“You’re right, but this is also your fault. Don’t forget that.”
“I’m sure you’ll keep reminding me. Next time I’ll leave you with Thuban.”
“Please,” Cygni snapped back.
“Why don’t we discuss strategy, perhaps over dinner?” Giselle showed no ire in her tone. “My place can fit us comfortably.”
“No,” she said. “I’ve got something to do tonight.”
“Cygni,” Giselle said.
Something about the way she said her name made her feel a bit strange. She frowned, wondering if she was being a bit unreasonable in her anger with the woman. She supposed it was true that she would still be in the interrogation cell if not for her, but the way she was being coerced into serving the baroness was unforgivable. Still, it was clear that Giselle hadn’t been the one to bring the Orgnan into this, and maybe she was treating the woman unfairly. Maybe she needed to think it through later.
She shook her head. This was getting her nowhere. She was much more concerned with Shkur’s welfare, and getting home, than anything else.
“I’ll see you all tomorrow. We can figure things out then. You’ve got tech that can block listening devices, right Giselle?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then we’ll meet in my office tomorrow morning and work this out,” Cygni said.
“What about me?” Biren asked.
“Deliver me a package.”
“No, it’s too obvious.” Giselle shook her head. “My place, tomorrow night. I’ll send you all the address.”
“Cygni, it makes sense,” Sanul said in a half whisper.
She sighed. “No, we do this at the office.”
“Have it your way. When?”
“Come up at close of business.”
Giselle rolled her eyes, and a tense silence ensued.
Chapter Nine
Calemni IIb, Extra-Terrestrial Mining Corporate Colony, Calemni System
41:2:42 (J2400:3172)
They walked out onto the dusty platform with Meia in the lead. Strictly speaking, Captain Fukui only outranked her while they were on the ship, SDF forces were considered subordinate to full Star Corps personnel, but it was Meia’s experience that persons of rank tended to try and act like they were in charge regardless of the technicalities of the situation. She was pleasantly surprised when the captain took a supporting role the moment they geared up.
Though it hadn’t been long from the time Meia boarded the ship to the moment her armored boots touched the pad, the light outside was almost half of what it was before. She looked up and saw the black disk of Calemni II devouring the sky. They would be in the artificial night of the approaching solar eclipse for at least the next forty-two hours.
“It’s about to get very cold,” Meia said to Captain Fukui using her suit speakers. “This happens every eighty-four hours when the moon passes into Calemni II’s umbra. The bigger problem is the Praetor’s ship in orbit. We have thirty-one minutes before it swings around again. If we get caught outside it can fire on us. There are maintenance tunnels beneath the colony we can use in a pinch to conceal our presence. Is that e-suit vacuum rated?”
“Fully.” Fukui said by direct transmission. Meia noted that the e-suit she was wearing was of a very basic design, lacked speakers, and restricted the wearer’s jaw movements.
“You know, you won’t need the hood until it gets colder.”
“What about the toxins?”
“Toxins?”
“The ones that killed the colonists.”
Meia blinked, realizing that the captain had no idea what happened here. “It wasn’t a toxin. It was a nanomachine called ‘Siren.’ It’s inert now. You’ll be okay.”
Fukui cocked her head to the side, and her tail waved back and forth behind her. “How do you know it’s inert?”
“Iapetus confirmed it months ago,” she responded, not wanting to get into the details of how she almost died on this miserable rock. “The air’s breathable by humans and Relaen alike, but if you’d rather be uncomfortable in the hour or so we have left of tolerable temps, be my guest.”
“How about yourself?”
She smiled beneath her helmet, then reached up and removed it. The dry, sandy air was in her nostrils the moment it was off her head. “Better?”
Fukui hesitated a moment longer, then pulled her hood back. The long, pointed ears on her temples sprang up and her straight, black hair spilled out behind them. She blinked and looked around, sniffing the air.
“Still alive?” she asked with a cocky smile.
“I’ll live.” The ghost of a smile touched the captain’s lips. Meia took her sense of humor as a good omen for their continued collaboration.
“We’ll need to move quickly to take advantage of the last of the warm air. Iapetus, quadruped mode,” she said.
“Acknowledged.” He leaned forward and the upper and lower sections of his arms extended on either side of his elbows with the hiss of hydraulics. His torso lengthened and the armored kneecaps of his legs slid over to the sides, allowing the joints to reverse themselves into a form better designed for running on four legs. The transformation completed when a handle popped up between his shoulder blades and Iapetus knelt down to allow them to mount him.
“I didn’t know they could do that.” Fukui stared as the process completed.
“The DS-109’s can, but the 108’s didn’t have this feature.” Meia swung her leg up and over Iapetus’ back, feeling the magnetic saddle grab hold of her armor and pull it down tight. “There’s room behind me.”
Fukui nodded and a moment later the woman’s narrower body pressed into her back.
“Is that an MRD?” Fukui pointed at the drone wrapped around her wrist. Iapetus rose to his feet and headed for the main street.
“Yes but we can’t use it,” she said. “The Praetor is able to hone in on its signal. The last time he almost got me. We’ll have to hunt for them the old fashioned way.”
“Should we split up?” Fukui asked. “We’d cover more ground.”
She looked up at the bodies swinging in the breeze from the lampposts around them and raised her eyebrows. “You want to?”
“I suppose not,” Fukui replied after a pause.
“Keep your eyes moving, that Praetor could be anywhere.” She reached down and opened the holster strap on her Growler. She heard Fukui do the same with her own sidearm.
“I shall maintain a passive scan for power sources and other signs,” Iapetus stated.
“Okay. No unencrypted transmissions,” Meia returned in a quiet voice.
“Acknowledged, Lieutenant.”
The rows of two and three-story fastcrete buildings stretched out down the street like canisters in a warehouse. Identical in form, and printed by the same machines, the only way of telling them apart were the holographic address numbers projected from the central colony computer. Iapetus continued through the long shadows laying across the dust-soaked street at a steady trot while Meia and Fukui looked for a sign that one of these houses might have the baron within.
“The location where the shooting occurred is ahead,” he said.
Fukui tensed against her back.
“It was a stunner. I saw one of them go down when the Praetor…” Meia trailed off as they came up on the headless body lying half-buried in the dust beneath a hanging corpse. It wore the same Mitsugawa e-suit as the captain. A thick, gray liquid seeped into a puddle from the ruin of its neck, and part of a metallic jaw stuck up above the synthetic gore like a rudder. “You had an android with you?”
“Yes.” Fukui pushed off of Iapetus and half-slid, half-fell to the ground. She knelt down beside the body.
Meia dismounted and joined her.
“This was Ben, the baron’s artificial manservant,” Fukui said.
She looked around at the dark windows of the houses. A few were cracked, more were broken, but none showed any signs of life. “The Praetor dragged the other one off that way.”
&n
bsp; Fukui’s ears twitched. She squinted her eyes as she stared down the windswept road. “The storm erased the tracks.”
“Do they teach you tracking in the Taiumikai SDF?” Most SDF forces concentrated on space ops only and left ‘well ops to the local police.
“Only a basic course,” Fukui responded. “How about in the Star Corps?”
“’Jumpers get trained,” she responded. “I’m an Eagle.”
“An eagle?”
“A Star Eagle, after the unit insignia. It means I’m in the Star Force, not ground ops, but my father taught me to hunt down dinner in half-a-dozen different xeno-environments when I was a kid. It’s harder to do in shifting dust,” she pointed down and ahead of them where a slight depression in the fresh layer of sand could be seen. “But the storm was ending when your man got hit. Looks like the Abyssian wasn’t too concerned about being followed either. Iapetus, biped mode.”
“Acknowledged.” His moving parts hissed as he shifted back.
“Scan the nearby dwellings, use the laser-mic, and activate your stealth mode. The Praetor might be nearby,” she ordered.
“Acknowledged.” He headed down the street at a methodical pace, his footsteps making splashes in the fine sand. His body flickered and vanished as the electro-magnetic stealth system engaged.
Fukui’s eyebrows arched.
“Be glad he’s on our side.” Meia gestured for the captain to follow and headed to a narrow gap between two of the round buildings. “Can you climb?”
“Yes.”
“Follow me up.” She re-clipped her holster strap and braced her hands on the rough surfaces of the buildings to either side. Supporting herself with her arms, she scaled up to the roof spider-style. When she got to the top she kicked off one building hard enough to give her some momentum to get onto the roof of the second, then turned around to help her companion up, but saw it was unnecessary when the woman’s hands grabbed the edge of the roof right behind her. Fukui’s tail came up into view, grabbed the ledge of the second building, and helped the captain push herself up the rest of the way.
“A tail comes in handy,” Fukui said at her surprised look.
“I can see. I might have to get one of those.” The growler whispered against its holster. Gun in hand, Meia crawled up to the side of the structure overlooking the street.
Fukui did the same. “Are we waiting for the Praetor?”
“Him or some sign that your passengers are alive in one of these houses,” she answered.
“Do you think the Praetor would have killed them? My passengers are members of the Barony.”
“How many are there?” She kept her eyes on the street.
Captain Fukui opened her mouth, but hesitated. “This whole assignment is a secret.”
“I figured that out already. I know what the beacon on this planet was transmitting.”
“You turned it off?”
She nodded. “I needed a pick up. It looks like it worked.”
“We would have come here anyway.”
Meia cocked an eyebrow. “Did Baron Keltan know about what happened here?”
“You will have to ask him. He and his companion knew they wanted to come here when they met me.”
“Which brings us back to my earlier question. How many people are we trying to rescue?”
Captain Fukui’s ears twitched. “Just the baron and his fiancée.”
She shrugged. “Who is?”
Fukui gave her a look.
“I may have to know her name if we get separated.” She was hoping this op was going to continue down its uncharacteristically smooth path, but it seemed the legendary resistance of SDF forces to cooperation was finally rearing its head. She waited a moment before speaking again. “Okay, stay quiet, but don’t blame me if I shoot the person by accident.”
“Okay. Her name is Heiress Pasqualina Olivaar,” Fukui said.
“Okay,” she shrugged, then it hit her. “As in the ETMC Olivaars who own this colony?”
Fukui looked out at the street. “You know her name now.”
“Right.” Her mind raced. Maybe the baron and heiress had come here to survey the destruction the Siren weapon had wrought? If so, why would they be here with just one Taiumikai SDF officer and a now expired android? She doubted any baron would take the risk of being so poorly protected just to keep a secret when a squad of guard robots could easily be erased and reprogrammed or spaced. The same logic applied to every scenario she could come up with for why a baron and his fiancée would be here, so what was she missing? It’d been a while since she kept track of Barony news, too long for her to make any meaningful speculation now. Still, something wasn’t adding up, and the ETMC angle had to fit in somewhere.
“Lieutenant, I am 122 meters from your current position. I detect no motion or sound within the dwellings in this area,” Iapetus transmitted using the cipher they worked out the day after he woke her from her coma.
Standby, she sent back. “We’re clear on this street. Looks like I’ve got to get to work.”
“What?” Fukui said.
“Tracking.” Meia holstered her growler and checked the countdown clock she had running to keep track of the Praetor’s ship in orbit. There were still ten minutes left before it was in sensor range. “Come on, I’ll show you while we still have a little light. Once we’re in the umbra, we’ll have to stop until morning.”
The light was fading fast, much faster than it did on either Kosfanter or Anilon. Cylus frowned, watching the street darken through the living room window. The air outside seemed as still as the reddish-tan dust covering the street.
“I thought it was afternoon.” He turned around, flinching at Praetor Modulus’ presence by the stairway. The Abyssian was about as animate as the dust outside, which made it easy to forget he was watching their every move.
“We’re passing into Calemni’s umbra.” Lina lay on the couch staring up at the ceiling with her blue eyes. “The eclipse will last more than a standard day.”
He frowned, hating to see her this upset. “Too bad we can’t go outside and watch it.”
“It’s what passes for night on this world.” The lines of her face tightened, making him wish they could chance a direct transmission. It was too risky with the Praetor standing mere meters away. Abyssians could monitor communications in their vicinity as easily as he could hear Lina’s frustrated breaths. They would have to wait for Modulus to leave before they could talk freely again.
Sighing, he turned back to the window and watched the dust swirl in a sudden breeze. “Why are you here?”
“What?” Lina asked.
“Not you, him. Why are you here, Praetor? Did you track us from Kosfanter? Why are you holding us here?”
Modulus stared at him. The silver rings in his eyes gleamed. Cylus met his mechanical gaze and stuck his freshly shaved chin out. It was little different, he realized, than the stare of a security sensor.
“You’re not like Praetor Graves at all.” He startled when Praetor Modulus’ eyes flickered up and down. Did he just react to the mention of Nero Graves? He looked over at Lina. From the look on her face, she’d seen it too. “Do you know Praetor Graves?”
Modulus stared at him.
“Well?” He scowled. “Fine. Don’t speak. You’ve given us no indication as to how long we’re to be held here or why. You won’t let us leave or access the local network, and you won’t tell us what happened to our pilot. The least you could do is make some polite conversation. I swear, when I see Praetor Graves again I’m filing a full complaint against you.”
“I don’t think he cares, Cy.” Lina went back to staring at the ceiling.
“Well, yelling at him is a way to pass the time.” He went back to the window. It seemed like anything was better than just sitting around this room. “To hell with it.”
“To hell with what?” she asked.
He shook his head and walked up to the front door.
“Do not attempt to leave this dwelling,�
� Praetor Modulus said.
“Watch me.” He gritted his teeth and walked straight into the portal’s smooth surface. His body rebounded off the unyielding poly-ceramic alloy and went sprawling butt-first onto the floor.
“Are you okay?” Lina was at his side a moment later, looking him over with a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m fine.” He shrugged her off. “Let me up.”
She hauled him to his feet without visible effort. He gave her a half-smile, then headed for the door again.
“What do you hope to accomplish?” the Praetor asked.
“Open it.”
“That will not happen,” Praetor Modulus responded. “Do not attempt to depart this abode. I have programmed your cerebral implants to inflict pain if you do.”
“You what?” Cylus glared. “You son of a bitch.”
Modulus met his gaze with a neutral expression.
“I’m dying of boredom.”
“Impossible,” Modulus said.
He pressed the heels of his hands into his temples. “What the hell do you expect us to do all day?”
“Subsist,” the Praetor responded. “Remain in this abode.”
“For how long? Huh?” Cylus’ nostrils flared. He knew the Praetor wouldn’t answer him, so he turned back towards the window beside the door. He as might as well watch the dust. “This is torture. You have no right.”
Movement caught his eye in the darkening street. He focused on it, craning his neck so that he could see part of the way down the road. For a moment he thought he saw something duck into a low, rectangular building. It was so fast he wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or not. He blinked, staring for several moments longer before deciding he must’ve imagined it. There was no one else on this moon—except that he thought he saw someone on a side road when the Praetor shot Ben and stunned him. Were the shadows playing tricks on him?
“Cy,” Lina said from behind him. He turned to answer her and found himself staring at the Praetor. His back bumped the window as he flinched away.
“What did you see?” Praetor Modulus asked.
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