“How can you be so cold?” Clio seethed. “I could have killed him…or anyone for that matter.”
Straiya wagged her finger with a knowing smile. “Not with a weapon loaded with blanks. You’ll recall your weapon didn’t put my guard down permanently either. We had your ammunition switched when you checked it in at the reception.”
“It’s still no excuse for such recklessness.”
“Ah, so the roguish child wishes to lecture me on recklessness.”
Clio had to stop herself from shrinking in her seat. The shanti Minister still made Clio feel so small despite her anger. “As I said, all you had to do was ask.”
“If life has taught me one lesson greater than any other, it is that actions speak a great deal louder than words.” Straiya pulled something from a desk drawer. “Especially when one has a questionable record.” She placed a familiar object on the table.
“Nakamura’s Crystal,” Clio whispered. A pang of pain stabbed at her heart even as she reached out for it. “He was a brave soldier.”
“He was one of my best, and not a day goes by that I don’t miss him.”
Clio thought she saw a faint sign of regret in Straiya’s eyes, but it fled the instant she noticed. “You were close?”
“We were friends,” Straiya sighed. “Long before I came to the Sentinel. Long before all this.” She gestured to the area around her. “So you can understand when I took his words seriously.” She eyed the crystal in Clio’s hand.
“And what did he say?”
“That should anything happen to him, that you were to replace him.”
“Replace him?”
“Yes. As an Aegis.” Straiya absently scratched at her ear. “He believed that you would make a fine warrior. He described you as strong, highly intelligent, and fearless.”
Clio sensed there was but. “You want me to become an Aegis?”
“He mentioned a mishap of sorts, so I wasn’t sure.”
If Clio hadn't been trying to control her anger, she would have been embarrassed. “I’m still here. I serve the Confederation. I’ve proven my loyalty.” The truth was, thoughts of Clio’s pasty deeds had tortured her since she arrived on the Sentinel. For all she knew, the information she had transmitted off Colony 115 had somehow helped Chimera. She was responsible for any who dies by their hands.
“You have at that,” Straiya flashed another fanged smile. “Let there be no mention of past wrongs, however. We must learn from our mistakes, not dwell on them.”
Another pang stabbed Clio as she remembered how Nakamura had pulled her from the wreckage of the Bakura. “Did he receive a proper burial?”
“Aegis Nakamura received a sending off befitting of any hero.”
“Good.” If she had helped Chimera, it was her fault he had died. Clio’s anger turned slowly turned to a sense of sadness that clawed at her heart. “I thought Captain Grimshaw had taken Nakamura’s place as Aegis.”
“Grimshaw took the place of Agis Eline. By some miracle, she has almost made a full recovery, but her life hung in the balance for a long time.”
“I’m not sure about this,” Clio had to grip the arms of the chair again to make sure it wasn’t a dream or nightmare. “It’s all a bit sudden.”
“As was the case with Grimshaw, it is unusual that we would choose someone beyond their teen years, but at least you’re much younger.”
“What about my position with the Confederation Fleet?”
“Again, it is not how we normally do things around here, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Normally, you would be expected to renounce all past allegiances, but we will forego that for now. I would like you to remain with Agis Grimshaw anyway, as his apprentice.”
“The Captain’s apprentice.” She let that sink in Clio. Grimshaw had earned her respect since the crash on Colony 115 and Clio would happily lay her life down for him, as he had for her, but he still treated her like a child.
“He’s an experienced warrior with an impressive track record. Understand that you will both remain as acolyte Aegi. Should the time ever arise for you to be anointed as a full guardian, we will perform the proper ceremony.”
“I’m still shocked you’re considering me for such a role if I’m honest.”
“Nakamura also mentioned an incident involving the fury gene.”
“You know about that?” Clio said, placing her hand on her chest.
“As I said, Nakamura and I were good friends. We weren’t the kind to withhold information from each other. Never worry. I haven’t spoken of it with anyone else. I have never known anyone with the ability to manipulate the weave without the necessary..modifications.”
“The weave?”
“All will be made clear in time. For now, let’s say that becoming an Aegis will likely help you keep things under control. If you decide against it, you will still benefit from…tests.”
Clio got the feeling she’d have no say in those. “I appreciate the time to consider your offer.”
“I expect a decision by the close of the Sentinel Celebration. I have business to attend to off-station straight after.”
“I understand.”
“Officer Karakane here will escort you outside.”
Clio nodded as a guard appeared by her side.
“And Clio.”
Clio turned to her attention back to Straiya.
“Many people die on their journey to join the ranks of the Aegi. Know that I do not make such an offer lightly.”
Clio nodded and followed Karakane outside out of the minister's office an onto the main floor where shanti went about their daily chores as though it was any other day. A deluge of confusing thoughts and conflicting emotions threatened to snatch Clio’s hold on reality but recalling Nakamura’s sacrifice kept her grounded.
Before she knew it, she stood outside Sentinel Tower where Officer Karakane handed Clio her weapons with a respectful nod before returning to his station.
Clio had just finished stowing her gear when her exogear sounded.
Shit. Captain’s probably wondering where I’ve been.
She was surprised the call was coming from Taza.
“Clio! Where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for ages.”
“My hands have been tied.”
“I’ve finished working on the STD and am getting ready to install it,” Taza said. “I can’t install it on my own.”
Work would serve as a good distraction until she had time to consider everything that had just happened. “That’s great. Where will I meet you?”
“Sending you the coordinates now. I’ll see you there in thirty,” he said, cutting the line.
Clio barely noticed the crowds of skilled laborers milled about around her. She turned around and looked up at the towering building stretching as far as her enhanced eyes could see.
Life on the Sentinel had proven much more complicated than she first imagined, but at least she was lucky enough to be alive. Something in the pit of her stomach told her that things were going to get even more complicated. She spun and made a break for the nearby shuttle pods, surprised to find a spring in her step.
TIGHT SPACES
Taza pulled himself along a narrow maintenance tube, the STD rattling as it dragged on a length on a wheeled sled behind him. Worming his way through a mile-long tunnel—barely wider than his shoulders—wasn't exactly his idea of a good time, but Grimshaw had hired him to perform the more questionable tasks, and sneaking through the Sentinel’s maintenance network was as risky as it got.
All the same, he cursed Captain Grimshaw and his team, and he swore Zora too, for she was no doubt sitting back in her hide-out laughing.
Taza’s under-armor squelches with moisture as he moved and sweat dripped into his eyes. He wanted nothing more than to wipe the drop hanging from the end of his nose but his arms were trapped at his sides, and the tube was much too narrow to maneuver them in any meaningful way. He pressed his lips together and bl
ew the dripping liquid, but it made little difference. Growing desperate, he rubbed his nose on the smooth metal surface, but instead of helping, it merely spread the itch around a greater area.
Taza stopped to catch his breath, the clammy, metal walls closing in on him. The station’s maintenance bots moved freely through the tunnels despite being stout, but they were designed for that purpose. Taza and his friends in the Underways had used them back when he etched a living out of the slums, but they were small children back then, and the tunnels had served as the perfect escape routes. They were also dangerous to those who didn’t know what they were doing. One could get trapped or stumble upon a maintenance bot and activate its pest control extermination protocols. Taza wasn’t sure which was worse. He’d had seen the fried corpses in his youth. It didn’t take him long to decide he’d take a fatal high-powered zap over slowly wasting away any day.
“Everything okay up there?” Clio’s voice crackled in his ear-piece.
“I’m fine,” he said between shallow breaths. “I just need a minute.”
“I told you I didn’t mind going down the shaft,” her words dripped with cockiness.
“You know...” He drew as deep a breath as he could manage in the confined space. “I’m pretty sure you were bullshitting me when you said you didn't know anything about hardware."
“I didn’t say anything about the hardware. That was you.”
“Yes. If it’s not configured properly, it’ll burn out. We’ve only got one shot at this,” he said, getting his breath back. “Can’t risk messing it up. No offense.”
“I would hardly mess it up,” Clio countered. “But have it your way.”
“Fucking STD,” he spat. “You should have seen the look on Grimshaw’s face when I told him what it was called.”
Clio giggled. “You told him what it was called?”
“Told him you names it too.”
“You lying bastard.”
“He said he wasn’t surprised,” Taza tried to laugh, but it came out more of a pathetic wheeze.
“The Captain knows me well.”
Taza finally got himself under control. “You should cut the old man some slack. He’s under a lot of pressure with Council constantly on his ass.”
“Old man?” Clio chuckled. “You’re older by far.”
“Maybe so, but I’ve aged better. How much further?”
“A little over a hundred yards. According to your data.”
“The maintenance droid won‘t be down your tube way for another three hours,” Zora cut in on the channel. “Take all the time you need.”
Zora's voice was soothing, but for some reason, that just irritated him all the more. “You know, being nice doesn‘t suit you.”
She laughed. “Something we have in common.”
“Are you ready Clio?” he asked.
“At your current rate, my code will be uploaded long before you reach the end of that tunnel.”
“We’ll see about that,” he said accepting the challenge and pressing forward.
“You said something about a meeting with Minister Straiya,” Zora said on the channel. “How’d that go?”
“Complicated,” Clio answered.
“One of the things I forgot,” Taza said, “was how damn complicated life is up here. Makes me wonder why the hell everyone in the Underways wants to move up here.”
"Grass is always greener, I guess,” Clio said, sounding defeated.
“Fuck the grass!“ Taza didn‘t usually swear so much, but he was tired of being stuck in a tube. “This shit better work or I‘m quitting.”
“If only it were that easy,” Clio said.
“If only.” Taza moaned as he lifted his head and pushed forward again.
“Part of the problem is neither of you knows when to quit,” Zora piped in.
“You and Mr. Wu seem bent of getting me killed, one way or another.”
“You know how it is,” she said. “It’s a hazardous occupation.”
“Sometimes I wonder where he is, you know. Like right now,” he said. “Is he eating or sleeping? Or maybe he‘s taking a shit. Do Omnion do that?”
“It isn‘t exactly something that springs to mind when speaking with one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy.”
“If I ever see him again, that's the first thing I‘m gonna ask.”
“Sometimes I have no idea what the hell you two are talking about,” Clio said.
“Probably for the best, kid,” Taza said. He wiggled onward and finally reached the lip at the end of the maintenance tunnel. He dropped into the connecting vertical shaft and was relieved to find it was much broader than it had appeared on the station schematics he’d sourced. Taza dropped onto the narrow platform and his neck cracked as he stretched out his the cramps. He pulled the STD out of the smaller tunnel and checked it over to make sure it hadn’t been damaged.
“I’m on the platform, ready when you are Clio,” he muttered over the comm channel. “Your control chip better work.”
“Ready when I am? I’ve been waiting for the past ten minutes,” Clio‘s voice cut into his ear. “The chip will work as long as you didn’t balls up the welding job.”
Taza couldn’t help but laugh at the kid's spirit. “You better watch that mouth of yours lest I kick your ass in our next training session.”
Zora chimed in. “He‘s not all that good at kicking ass anyway.”
“I’ve noticed he’s getting slow,” Clio said. “Old age must be catching up on him.”
They both laughed at Taza’s expense, and he grinned. “Terrific, ladies.”
“Are you reading that movement, Zora?” Clio said, her voice suddenly more severe.
“Taza, you‘ve got a bot coming down from above,“ Zora said. “Must be a wild card. Better activate your jammer.”
“Okay, radio silence, for now.” Taza cut the line and deactivated the DMT. He fumbled for the bio jammer Clio had built using chit tech she had smuggled off the North Star. They had tested the device but hadn’t had the opportunity to try it on a real maintenance bot.
Taza slowed his breathing and push his back tight against the tunnel wall. Even if the bot didn’t detect him, it could inadvertently push him off the ledge. Taza wore no armor and, outside of a basic toolkit and a knife, he didn‘t have anything that could be used as a weapon. A blaster wouldn’t have done him any good in such a confined space, which was why he hadn’t brought one, but he was starting to regret that decision.
Taza waited for what felt like forever, but not maintenance bot arrived. He was about to call Zora and make sure it wasn’t a false alarm when a light flashed from above.
He had forgotten entirely about his head-torch and scrambled to switch it off.
The flickering white light raced toward Taza and, within seconds, the maintenance bot hovered above him, its jets blasting him with hot air, making it almost impossible to breathe.
Multicolored beams scanned the area and slowly moved back and forth over inches above Taza’s head. He remained as still as he could, the knife in his left hand behind his back. If it did detect him, he‘d only have one shot at taking it down. And even if that worked, he’d have minutes before another arrived to investigate.
The maintenance bot hovered for another minute as it processed its data then it carried on down below.
Taza waited several more second to be sure and took a deep breath. He got back to work and decided to keep radio silence going until he was done, to be on the safe side. He reached the maintenance access panel, undid the fasteners, and set the panel cover on the ledge.
The STD was designed to pick up on a frequency they believed Chimera was using to transmit information right under SenSec’s noses through the Sentinel’s very own lines. Clio had detected the frequency during a full sweep and even managed to download part of a message. Despite their best efforts, however, they couldn't decrypt the data. The Chimera signal was designed to jump and hide, like it was self-aware on some level, and sear
ch Clio and Taza did, they couldn’t find it again.
Clio had written a program to recognize the signal if it uses a similar frequency again. However, there was no way to deliver such a program into the lines remotely, which was how Chimera traffic had gone undetected for the most part. That was where the STD came in. It masked itself from maintenance bots and SenSec while connecting Clio‘s program to the network and giving her a backdoor to access the lines remotely.
Taza fitted the STD to a network line with his plasma tool and activated the device. A blinking green light indicated that it was online. He reached for a panel, and the plasma tool slid from his slippery fingers and tumbled over the ledge. It spun into darkness, sending crashing echoes as it rattled off into obscurity.
“Shit,” he muttered.
Taza held his breath as the sounds faded, and the tunnel eventually became deathly silent. A refreshing breeze blew through the shaft momentarily upsetting the perfect stillness. He remembered the jammer when the sounds of jets thundered from below, and the maintenance bot was back before he could switch it back on, its lights flaring in alarm.
Taza turned flicked the jammer on to scramble its aiming system. It struggled to see him, but it still managed to follow his movements.
A ping rang out as it charged its zapper. Taza ducked as an energy bolt blasted into the maintenance shaft wall where his head had been. He quickly drew his knife again and, careful not to lose his footing, plunged the blade into the fan opening on the bot’s side.
An electric shock exploded up Taza’s arms and sent him into the shaft wall behind. The bot whizzed in circles before him several times then plunged over the edge, sending up sparks as it scraped along the metal panels. Smoke stand Taza’s nose and the noise almost deafened him.
He had a panel to replace, otherwise, another bot would locate and destroy the STD. Taza thought quickly and decided to risk it. He’d already come this far, after all.
He quickly reconnected the earpiece.
“Are you there?" Taza asked.
“What's going on?" Zora said, a hint of worry in her voice. "We saw that bot return before it flashed off the grid."
Enter The Shroud: Galactic Sentinel Book Two Page 4