by T S Paul
“I will keep your secrets too. I promise to resist any further urges to take you apart.” Artemis meowed at us in what we had learned was a laugh.
I looked at both of them. “You know what this means, right? Whoever is behind this is still on campus! Could they be part of the Cabal?” We had learned of the existence of the now illegal organization from the government's announcement of their involvement in assassinations and the Asteroid attack last year.
“If they are, we have to stop them! They could be planting bombs or something worse around here. Tis, you need to call that number that Major Lee left you.”
I nodded my head and looked at Artemis. “Is that what you think I should do?” The cat looked at me and nodded her head.
Using my tablet I sent pictures of the object and explained, leaving out the part where Artemis communicated with us. Almost immediately I received a message back asking us to bag it and hold it for pickup. Lina pulled out a digital forensics faraday bag from her desk and dropped the bug into it. As she sealed it up, I asked her where she got those from. “Occasionally I bring projects home and they need protection.” Was her answer.
The bag was picked up a few hours later by a couple of scary looking special ops guys. They took the bag and stuck it inside an even larger faraday bag and left. No words were spoken by either us or them. The expected call from the commandant came a few hours later.
“I don’t know what to do with you three. The CATT has a job to do and can’t do it spending time in your dorm room. I know. I know. She chooses to stay with you. It is a disruption. Here is what we are going to do. I am moving you. Freedom Dormitory is almost completed but won’t be getting any students for at least a year maybe two. The first floor is completed. You go in the morning. Be ready. Dismissed.”
“Tis, I don’t think he likes us very much.” Lina was concerned. She was here on scholarship and didn’t wish to leave.
Before I could answer her my tablet dinged. The message was from Artemis.
“The commandant is under political pressure to make the school a success. Anything that makes it look bad makes him look bad. The Cabal is a major issue right now. The progenitor is on Mars and is dealing with them directly. There is much upheaval in the galaxy at the moment. The Cabal is showing their true strength. I would like you and Angelina to help me find the enemy agent. The Beta was pulled away and is unavailable to help me with this. Will you help?”
Upheaval? Progenitor? What was the cat talking about? I read the message to Lina. “You know we will help, but you have to explain some things to us. What did you mean about an upheaval?”
“The Cabal is far larger than you and the public has been led to believe. They are literally everywhere. The organization is at least a century old. They have ingrained themselves in all aspects of your society. Our progenitor is on Mars and is fighting them. Merlin is fighting them here and up on the space station. They have come out of the shadows just as strange ships have been seen in Old Earth space. Some in government believe it is a power play to grab power while everyone is confused. Here, on this world, they have attempted a few assassinations already.”
“Who is the progenitor?”
The tablet remained silent. Artemis remained silent and just looked at us.
“OK, keep your secrets. What help do you need?”
Chapter 12
The help that the cat needed was for us to build a quantum detector and help her track down the Cabal agent. We were still making plans when the security force arrived in the morning to move us to Freedom Dormitory. The new dorm was pretty cool. It was designed for older more advanced students. Each floor was to have its own gym and workout space. The theory behind it was the older cadets would be more skilled and might injure or kill a younger cadet. It was a little eerie to be the only ones in the whole building. There were construction drones with operators up on the upper levels still working so we weren’t completely alone.
Lina, with Artemis supervising, built the detector. When asked she didn’t answer how she knew how to build something like this. The technology was very advanced. The CATT somehow accessed the personnel database and was able to pull up records. We spend a few days looking into the backgrounds of our fellow students and most of the staff of the school. Beyond the obvious top secret files and special military records which Artemis said checked out there were two sealed files. One was a staff member and the other a cadet. The encryption was not military so Artemis was not familiar with it. She said that she would work on it. We were able to get pictures and names so we had something to start with.
I just knew I had seen that staff member before. Seth Western was the name he was using. He was part of the instructor team teaching ship boarding and capture techniques. That class was on my schedule for next quarter. His basic file stated that he was an expert at the technique. Of course he was an expert he was one of the pirates who captured the Panay! How he was working here and not dead like all the other pirates was a mystery to me. I was under that impression that only the ones that tried to fool the Navy survived. The rest of the pirates died when Commander Lee vented the ship. To me, he was my first choice for a Cabal agent. As a pirate he had already worked for them. The other sealed file was for someone I saw everyday, Cadet Mara Nevins. She was still banned from the firing range and weapons class so I did not see her as much. Every time I did she glared at me like it was my fault her getting kicked out. I could believe that she was a spy or saboteur. The meanness was there already.
We attended class as usual the next week. Lina used the detector and went to all of her classes as usual. Artemis monitored from the security system which we learned she could hack into. She was just like a real cat, born sneaky. Nothing pinged on our radar until it was my turn with the detector. As I was leaving the cafeteria, the device pinged the cat. Someone in the crowd of cadets leaving with me for class was our agent. The video that Artemis showed us later had over a hundred cadets in it. Seth Western was nowhere near the cafeteria at that time so he was out of the running for an enemy agent. I still would watch him. I was just sure he was a pirate.
There were almost too many cadets on campus to find just one we needed. Needle in a haystack and all that. We needed some way to narrow the search down a bit. Lina tried applying crowd density and flow rate equations for the cadets coming out of the cafeteria to locate that one person based on distance but to no avail. Even using facial recognition was out. Many of the cadets had their faces turned down or in other directions. Finally in one of our brainstorming sessions we hit on an idea. The dormitories were the solution. If we could walk the halls, we would be able to find a trace of them. We would have the room number and everything necessary to catch the perpetrator. Neither of us could do it though. Artemis would have to.
We planned for her to scan the dorms next week. Too many cadets were up at all hours during the weekends so there was a chance she could be seen. Classes were coming to an end in a few weeks and we were almost out of time to catch the agent on campus. Soon the commandant would ask for a progress report from Artemis and we wanted to give him the whole package agent and all. We were getting too stressed about this problem so we took a few days off to enjoy the weekend. We took Artemis with us and visited my parents on the farm.
The Farm. I loved my family, but they didn’t know how to act around me at all. None of my immediate family were military. All had fulfilled their required service but as soon as that was done they were back on the farm. They did not consider it a privilege and honor but only a chore that needed to be done. I was a rebel in my own family.
As the air car approached my family's homestead I pointed out the few interesting features to Lina and the cat. The cab driver, a creepy looking guy named Rick Gassko gave us funny looks as we both talked to the cat like she was a person. For what I was paying him to drive us he should mind his own business.
“Tis, what do they grow out here?”
“The soil around here can support a variety of grai
ns. We are far from the coast here so no citrus. But we do grow many of the cereal and bread grains that the planet uses. Wheat, corn, millet, amaranth, buckwheat, and a few others are the primary grains. Much of it has been modified to grow here. My mother grows what’s called a truck garden out behind the house. She has greens, tomatoes, beans, cabbage, and other fresh veggies out there.”
“Why is it called a truck garden?” I forgot that she was from New Texas and a city girl.
“What it means is all the vegetables can be hauled with a truck to market. They used to do that when I was little. The hard times the former Imperial Governor imposed on the farmers around here made them stop selling it and using them to be sure their children had enough to eat. The revolution changed all that for the better, but my family still uses the extra and doesn’t sell it anymore. Don’t be surprised if she makes us pick our dinner out there.”
“Tis, I think that would be really posh! I would love that. My mother grows beans and lettuce out on the balcony of our flat but it is only enough for a single meal.”
She is starting to backslide again. Too many Old Earth British vids again. I had just about gotten all the ancient British out of her, but she found some old vid called Red Dwarf that she had never seen before. There were years of shows and she was trying to binge watch them all. Now she walked around saying things like ‘blimey’ to everyone.
I was actually getting anxious about the visit. Remembering the call I made last week, all I could hear is my mother berating me about the falling cost of grain and the increase in demand for vegetables. They still lived in their own little world out here.
“Do you cadets plan to stay in the military after school is over?” The Cab driver was talking to us again.
“Yes, we are both career military.”
“I’ve met quite a few officers all the years I’ve been driving. Do either of you know Commander Athena Lee?”
“Yes. Why?” Whatever this guy was about to say was going to be creepy I just knew it.
“I had her in the cab. It was fun.” His toothless smile disturbed me somehow.
“So did you have Lieutenant Dar too? Or do I need to mention what you said to her the next time I see her. Since she is in Marine Force Recon she might have a thing to say to you about that?” Gassko shut right up and glared at me the rest of the trip.
“Good one Tisiphone!” Even the cat meowed a congratulations on that comment.
We were almost there. I could see my father’s pride and joy in the distance. His new combine was worth more than half the farm and he loved it more than his family. Or at least it seemed that way sometimes. The family homestead was over a hundred years old and every generation added to the house a little bit more. The official name of the place was the Parthenon. But the locals all called it the quilt. Or crazy quilt depending on who you were talking to.
The house came into view and I heard a gasp from my roommate. “That place is huge! How do you even find your way around in there?”
Originally the house was built on a hill for defensive purposes. Now it was the hill. Every master of the farm added his own style and charm to the monstrosity. It was an architectural miracle in some places. Every period and fad from Old Earth was represented. Only the Lee estate topped it with their mushroom shaped domes.
Chapter 13
The farm was a bustle of energy as the cab dropped us off. Our driver, Rick, barely said a word as he let us out in front of the house. I don’t think he was very happy with what I said to him. He should not have alluded to anything distasteful then. I grabbed our bags from him and turned toward the house. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small flash of light coming from the cat. I glanced at Artemis and smiled. She must have done something to the cab. I would ask her later. Looking about the front of the farm I saw that not much had changed in the months I was away. The monstrosity that we called home still looked the same.
We were just starting the short climb up the stairs when my Mom came out of the house to greet us.
“Tisiphone! You’re here! Welcome home.”
“Hello, Mom.” I gave her a big hug and a kiss on her cheek.
She smiled at me and turned to Lina and Artemis. “Hello, I’m Beatrice.” She turned toward me. “Why did you bring a cat with you? If you needed one we have a couple of dozen out by the barn. Speaking of which. Your Dad might need your help. He’s out there trying to fix that old combine of your grandfather.”
“Why? Doesn’t he have the new one still? We saw it as we came in.”
“He does. But we planted all the fields this season. We really need to get them in soon before they spoil. This is a very profitable year, and we wanted to take advantage. Your brother Ryan sent word that there might be a war or local skirmish and the Militia would be buying this year. Go, see if he needs help. Please? I can show your friend around.”
“Mom, Lina is a mechanical genius, she should come with me. I promise you that if anyone can fix it she can. Come on Lina you will like this thing.” I grabbed the smaller woman by the arm and dragged her with me toward the large barn. Artemis calmly tagged along behind them. Someone needed to keep them out of trouble.
The big barn was one of the oldest buildings on the property not counting the house. My great-grandfather established this place as a homestead a little over a century ago. He was a proud Greek who was one of the early leaders of the colony. He named his place the Parthenon to honor his Greek ancestry. During the early years there were bandit attacks so the original house was built as a fort at the top of the hill. The core of the house today was what was left of that fort. It was almost a bunker. The barn was the second thing he constructed. He used to say, “If you want something to last, protect it.”
The barn held his pride and joy. The doors stood open to let in fresh air and some light. The large hulking combine stood in the center of the barn. It was almost as old as the farm was. No one in recent memory had ever seen it run. It was one of those projects that everyone talked about working on, but never had the time. I saw Lina’s eyes light up the moment she saw it.
“Tis, what is that? It looks really old.”
“That was my great-grandfather’s pride and joy. That is a Blast Master NDR 5000. Grandfather brought it from Earth when he immigrated here. Family legend has it that he spent a billion credits to bring it here. It is what made this farm the best on the planet in the early years.”
“It’s beautiful. Can I work on it?” I laughed. Maybe I should have brought her here sooner.
“Let’s find Dad and see what he is doing.” I led her around the mammoth machine to find Dad on a stool staring into the engine compartment.
“Dad?”
He jumped at the sound of my voice and turned. “Tisiphone! Welcome home!” He gave me a big hug.
“Is this your roommate?”
“Yes, this is Angelina. She prefers Lina.” Lina was peering into the combines engine compartment. “She is an Engineering student.”
“Sir, did you know that the fusion coupler in in backwards and the supplemental gas blow-back tube is in upside down?”
“Really? Where? My father was the last one to work on this thing and he gave up. I thought I would try my hand at it but the engine does not make any sense to me.” He peered into the engine as Lina showed him the parts.
“It looks like someone put the drive mechanism in wrong too. Would you mind if I helped you?” I could see the gleam in her eyes.
“Are you sure Lina? We came out here to relax.”
“Tis, you know that relaxation for me is a project.” I motioned to the machine, and she rolled up her sleeves and grabbed Dad’s toolbox.
My Dad’s eyes had widened at the short version of my name. He knew that I did not like that. “She insisted. Looks like I brought you a mechanic, Dad. Please make sure she eats. She forgets.”
Artemis was up on top on the combine exploring. I looked up at her and motioned toward Lina. She would keep an eye on her. I turned back to Dad
, but Lina already had him helping her! I wandered off back to the house.
The great room in the front of the house still had that ‘home’ smell about it. A grand stairway spiraled up toward the upper levels where much of our family lived. The side wings held things such as a library, computer center, Vid theater, and swimming pool. The common theme was why leave when you can build your own right here. Mom was in the kitchen. She liked to use the main kitchen the most. There were twelve smaller ones scattered around the house. Many of my cousins didn’t like to socialize with other members of the family. They only showed up for work, payday, and big family parties.
The main kitchen was completely automated. Mom sat at the main table and watched the food being prepared on her main console. The setup was another thing that Lina would enjoy. I would be lucky if my family didn’t keep her here.