for that beer. Things are getting toasty in here and the Geiger counter is ticking a bit too fast for my liking."
"Don't worry, Irek just about has you free and the rescue shuttle is in position to catch you."
Markus wiped his brow. He sure hoped the shuttle could make the catch, with the yard so full they were a quarter mile out, adjacent to the Lumin section of the platform.
Irek signaled overwatch that Huan's tug was free and that he was ready to kick it out. Markus nodded to the comm operator and an affirmation was sent.
Irek boosted out of the yard, pushing Huan's ship. Five seconds later, he cut thrust and let go of the other tug. The overwatch holo tracked the trajectory and predicted the rescue shuttle making a good catch.
An agonizing three minutes later, it did.
"This is rescue shuttle Bravo Echo; we have the tug in our grapple, preparing to collect the pilot."
"Make it happen," Markus spoke into his mic.
The shuttle extended a docking umbilical to the tug.
"C’mon, make that seal, we're out of time," Huan's frantic voice came over the comm.
The group assembled in overwatch looked nervously at one another. If the tug blew now, it would certainly destroy the rescue shuttle and a part of the station. The seconds ticked by with excruciating lethargy.
Finally, the call came. "We have him aboard; we are kicking the tug out."
Cheers erupted in overwatch.
Markus held his breath. A lot could still go wrong.
The shuttle's grapple swung around and set the tug on a course away from the platform and it’s shipping lanes. At the last moment a part of the grapple caught on a piece of netting that Irek had cut off and left hooked to the tug.
For an agonizing twelve seconds it held and the two ships began to rotate around each other, then, the netting broke and the rescue shuttle spun away. It arched over the platform, toward the north yard, while the tug rotated slowly, drifting closer the platform.
"Oh shit, it's going to hit us!" the comm operator shouted, hitting the general alarm.
Markus gritted his teeth. This was the part of the plan he hated the most, harming the station.
The overwatch radiation detectors jumped, heralding the orange blossom that appeared outside the windows moments later as the tug bloomed into nuclear fire.
Most of the wreckage flew away into open space, but some arched down toward the station tearing through cargo in the east yard. Other sections smashed into the station.
Markus held his breath. All of this would be for nothing if the wreckage did not disperse as planned.
"Its heading toward the Lumins!" someone in the room called out.
He let out a soft sigh of relief. It was going to hit.
Moments later the station overseer's quarters were destroyed.
SPY
STELLAR DATE: 3246715 / 02.07.4177 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Mining Platform SK87
REGION: Noctilucent Space, Sirian Hegemony
The rebellion’s leadership no longer met in waste treatment pump room IV. So many ranking personnel going into the bowels of the platform with great frequency would stand out and questions would be asked.
Instead Markus hid in plain sight. They met in his main conference room under the guise of holding planning sessions for the platform’s upgrades. In most cases they were working on those upgrades, just not in the way the Lumins thought.
Privacy was guaranteed by holding the meetings during the third shift. No Lumin would stay up that late just to have a meeting with their lessers.
“I tell you, there can’t be anyone unless it’s one of us,” Sarah sat back, exasperation filling her voice and expression.
Markus looked around the table at the heads of the rebellion. James was above reproach, especially because he was the one who had orchestrated Steven’s accident. Sarah was even less likely. Her unbridled hatred of the shorts would make it impossible to believe she would betray the group.
Though, that’s just what would make her the best spy, came a thought in the back of Markus’s mind. He dismissed it. Nothing good would come of that thinking.
He couldn’t see Samantha or Aaron as Lumin informants either. They had worked tirelessly toward the platform’s eventual freedom. He knew they had sacrificed much to get this far.
His eyes slid across several other members of his inner circle, Peter, Dmitry, and Xenia, until they landed on Yolanda. She had joined their quiet rebellion five months ago after a transfer from platform SK45. She was efficient in every way and functioned as an excellent runner, as her work often took her to other platforms.
It also gave her ample opportunity to communicate with the Lumins with no witnesses.
Her eyes locked with Markus’s and for a moment he thought he saw something he recognized from somewhere else. A moment later it was gone and he let out a long sigh.
“Put out your feelers, but don’t let everyone know that we suspect a leak. If the general populace finds out they’ll all suspect their neighbors and that’s all but a guarantee for some uncontrolled event to occur.”
They spoke of several other matters, and soon dispersed to get what rest they could before the following day arrived. Markus watched them file out as his thoughts wandered, wondering who could be leaking information to the shorts; who would want to.
It wasn’t as though there weren’t those amongst his people who would sell their neighbor to their oppressors for a meager reward, but he was certain they were all fed false information.
Their sort had been easy enough to identify. The malcontents who believed they were owed something were the first on the list. They were the least risky, as they usually were given access to smaller secrets.
The other likely group were the ones who craved power, but did not have it. They were marked by their ambition and their constant striving to rise in the ranks whether they had earned it or not.
Markus poured over names in his mind, coming up with no one, as none stood out. He refused to suspect everyone, that way led to madness.
He started as a hand touched his shoulder and looked up to see Yolanda standing beside him.
> Markus chuckled. “Forgive me, I thought I was alone.”
Yolanda sat down and Markus couldn’t help but admire her lithe figure. Even through the drab, shapeless Noctus clothing, he could see she had an attractive body. Every move appeared deliberate and sensual, highlighting the curve of her hips and breasts.
He blinked and refocused his thoughts, there was no chance a beautiful woman in her prime would be interested in an aging specimen such as himself.
“Yes, you were alone, I slipped back in after the others were gone,” she replied.
Markus felt his pulse quicken. Was she here because she had feelings for him? He took a deep breath; if she weren’t present he’d slap himself for such foolishness. She must know something she didn’t want to share with the rest of the leadership.
“What is it?”
Her deep green eyes locked with his. “I know who the spy is.”
He felt even more foolish for thinking she was there because she was interested in him.
“Who is it?” He asked softly.
Yolanda lowered her head into her hands; her hair slipped forward and obscured her face.
“Please understand.” She raised her head and brushed her hair back from her face. “It is me.”
Markus’ breath caught. Yolanda’s face was subtly different, not so much that you wouldn’t recognize her, but enough that she appeared to be an entirely different person—one that he recognized all too well.
“Katrina…” he whispered.
She nodded slowly, not breaking eye contact.
Markus was surprised to see sorrow in her eyes and a glistening in their corners. He made to rise, he needed to call Sarah and James, but Katrina caught his hands in his.
“I have not betrayed you,” she whispered. “I have betrayed them.”
Markus stopped and lowered
himself back into his seat. He stared at her for several long minutes, looking for a twitch, a flinch, anything that would give her away. Either she was the consummate actor, or she was telling the truth.