by S. H. Jucha
“So, the corporal is an idiot. What’s the news there?” Lise demanded.
“A sniffer detected the girl aboard the Spryte, during the first search, Lise,” Rufus explained, “But there was none detected the second time, and, according to the logs, a blow out of debris or decompression exercise wasn’t scheduled.”
“Interesting,” Lise said, drumming her nails on her chair’s arm.
“Add to that, Lise, my asset noticed the corporal’s search included an extended stay for the Pearl at the YIPS. The ship stayed just long enough for the Spryte to arrive and then left soon afterwards,” Rufus said.
“Lise, everything points to Captain Cinders hiding the girl,” Idrian said excitedly.
“Wonderful, sirs, we know where Aurelia might be hiding, but we don’t know exactly which ship has her, and we have no way of reaching her, if that ship is in the fields,” Lise replied tartly. Her frustration drove her out of the chair, and she crossed the room to gaze out the window of her house at the beautifully maintained garden. “How could such a golden opportunity slip through our hands?”
“Could we expose Markos by alerting the commandant to the mother and second daughter?” Idrian asked.
“A couple of problems with that, my friends,” Lise replied, rounding on the men. “One, we don’t want to hand the commandant the means to attenuate our power once and for all, and, two, Markos would receive a warning of security’s descent on the El in plenty of time to make arrangements for those two women.”
“Do you think he’d dispose of them?” Rufus asked.
“It doesn’t matter what he does with them, including hiding them elsewhere. Security would arrive, find nothing, and the household would say nothing. Once security came up empty at Markos’ residence, do you think they’d search every house and maintenance building in every dome? Not a chance!” Lise reasoned.
“And, at that point, Markos would know one or more of us turned his secret over to the commandant,” Idrian added.
“I don’t think that matters too much anymore,” Lise grumped.
“I thought keeping Markos thinking you were an ally was a key component of our strategy,” Rufus exclaimed.
“It was,” Lise allowed, “but based on the shift in communication with Sestos, I’m thinking that he’s been Markos’ man all along. I believe the governor has been working us.”
“That means he knows we told the commandant about Aurelia,” Idrian sputtered.
“Are you sure, Lise?” Rufus pressed.
“I’m not entirely sure. Call it a gut feeling,” Lise replied, “and without Aurelia to prove our accusations, we are at zero, and we’ve probably exposed ourselves.”
“Then do we have a viable option?” Rufus pressed.
“Markos is still vulnerable, as long as the girl is out there, and the mother and daughter are still in his house. More than likely, he’s as stymied about what to do as we are. I think he’ll be waiting to see what happens, and we’re going to have to do the same thing. Have our assets keep an eye on any of Cinders’ ships when they dock at the YIPS or the JOS. There’s always the chance that one of the captains will slip up, and Aurelia will exit the ship. That could be our opportunity. Our assets should apprehend her and take her directly to the commandant’s office.”
“What if they encounter interference?” Idrian asked.
“Why would you ask that, Idrian?” Lise said, staring coldly at him. “They should use any force necessary against anyone who tries to prevent them from carrying out this directive.”
* * *
Sasha had been pestering her mother for days for news of her sister, but Helena thought it too dangerous to reach out to her contact. But, it had reached the point where Helena couldn’t bear to be without news either. She eased her secret compartment aside and pulled out a comm unit. It was a child’s device, often given to youngsters by their parents so they would always be in contact. In this case, it was programmed to couple with only one other unit.
“Hello,” Helena said quietly into the comm, while Sasha listened with an ear at the suite’s front door for the approach of any footsteps. There was no reply, and Helena moved to the suite’s only window, which faced the rear of the house.
Phillip Borden, the groundskeeper, glanced briefly up at the window, as the curtains moved aside. He scratched his left ear and returned to pruning.
“I forget,” Helena whispered to Sasha. “Scratching the left ear is how long?”
“Ten minutes,” Sasha replied, and Helena hurried to hide the comm unit.
The two women busied themselves during the interim, as time dragged by, agonizingly slowly. They didn’t worry about missing Phillip’s call. He never would call them. That was part of maintaining their secrecy. Helena was the only one to initiate a call and only when she was confident they wouldn’t be discovered.
Helena had contacted Phillip soon after Aurelia’s first meeting with Dimitri. Although her daughter never said anything, it was obvious to Helena that Aurelia was suffering. It took time for Helena to cultivate Phillip’s help. The groundskeeper was too scared to speak to authorities on their behalf for fear of losing his job and the governor’s possible retributions against his family, but he was amenable to sneaking items to her.
Phillip buried his contributions beneath a cutting basket or honey-collection equipment. He would work toward the house, and, when he was beneath the suite, he’d tie the item to the line extended through a windowpane. It had taken Helena days to carefully remove the small pane and formulate a replacement, made of dried cooking dough, for the elastic caulking. Their transport line was made by sacrificing a few pieces of clothing.
“It’s time,” Sasha said, hurrying to the front door and taking up her post.
Helena fetched the comm unit and pressed send.
“I’m here,” Phillip said.
“What news?” Helena asked.
“None,” Phillip replied. “Your girl has disappeared.”
“Is she presumed dead?” Helena asked fearfully.
Sasha glanced at her mother in horror, and Helena motioned toward the door, reminding her of her responsibility.
“No … there’s no indication of that. It’s presumed she’s in hiding. Someone must be protecting her.”
Helena breathed a sigh of relief, and Sasha picked up on the visual and emotional cues.
“Can you tell us anything else?” Helena asked.
“There’s nothing else to share,” Phillip replied. “Do you need anything from me?”
“Not at this time,” Helena replied. “There’s no chance of Sasha and I escaping. We’re being watched too closely.”
“Be careful,” Phillip replied and closed the comm.
* * *
Enclosed in his security office on the bottom floor of the governor’s residence, Giorgio selected Terrell from his contacts and called him.
“Corporal, you’re to hire two teams of operatives. Station one group at the YIPS and the other group at the JOS. They’re to monitor the docking of any of Cinders’ ships, and I don’t mean from a security suite. Find excuses for them to be onsite, where they can watch the spacers exit the ships. I want them on the spot if the girl steps from her ship.”
“The teams should contact me if they spot her, so I can arrest her,” Terrell replied.
“Listen up, Corporal,” Giorgio snarled. “The teams will take her into custody. If they’re on the JOS, they’ll personally march her to the commandant’s office; if they’re on the YIPS, it’s a shuttle ride and then security’s offices.”
“Does that mean they’ll get the reward?” Terrell asked.
“Clean out your ears, Corporal. We’re paying them. They’ll get no reward.”
“I still think I should be the one to arrest her,” Terrell grumbled.
“You know what, Corporal, you’re making a good case for me catching the next El lift and throttling you! The teams will make the capture, because they’ll be authorized to use preemptive
force. If you get involved, you’ll be thrown off security, and you’ll be of no use to us. In which case, that coin we pay you, which you lavishly spend on coin-kitties and kats will disappear. Of course, now that I think about it, that would probably make a lot of the service providers really happy.”
“It’ll be as you request, sir,” Terrell allowed, even though he didn’t mean a single word of what he said. “I’ll need coin. These types will want something up front.”
“I knew they would, Corporal. You’ll receive a transfer to your private account.”
“I’ll make the arrangements immediately,” Terrell replied.
“Before you go, Corporal, let me make one thing clear. Don’t cross me on this. Hire the help, and stay out of it.”
Before Terrell could reply, the comm connection went dead.
-16-
Triton
“Position achieved, Captain,” said the pilot of the Annie. The ship was holding a fixed station out from Triton and was aligned with the edge of the crater. To act as the mining platform for the survey teams and later the recovery crews, Captain Erring was precluded from approaching the moon too closely, which would necessitate circling the body at a sufficient velocity to maintain orbit.
“Darrin, you’re free to launch when ready,” the captain sent over the ship’s comm.
The first mate, Darrin Fitzgibbon, and the survey crew were in vac suits, loading the smaller of the ship’s two shuttles. The Annie’s build was similar to that of the Pearl, except where Captain Hastings’ ship had tanks for hauling frozen gases, Captain Erring’s ship carried a collection of bays for the two shuttles and the mining equipment. Of all three of Cinders’ ships, the Annie had the largest crew.
“You feeling lucky, Nose?” the assay tech, Hamoi, asked over the vac suit comm.
“It’s itching,” said Darrin, his grin displaying through his faceplate.
“We could help,” Aurelia suggested to Belinda, but the second mate shook her head negatively, and the two women stayed back, while the survey crew moved gear. The loading of the shuttle could have gone faster with more hands, but each specialized mining crew preferred to work with the same team. In zero gravity, the equipment had no weight, but it still had mass. Once a piece was in motion, the crew had to be careful how that mass was directed onboard the shuttle and locked down.
Aurelia had asked Belinda to accompany the survey crew. Their excitement at being the first Pyreans to land on Triton was infectious, and she wanted to be part of it. It fell to Belinda to ask permission. When she spoke to Darrin, he decided to leave it up to the captain, which is where the two mates found themselves, moments later.
“Rules scores superlatives on every practical, Captain, and I admit I’ve been pushing her on the reviews,” Darrin said. “She doesn’t care either way. She performs well despite my pressure.”
“That’s because she knows what you’re saying isn’t what you’re feeling,” Belinda stated simply, as if it was common knowledge how emotions influenced Aurelia. But when Yohlin and Darrin stared at Belinda, she added, “It goes back to the ugliness that Rules experienced in the governor’s house. She’s delighted to find people, although they might be tough on her, whose minds evince concern for her. She’s thriving in this environment.”
“I can tell you, Captain, I’ve never seen the crew in a better mood,” Darrin commented. “I’m comfortable putting Belinda in charge of the safety team and letting Rules work with her. It’ll be good training for the girl, and it will keep our people in the right frame of mind … or rather Rules will keep them in the right frame of mind.”
“Belinda, do I understand that Rules’ thing works in vacuum?” Yohlin asked, swinging a finger at each of their heads.
“It seems to work like any comm signal might, Captain. Hers is low strength, naturally, but it can penetrate most single layers of this ship and transmit through vacuum.”
Darrin’s mouth fell open before he could recover control.
“Okay, Darrin, add them to your survey crew, as you wish,” Yohlin said. “Belinda, you take good care of that girl. I don’t want to have to be the one who has to call Captain Cinders and tell him we lost her.”
Darrin glanced at the two women standing far to the side, as the crew loaded the shuttle. Please let me not have made the mistake of my life, he thought.
The pilot eased the fully loaded shuttle out of the bay. Rather than the standard square, the bays were rounded capsules, shaped like the tanks on the Pearl. It made for a more convenient design, attaching them in a ring around the ship’s axis.
“What do you like, Nose?” the shuttle pilot asked, when they neared the surface of Triton.
“Slow circle around the crater,” Darrin replied. “Then close it in until you cross the center.” Darrin sat in the copilot seat and was glued to the display monitor that was tied into the nose cam.
After the pilot completed his tour of the crater, he looked over at the first mate, expecting a decision, but Darrin sat ruminating on what he’d seen. Finally, he muttered, “That’s the strangest-looking, impact crater I’ve ever seen. Okay, we need to get to work. Set us down about two kilometers back from the edge where we started our circle.”
The shuttle touched down, and the weightless environment of the ship’s axis was gone. “Ugh, gravity,” Darrin grunted on open comm.
“Kind of takes the fun out of vac suits,” Aurelia commented to Belinda. She thought she was on a private channel to Belinda, which her partner usually set up. But the survey crews’ laughter, which came back to her, told her differently.
“Now, that I agree with, Rules,” Darrin said, and Aurelia grinned at Belinda.
When the pilot gave the okay, Darrin ordered the shuttle unloaded. The first piece off, which was the last item on, was a huge expandable shelter. The crew wrestled it off the ship and followed that up with several pressurized air tanks. The ground was cleared of small rocks, which might cut into the tough outer layer, and the entrance to the shelter was pinned to the ground. A hose from the air tanks to the shelter was hooked up, and a tech started the air flow.
“Belinda, you and Rules monitor the expansion,” Darrin said, bounding off to the shuttle.
“On the other side, Rules,” Belinda ordered. “We keep pulling on the back end of the shelter to ensure it expands fully.”
Aurelia grunted and heaved on the shelter’s tethers, sewn into the outer cover, to keep the rear end walking back. The shelter was constructed of rugged outer and inner liners, sandwiching a thick core of BNNT. It would serve as a temporary shelter for the survey team, who would search for prime excavation targets. When they were located, the miners would core into the rock near the first site and seal the walls to create a permanent shelter to better protect the crew from explosive decompression accidents and long-term solar radiation exposure.
The shelter’s face consisted of a long tube that functioned as an airlock, allowing the entire survey team to enter and exit together. After the initial unloading, the crew split up. Half of them began attaching equipment to the exterior of the shelter — generators, hoses that connected the shelter to and from air scrubbers, and heaters. Then, inside the shelter, they set up stations for medical emergencies, suit repairs, tank charging, meals, cots, personal waste, and assaying the samples.
The other half of the team returned to the shuttle, and the pilot lifted for the Annie. Once aboard, the crew loaded the equipment necessary to obtain the core samples — a small rover that could carry four crew members, a collection of core sampling tubes, various safety gear, food supplies, and insulated water tanks with heaters.
The crew worked around the clock to complete the setup of the base camp and shelter. Only when Darrin pronounced their preparations complete was the survey team able to rest. Inside the shelter, each member opened a small skeletal frame to hang up their vac suits next to their cots. In the pecking order of rank, the tanks were recharged, three at a time, starting with Darrin, Belinda, and Aurelia.
Darrin and Belinda, standing in skins and deck shoes, were drawing hot drinks and preparing meals for the crew.
“Look at them,” Darrin whispered to Belinda. “They’ve been worked to exhaustion, but you wouldn’t know it.”
Belinda’s eyes roved over the crew. Most sat or lay on their cots in various poses of rest, but contented smiles played on their faces. Immediately, Belinda looked at Aurelia. She sat on her cot, her legs crossed, and her eyes closed. Belinda had rarely seen such a look of pure bliss on the young girl’s face.
“And how do you feel, Darrin?” Belinda asked quietly.
“Me? … I feel good,” Darrin replied, frowning slightly at Belinda, before he realized he was enjoying the same effect as the crew, and he searched out Aurelia. “Oh,” he muttered when he saw the expression on the girl’s face.
Belinda chuckled. “She’s ecstatic. So, everyone in her immediate vicinity will be too. She can’t help it, not yet, anyway.”
“I hope happy doesn’t mean unsafe,” Darrin replied.
“I’ve spent weeks training Rules, Darrin. When I got serious, so did she. When she focuses on the work, so will the crew. Trust me on this.”
Darrin nodded his acceptance of Belinda’s words and kept his reservations to himself. After a meal, he spoke to Yohlin, confirming the completion of the base camp and giving her a start time for their renewed efforts after some rest.
The team slept for nine hours with the shelter’s safety equipment monitoring air pressure, air quality, electrical supply, and several other critical factors.
Darrin stirred when his comm unit beeped at him, and he sat up on his cot with a groan. “Ugh, gravity,” he heard and glanced over at Aurelia’s cot. She sat in her preferred, cross-legged position and was smiling at him.
“Did you sleep, Rules?” Darrin asked, with concern. He couldn’t afford to have a sleep-deprived crew member on his team.