by M. D. Cooper
Rogers could feel Winter’s eyes on him and it was more than just that, he could almost see the vibrations in the air, strange as that was. Even when disconnected from the ship, something with his vision was changing after being hooked up for fifteen minutes.
“I’m fine. I just have to keep things on course. We got an update from Kylie’s tracker. She’s headed to Silstrand, so I have to alter our vector before we make the jump.”
“Wow, Silstrand? Okay, well, that sounds reasonable, man. Just…your eyes.”
“I’ll be fine.” Rogers couldn’t keep the defensive tone from his voice. “I know how it looks. I know what happened to Raye, let’s not belabor the point. Someone has to fly this ship.”
“And it’s going to be you, right?”
“Yeah, it’s going to be me. I pilot. It’s my job description. Now lay off it and let me do my job.”
Winter raised his hands and shrugged. “Whatever you say, bro. I’m just trying to have your back.”
“Sorry, just sorry.”
“It’s temporary, right? What’s happening to you?”
Rogers swallowed back his rising grief and bile. “Wasn’t so temporary for Raye, was it?”
* * * * *
Nadine deliberately took the long way to the bridge. If Beatrice was still out there, she wanted to draw the woman out, get it over with quickly.
As she came through the hatch on Deck 3A, something hit her from behind. She blew out a startled breath and turned to see a fist flying toward her face. She had a moment to note that it was quite wide, and a bit chubby, very much like she remembered from her fight down in the valley on Jericho.
Nadine ducked down and backed against the bulkhead as Beatrice swung again. Nadine dodged and the massive woman’s fist collided with the wall, causing her to howl with pain.
“I’m gonna kill you, you scrawny bitch. Captain’s not here to stop me this time.”
“I’m sure you’ll try!” Nadine kept her head low, delivered a kick to Beatrice’s right knee, then a punch at her left kidney. The double strike barely drew a grunt from the woman, and Nadine decided it was time to fight dirty.
Beatrice lunged for her, but Nadine darted out of the way. Then as her opponent moved, Nadine kicked her in the crotch, eliciting a bellow of pain from the woman before driving her boot in to Beatrice’s jaw.
The force of the blow unbalanced the brute of a woman and she fell down the hatch, landing hard on the deck below.
“I really don’t want to hurt you,” Nadine called down.
It was a lie. She did want to hurt Beatrice. Over the past few days a different Nadine had begun to emerge. One who had killed countless times on a hundred different missions. She had believed the persona she had adopted with Kylie had taken root, had really become who she was.
That did not appear to be the case.
She let Beatrice climb up the ladder and square off once more.
“Down on Jericho,” Nadine began, “I was half dead. By comparison, I feel pretty good right now. I’ll give you one chance to get in a pod and bail.”
Beatrice only laughed and lunged at her. Nadine touched the clasp on her belt, triggering the toxin to flow onto her finger. The large woman crashed into Nadine, driving her back into the bulkhead.
“So much for you feeling good,” Beatrice said as she drew back a fist.
Almost casually, Nadine reached up and touched Beatrice’s lips. “Die, bitch.”
Beatrice screamed in pain and fell back, hand over her mouth. “What?!”
Nadine wiped her hand on the bulkhead, the skin on her fingertips impervious to the toxin she carried on her belt. Without so much as a glance backward, she climbed the next ladder to Deck 4.
The sounds of Beatrice thrashing herself to death carried for two more decks.
As Nadine walked onto the bridge, Winter pinged her privately.
Nadine approached the front of the bridge gazed down at the pilot and put a hand on his shoulder. Rogers jumped with a small shriek and his unnaturally glowing eyes settled on her
“Sorry, Nadine. You scared me, girl. How’d you sneak up on me?”
“It’s…” Nadine’s voice carried an unnatural tremor, “fine, Rogers, don’t worry about it. You look…fine. Are you feeling all right?”
“Never better. It’s like I’m seeing and feeling things in living colors. I’m in the ship, I can see her processes and her hum is like a sonnet. The starcharts are in my mind. I can flip through everything in a moment’s notice. And out there, out there I’m beautiful and I fly like I’m waltzing. Fast, graceful, I’m everywhere, Nadine.”
Rogers’ hands wove in complex patterns before him, moving in an almost sensual way that unnerved Nadine. “You’re wired to the ship.”
He nodded and Nadine drew a nervous breath. “You’re not augmented for that. You’re—You shouldn’t have…I….” She didn’t know what to say. Rogers was her favorite, like a little pup that needed care. Nadine hated the idea of seeing him get hurt on her watch.
“No choice. Someone has to fly this thing,” Rogers said.
Winter grabbed her arm. “You can’t let him do this.”
“What choice do we have?” Nadine whispered angrily. “He’s right. Someone needs to pilot the ship. Besides, look at him. It’s done. We have no idea what we’re heading into. We need someone at the controls who can act fast. I don’t like it any more than you do, Winter…”
“Yeah?” His eyes narrowed. “Coming from someone whose held secrets from us, lied to us since the moment she first met us, I’m finding that a bit hard to believe.”
Nadine sighed and was ready to deliver a flurry of counterarguments when Rogers interrupted. “While you guys have been fighting, I’ve been reviewing the data Kingfisher and Raye had been gathering from Kylie’s tracker. They’re jumping into Silstrand alright, but not at one of the main jump points. Unless I miss my guess, they’re going to dump out at least 150 AU from the star.”
“That’s a long way out,” Winter replied. “It’s going to give the SSF plenty of time to defend the system.”
“If that’s their target,” Rogers said. “What if they were doing something entirely different. Like hitting a dwarf planet out in the Silstrand System’s scattered disk.”
“Dwarf planet?” Nadine asked. “What dwarf planet?”
A stellar system appeared over Rogers’ head. It was the familiar configuration of the Silstrand System, capital of the Alliance. A red line leading into the system was labeled ‘Kylie’.
It passed close to three dwarf worlds in Silstrand’s scattered disk. Two were unremarkable. One was the very definition of remarkable.
“That’s the location of S&H Defensive Armament’s main research division,” Nadine whispered.
Winter shrugged. “So, what?”
“That’s where Lana’s nano is from. The rumor is that Lana had all the prototype tech, but they still have all the original design specs.”
“Oh shit,” Winter whispered. “Why the hell would Kylie’s family want to go there?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, but whatever it is, it won’t be good.” Nadine stepped forward and put a hand on Rogers’ shoulder. “I’m sorry, Rogers, you’re going to need to fly this thing until we can get in there and figure out what’s going on.”
“No problem,” Rogers said evenly. “I was born to fly, you know what I’m saying?”
Nadine did. She just hoped whatever was happening to his eyes was the worst of it.
MOTHER
STELLAR DATE: 10.07.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: RFS Liberation
REGION: Interstellar Dark Layer, Silstrand Alliance
Kylie strode across her small cell, paused, turned, and strode back. It wasn’t pacing, it was rage planning. That seemed far more action-oriented.
She cursed herself for not trusting Ri
cket, for taking her time. This could be over by now, instead she had to work out a way to get to her father, and to Garza—who she now suspected of pulling all the strings, including her father’s—before her family declared war on a place she had come to call home.
There was no way she could stand aside. She knew it and Ricket had, too. Kylie wanted to kick herself for not seeing it sooner. She hadn’t been close to her family in years, but she’d never thought they’d be capable of this.
Kylie stopped her pacing.
The problem with escape was that it was synonymous with ‘abandon’. Her father, David, Hannah, the new baby, everyone was at risk. Not to mention the people of Silstrand.
The statement took Kylie by surprise. She realized that she hadn’t really thought of things from Marge’s point of view. She’d been outraged on her behalf, but that was different.
Kylie did. It felt good to be a team with Marge, it was surprising how quickly it had become perfectly normal. She liked having Marge. It was like having a kid sister or a grandmotherly type watching out for her all the time. At least here she wasn’t alone. Now that they had a plan—well, the very beginnings of one—Kylie’s tensions eased, and she sat down on the bed.
It wasn’t the first time Marge had talked that way. Kylie wondered if she had been a military AI once upon a time, or maybe in a police force in some capacity.
“What are you frowning about, honey?”
Kylie started at the sound of her mother’s voice. “Mom.” Kylie stood up and approached the cell bars where her mom stood with a plate of food. “Did you make me brownies?”
Her mother nodded. “I thought it might help whatever is going on with you. I heard what happened between you and David.” Her eyes filled with pain. “I know sibling spats are still a thing between you two, but I think you both took it a little far.”
Kylie glanced between Kate and the brownies. “I’m not sick, Mom. I have nano. That’s all.”
With the admission, Kate shivered almost like a conditioned response. Kylie thought that was interesting as she stepped forward. “It’s not the only modification I have.”
“Oh, Kylie,” Kate whispered. “What happened to you? You left, I know that, but you understood what we were saying. What we were afraid of.”
“I’m not afraid.” Kylie pushed her lips together. “I’m more afraid for you. For Dad and everyone on these ships. What’s happened to you?”
“Me?” Kate’s mouth fell open. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Were you OK with Dad killing everyone on Hubei? You stand by and let him take this fleet to Silstrand so he can advance his war with their deaths? Innocent people, children, even animals, you’re going to destroy them all and for what?”
“They aren’t innocent, Kylie! If they have modifications, if they have AIs in their heads, they’ll be used toward the greater evil! Why can’t you see that, why can’t you?”
“I have an AI in my head,” Kylie said and stared her mother down. Kate’s face fell and her eyes widened, pupils contracting to narrow points. “Her name is Marge. She keeps me up at night telling stories of her life, reading cozy mysteries about a flying space cat that make her laugh, no matter how many times she’s read them—”
Marge said with a pout.
“She’s a nice person,” Kylie said. “She’s as much an individual as you or I.”
Kate dropped the plate of brownies and backed up. “You’re lying to hurt me. You would never—no child of ours would ever!”
Kylie sent out a microscopic stream of nano toward her mother. The probes had no difficulty passing through the cell’s grav field since it was configured to allow air through.
With the nanoscopic robots on the way, Kylie considered how to agitate her mother.
Shouldn’t be hard.
“I have an AI, her name is Marge, and she likes looking at pictures of kittens when she thinks I’m asleep. She can hack your terminals, and help me sneak around dad’s ship. Right now, she can see that there’s something wrong inside your brain. What is it, Mom? What did Dad do to you?”
“Nothing!” Kate backed away from the cell. “Dad showed me the enlightened path, how to save the human race. That is all! You’re the one,” Kate pointed at Kylie, her finger shaking, “you’re the one there’s something wrong with. The AI has turned my daughter against me. My—”
Kate’s eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed onto the ground.
“Mom!” Kylie sent a stream of nano into the cell-door’s lock, and a few seconds later was at her side. She could see on the IR band that the back of her mother’s neck was warmer than it should be.
Who had done this to her mother? If Peter’s wife was affected was it possible more on board were, too? Her father?
Kylie stroked Kate’s hair back and her mother moaned.
“Mom?” Kylie whispered and shook her shoulder. She couldn’t wake her mother up, but maybe her nano could fix her. Maybe…
Kylie glanced at the door and back at her mother. She couldn’t save her mother and do what needed to be done, b
ut if they found a way to shut down all the implants…. She was making a lot of assumptions, and that was wrong. Her feelings for her family couldn’t get in the way of doing what was necessary.
Silstrand was depending on her—even if they didn’t know it.
Marge’s urgency spurred Kylie on. She ran for the door, used her nano to unlock it, and dodged the butt of the rifle coming toward her head.
She kicked with all her enhanced might and sent the man stumbling backward as the other guard yelled for her to freeze. Kylie spun, grabbed his rifle the instant before he fired, and directed its muzzle toward the man she had just kicked.
The pulse blast hit the first guard square in the chest and knocked him down.
Guard number two seemed a bit surprised that he had just shot his partner, and Kylie tore the rifle from his grasp.
Kylie did as Marge instructed, and a moment later a light on the weapon flashed green, indicating it was in free-fire mode.
Now that’s more like it.
The second guard was drawing his sidearm, and Kylie fired twice at his head, sending him cartwheeling backward. The first guard was struggling to his feet and she shot him in the head as well, his faceplate cracking from the blow.
She was about to shoot him again, a joyous feeling from the fight chorusing through her, when she caught sight of her mother in the room she’d just left.
No…what am I doing? she thought. At the far end of the hall, a group of guards burst into view. Kylie fired a few shots their way—the pulse rifle doing little damage to armored opponents at that range—and turned and ran.
Kylie darted down the corridor, and then turned left at the first intersection, and then right at another, barreling past a group of off-duty crew, before finding herself facing a lift with an out of order sign flashing above it.