by M. D. Cooper
“War? Don’t you think that’s…”
“You have the Link. I’m sending you a data file. It’s a vid from a world named Hubei. The most recent to fall to Peter’s wrath but it won’t be the last, Kylie. Not if someone doesn’t stop him before this thing really gets off the ground.”
Kylie asked.
Marge said.
Kylie gave Ricket a wary glance, then opened the file. Information scrolled on her HUD that the world she saw was Hubei, from just a few weeks ago. A feed from the planet’s surface showed a prosperous colony, with some sort of celebration going on in the cities—red dragons, held up by poles, moving through the streets as the people cheered.
It didn’t seem like a big deal, maybe a bit of a throwback. Then the vid changed, the date jumping forward several days. She could see the planet, and then something came into view.
An asteroid. Fusion engines propelled it forward, streaking toward the planet. Kylies breath caught and she whispered, “No…”
Marge said.
It was a world-killer.
Marge highlighted ships in the feed.
As the asteroid moved closer, ships tried to escape the world, and missiles were launched in desperation at the massive rock.
Peter Rhoads’ fleet destroyed them all.
When the asteroid hit, the world died. She killed the feed. There was no need to watch what happened next. The world of Hubei was no more. Only a molten ball surrounded by slowly coalescing ash and debris would remain.
Marge said quietly.
“No,” she whispered. She couldn’t accept that her father was responsible for that. He never…he wanted to save people. He didn’t want to destroy them. It was a lie, it had to be. “There’s no way he did this.” Kylie pressed her jaw together. “He wants to help people. Not this.”
“You haven’t seen him in a decade. How do you know what he wants anymore? SSF and the GFF have been busy fighting over the tech you were trying to hide from them over at Freemont while Scipio eggs them on, ready to leap in and swallow both All the while he’s been waging his own war, swallowing up systems in the fringe, hoping no one will notice. But he has a backer. These ships aren’t just converted freighters and cruise liners. They’re purpose-built warships. We have to find out who has helped him. You need to find out and you’re the only one I can ask who won’t turn me in.”
“Who says I won’t?” Kylie said coolly.
Ricket’s eyes narrowed. “You hate authority. You never do as you’re told. You couldn’t stay in the SSF even when you had everything you wanted. A coveted pilot position, a marriage to an up-and-coming officer….”
Kylie’s nostrils flared. So, Ricket knew so much about her, did she? Had she been nothing more than a mark?
Ricket raised her hands. “You might be angry I showed you that video, but it doesn’t change the reality of what happened. It doesn’t change the fact that Nadine said you could be trusted.”
That piqued Kylie’s interest. “You spoke to Nadine? When?”
“Over the years she sent in reports about you and the Dauntless. I had access to some of them and she spoke highly of you. I can see why.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere with me. I might not agree with my family but what you’re talking about is genocide. My family wouldn’t advocate such a thing. All they’ve ever wanted to do is help people.”
“You saw that fleet out there. That is not the help-the-people fleet. That’s the join-us-or-else fleet. I know you know it. Open your eyes and help us, Kylie, before your father becomes untouchable. There are things going on, forces at play. If he starts an anti-AI holy war, it could spark something that will make the FTL wars look like a prelude.”
Kylie could appreciate Ricket’s passion, but she’d moved well into the land of meaningless hyperbole. “Who is we anyway? You and Nadine work for someone, right? Agents of something? Not the SSF and not the GFF, that much I’m sure of. Is it Scipio? The AST? I’ll piece it together eventually.”
Marge said.
Kylie sighed.
Ricket bit her bottom lip and straightened up. “What the hell, it’s all coming out now anyway—after millennia of secrecy. Keeping secrets is less important than stopping genocide.”
Kylie wondered if Ricket’s words were for her, or if the woman was talking herself up to it.
“My AI, Laura, thinks this is a bad idea, but I think you deserve to know what you’re on the edge of. I work for an organization known as The Hand. We’re a clandestine arm of the Transcend. Our mission is to keep things stable here in the Inner Stars. We’re trying to keep the next dark age at bay. Anything that threatens that must be dealt with. Your father is a huge threat.”
So, Nadine was charged with what? Killing her father? Kylie couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that Nadine could have be sleeping with her, and all the while plotting behind her back.
She wondered about the tracker behind her ear…which she hadn’t removed, still hoping that Nadine would find her.
“I’ve seen that look before. Trust me when I say Nadine is very good at her job. She blends her story with just enough…backstory to sell it. Whatever she told you was true, to a point.”
“Backstory? You mean lie. Everything I knew was a lie.”
“We could argue about this all day. I need to know that you’ll do it. You don’t have to hurt your father. We just need to find out who is backing him. Kylie, please,” Ricket begged, her eyes wide.
“You keep saying we, and you mentioned The Hand and something called the Transcend. That’s not enough. Who are you? Who is Nadine?”
Ricket paused, sucked in a breath and whispered. “The FGT.”
The three letters hit Kylie like truck. “The FGT? As in the ancient terraformers who were destroyed during the FTL wars?”
“Not destroyed. Escaped. Left the human sphere of expansion. We built a new civilization outside the Orion Arm.”
“OK…are you recording this to play for people at the bar later? Some sort of gag vid where you laugh at Peter Rhoads less intelligent child?”
Ricket shook her head. Kylie had to admit that the woman appeared to be dead serious.
Kylie said with a sigh.
Kylie bit her cheek, unable to respond. She didn’t have a solid counterargument, but it just felt so wrong. Yes he was sanctimonious, but Peter Rhoads was her father. She remembered him reading bed-time stories to her, playing catch with her and her bothers, teaching her how to write, do math.
He wasn’t some world-ending meglomaniac.
Marge offered.
“What’s in it for me?” Kylie asked Ricket. “I want a way off this ship, something with FTL.”
Ricket nodded. “I can help with that. You just need to get close to your father and find out who is helping him. Deal?”
“Deal,” Kylie said, “but if I find out you’re lying, I’ll have no tro
uble spacing you myself. Until then, your crazy-ass secret is safe with me.”
Ricket nodded and extended her hand. “Understood. I think you’re going to prove as useful to us as Nadine promised.”
That statement didn’t make Kylie feel any better about the situation. For five years, Nadine lived as a junker, a part of her crew. All the while she had been sending information about Kylie—maybe everyone on the Dauntless—to this organization that Kylie had never heard of before. She didn’t believe for a hot Montral second that it was really the FGT. Probably just some story that whoever Ricket worked for told her to spin.
She wondered what Nadine had shared…Kylie’s stories, her family secrets, everything they had whispered in the dark had been nothing more than Nadine pumping her for intel?
“Stuff it,” Kylie said angrily. Her eyes narrowing into slits as she tore open the door to the supply closet and got the hell out of there.
FATHER
STELLAR DATE: 10.02.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: RFS Ark of Justice
REGION: Interstellar Dark Layer, Silstrand Alliance
Standing in the officer’s lounge—which was now done up like an elegant banquet room—Kylie took in the sight of her parents for the first time since her divorce from Grayson.
She barely had time to digest the fact they were here—while still digesting Ricket’s supposed video of genocide—when her mother, Kate Rhoads, crushed her in a hug.
“Kylie, oh honey!” Kate wrapped her arms around her and held on tight. Kylie sank into it for no other reason than to hide from everything else that was going on around them. The woman was softer around the middle than Kylie remembered. Her curls were looser and her dress was feminine but humble.
Just the way Kylie remembered her.
“Hi, Mom.” Kylie smiled the best she could. “It’s good to see you. I’m sorry…I’ve been away so long.”
“The stories I’ve heard,” Kate’s eyes widened and the soft wrinkles around the corners smoothed out. “Are they all true?”
“Probably not all of them.”
“Well, we’ll have time to talk and discuss things, I’m sure.” Kate smoothed Kylie’s cheeks with the back of her fingers. “Oh, you’re just as beautiful as you always were, but your hair…”
“Give her time to breathe, Katelyn. Go fawn over that new grandbaby of yours and let me greet my one and only daughter,” Peter said as he approached with a twinkle in his eyes.
Kate gave Kylie a sheepish smile and it was clear she had more to say to her daughter. “All right, darling. You’re right. We’ll talk more over dinner and coffee. I’m just so glad to have you back.” Another strong hug followed and Kylie heard the sound of tears in her mother’s voice. Her heart ached to have hurt her so much but let’s face it, as Maverick’s girl, Kylie hadn’t had time to visit home.
After that, she had just been too embarrassed.
Kate walked over to the private table where Hannah and the blue-swaddled baby awaited. Kylie cleared her throat as her father approached. Still ramrod straight and thin as a rail, his presence preceded him. With salted brown hair and deep wrinkle lines around his mouth, he appeared to be both humble and wise—a description that followed him everywhere.
He extended his hand to Kylie and slowly she took it. The images Ricket had shown her flashed in her mind and they conflicted with the warm look Peter had in his eye. He patted her hand and gave it a squeeze. “You disappointed me when you divorced that fine man, Kylie. If I had chosen for you, if you had allowed me to, I couldn’t have chosen a better match for you. Grayson was a respectable, solid choice, dear girl.”
Kylie swallowed back her grief for the failing of her marriage and for everything in between. “I’m sorry I couldn’t live up to your expectations.”
Peter nodded. “But then I heard rumors. Stories out of the SSF about how they were pairing their officers with AI. Once I heard that, I knew you really hadn’t fallen away from our path as much as I thought you had. I realized my girl was still mine. I made a mistake to talk so unkindly to you, but I never got to apologize until now.”
Marge said privately,
“Dad, it’s not necessary. Really—.
Peter held up his hand. “I’m sorry if what I said pushed you away, forcing you to do things that led you to fall in with that…crime lord fellow.”
“It turned out all right in the end. I don’t blame you, Dad.”
A small smile turned up on his lips. “Everything happens for a reason, that’s what I always used to teach you.”
“It’s a good lesson and one that helped me when things were tough.”
“You really are still my little girl, aren’t you?” Peter’s eyes gleamed and a happy smile lit up his face. Kylie wanted to share it with him, but what Ricket had shown warred against it. If the mysterious bartender/secret agent had told the truth, it was as if two versions of Peter Rhoads existed. How, otherwise, could Kylie reconcile those events with this man?
“Take a walk with me. There’s much I need to tell you. After, we can both eat together.” Peter offered her his arm and Kylie took it. After a quick good-bye to family, they walked to a balcony off the lounge that looked out into space. It wasn’t real, of course. No warship had rooms looking outside. However, the view on the holodisplay was beautiful—even if it was filled with her father’s warfleet.
“It’s a beautiful sight, isn’t it?” Peters asked as they gazed out at the stars. He gripped the railing as his other hand swept at the expanse, as if somehow he had cultivated the stars himself.
“It always is. I love living out among the stars.”
“Being a salvager?”
Kylie read his sour expression. “I know having a daughter as a junker—”
Peter waved his finger back and forth. “I never used that word.”
“I know and I’m grateful. You mellowed a lot over the years. When I first told you I was going to the SSF academy,” Kylie chuckled, “well, your head turned all red.”
“But in the end, it turned out all right. Here we are.” Peter gestured to everything with his arms.
“It’s impressive.” Kylie licked her lips as she finessed the conversation exactly where she needed it to go. “Even the SFF has few ships the size of the Liberation.”
Peter shrugged humbly. “She is a beauty.”
“I know I shouldn’t pry but where did you get the money for this? The resources to build such a ship?” Not to mention all the others.
“It’s nice to see you take an interest. It’s true, your family and I have rescued a lot of grateful colonies. Converted and saved a lot of people from AI and intrusive mods. It’s also true that I wouldn’t have the resources to pull this off without help.”
“Are you going to tell me who is helping you?”
Marge said.
Peter’s jaw grated back and forth. “Why the sudden interest, honey? We haven’t seen you in nine years.”
“Just curious. You went to all the trouble to have David come collect me. Here I am. I thought you’d want me to be interested.”
“Of course,” Peter put his arm around her, “I’m glad you’re interested. Forgive your suspicious old man. What we’re doing is big. I need every Rhoads back together. David has this ship. Your brother Paul and his family has one; and with time, I’m hoping we can convince you to man your own ship just like this.”
Marge commented.
“Like this one?” Kylie’s jaw fell to the ground. “Dad, what would I do with a ship like this?”
“Captain it, of course. Use it to cleanse the human race of AI who wish to supplant us, as well as those who support them.”
This is starting to back Ricket’s story, she thought. It sounded like he was suggested they wipe out people and planets who didn’t subscribe to his way of thinking but that couldn’t be right. Dad’s just not that sor
t of person.
“My methods are harsh, I know that, but someday soon we’ll take the fight to the ascended AI that seek to wipe us out or enslave us. When we do that, we can’t have their human supporters ready to oppose us. This is what needs to happen if we are to win this war. This is what needs to happen to safeguard the human race.”
“Dad…” Kylie was breathless. “What you’re talking about is the destruction of stations…entire worlds. Countless systems.”
“That’s why we do our best to convert them, to make them understand such as you do, such as I do. I take no pleasure in killing people, Kylie, but sometimes it must be done.”
Kylie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. When had this happened to him? When had the simple, but cozy upbringing she had always joked about turned into warmongering. Something had happened to him and Kylie wondered if whoever was bankrolling him, whoever supplied the resources, was the source of the change. Now, even without Ricket’s urging, she was very interested in seeking that person out.
“Come inside. I’m hungry and I don’t want all of that gravy to go to waste.” Peter offered her his hand.
With great hesitation, Kylie took it. “Will you tell me who helped you build these ships for us?”
“Will I? I’ll do one better,” Peter grinned. “I’ll introduce you to him.”
Kylie couldn’t wait.
* * * * *
All through dinner, Kylie watched her parents play with and coddle the new baby, David Jr while chatting amicably with Hannah. She watched them cuddle, rock, and soothe the baby and all the while all she could think was, How could you? How could good people get to the place where they thought genocide was the answer? How could they get to the place where they convinced their followers that going to war was the answer?