by M. D. Cooper
“That’s not something we can tolerate,” Sanderson growled. “That damn Dakota down at the MIS is beating its milestones every month. If we have many more setbacks we’re going to have to prove ourselves to get the colony assignment.”
Tanis knew the Dakota was proceeding well, but she hadn’t realized it stood a real chance of moving up its completion date. Looking up the data, Tanis realized if the other GSS ship maintained its accelerated timetable and the Intrepid kept slipping, New Eden’s assignment would be referred to an advisory board and could be assigned to the other ship.
“It’s getting bad. Those radicals are getting bolder every week,” Chief Ian said.
Tanis shook her head. “Those were no radicals on that ship; they were too well armed and equipped. I expect that will be confirmed when they are interrogated, sirs.”
“Are you sure?” The admiral’s eyes narrowed. “All of our information points toward this being the work of small cells of anti-colonization groups.”
“As certain as I can be at this point,” Tanis replied. “They were far too well equipped, as I said. Consider that they took the dockside; then the ship. Within minutes they disabled the AI and were hauling a nuke on board. They would have detonated it too if Angela hadn’t already had the training on disabling devices of that design. All of this was accomplished in a matter of minutes.
“I’ve worked against anti-colonist, anti-expansion groups before. They are determined, but they aren’t that well set up. The folks we were up against had serious credit and decent talent behind them.”
“If you say so.” The admiral shrugged. “If the evidence bears that out, you will report it to me. In your capacity as head of the Intrepid’s security, I will be your commanding officer; however, since you are a colonist and are on Captain Andrew’s boat, you will also be under his direction.”
Ignoring his ship being referred to as a boat, Captain Andrews spoke to Tanis. “Did you notice anything else of interest?”
“Well, for starters, that nuke was military grade, and their nano was up to spec as well. Angela had considerable difficulty handling them and disabling the weapon. Also, their personal armaments were military grade.”
“I wasn’t made aware of that,” the admiral interrupted.
Tanis looked at Commander Evans. She didn’t want to show him up in front of the admiral and captain, but pussyfooting around really wasn’t an option. “TSF doesn’t use them, but they’re a recent spec for Jovian and Scattered World space forces. One of the operatives, a woman named Kris, also had one of the best shimmersuits I’ve ever seen. It incorporated sound-cancelling emitters Angela had to take out before we could even hear her move.”
Commander Evans whistled, and the captain nodded in agreement. “That does sound like better stuff than you’d expect some radicals to have.”
Admiral Sanderson shook his head. “Let’s hope not. I prefer radicals; they’re not nearly as messy. If what you say is true, this could be coming from a government or a major corporation.” He leaned forward, looking at each person in turn. “I don’t have to tell you that it is imperative we keep the media from this. If they start posting stories about the Intrepid being under attack by unknown, well-funded terrorists, we’ll have the folks down on the Dakota all over the GSS for preliminary hearings.”
His gaze lingered on the chief for more than a moment and Tanis glanced up to see the man fidgeting.
“Yes, sir,” he said. Tanis was impressed with how the admiral’s cold gaze could elicit compliance even from people outside his chain of command. Or in the chief’s case, not even in the same military.
“I’ve caught wind of some issues with the schedule and security. How many breaches have there been?” Tanis asked.
Captain Andrews laughed. “This one’s not afraid to ask questions.”
Admiral Sanderson sighed as he leaned back in his chair. “I know. It’s both the best and worst part of being an MICI officer.”
Captain Andrews answered. “There have been several dozen. None like today, but cumulatively they are affecting the schedule. I think we’ve beaten that horse to death, so I won’t belabor the point. You know what’s at stake.”
“I understand, sir,” Tanis said.
“Good. Commander Evans will brief you on his progress on the Dawn so far and then show you to the Intrepid. You’ve got a lot to catch up on and I want security very tight tomorrow night at the ball,” Admiral Sanderson instructed.
“Ball?” Tanis shot the admiral a querying look.
Captain Andrews gave another rich, warm laugh. Tanis wondered if she was the butt of some joke, but his smile appeared genuine and she found herself liking the man despite his odd choice of hair color.
“Joseph will fill you in on that—I’m sure he’ll be overjoyed at not having to oversee the event.” Captain Andrews smiled. “You’ll find that despite our tight schedule we are still required to hobnob with all the deep wallets that keep this sort of thing afloat.”
Sanderson didn’t let a lip twitch. He rose, as did Tanis and Commander Evans. He snapped off a salute, which they both returned, and left the chief’s office. Captain Andrews stood after the admiral left and clasped Commander Evans on the shoulder before he followed the admiral into the hall.
Chief Ian breathed a deep sigh once they left the room.
“If my report is satisfactory…” Tanis said to the chief.
He didn’t even glance at it as he nodded and waved them out of his office. Once in the corridor outside his office, Commander Evans chuckled. “He’s got a stash of vodka in his desk he likes to dip into at times like this; it's far more important than your report.”
Tanis’s brow furrowed. “People are smuggling nukes onto his station and he’s getting sloshed? No wonder folks can slip anything under his nose.”
The commander shot her a glance. “Hey, there are still a lot of hardworking people doing their best to keep things safe. Keep in mind that the security team on the Intrepid is a mix of Generation Ship Service, Terran Space Force, MOS security, Marsian Space Force, and our own internal security. We have to step carefully.” He paused and took a deep breath. “Sir.”
Tanis calmed herself and gave Commander Evans an understanding look. “Those are a lot of toes you’re dancing around. I see why you may have to tread lightly. But I don’t have to like it, and frankly, I may not bother with it.”
The commander’s eyes darted momentarily and Tanis was fairly certain he was viewing information on his HUD. Even though moving the eyes was not necessary to focus on any part of a data overlay, most people couldn’t help the reflex. It was a handy tell.
“I suppose that’s your MO, run in full burn and sort things out later. Let those under you pay the price.” As he spoke, Commander Evans’ body language had changed. Previously he had been alert and slightly defensive, now he appeared guarded, his arms were crossed and his eyes were dark.
“Have my file up, do you?” Tanis’s expression was grave. “I won’t deny I’ve earned a lot of my reputation for being straightforward, but I suspect you are referring to one incident in particular.”
“It does tend to stand out.” He nodded slowly.
“I’m not going to justify it; I don’t need to explain my actions to you.” While Tanis didn’t need to justify herself to a junior officer, she did need to have this man’s support and assistance. “But I will tell you this. Were the recording of that event ever to be released, and I think it should be, people wouldn’t be calling it the ‘Toro Massacre’ anymore.” And I’d have my respect and proper rank back, Tanis added to herself.
Commander Evans didn’t look away—the common reaction to her less pleasant glares, especially the ones she used when this topic came up.
“I’m sorry, sir. I know firsthand that once you get back in and the danger and adrenaline have faded it’s hard to explain why you did what you did. Sometimes even full sensory doesn’t do the real thing justice; it may cover all the inputs, but there’s no fear when you’re watching a recording.”
Tanis nodded. “Agreed. Maybe sometime I’ll let you know more about what happened on Toro. But for now, we have work to do. I want to see the team going over the Dawn.”
Commander Evans led her out of the sector security offices and down several corridors before they entered the open space which served as the passenger debarkation area for the Dawn. Several teams were present; a few physical forensics specialists were scanning all surfaces, while net specialists had a few terminals apart, going over hardware for signs of tampering.
The commander bridged Tanis to the security net and she took stock of the teams inside the ship as well. Most of the personnel were station security, with a few GSS and TSF in the mix. Commander Evans sent a beacon out onto the net and addressed the local teams.
“Ladies and gents,” he simultaneously spoke and broadcast over the net, “if I can have a moment of your time.”
Over the security net she saw all the members stop what they were doing and signal their attention.
“For those of you on the Intrepid’s team, I’d like you to meet your new CO, Major Richards. The major is a MICI specialist and will be heading up our unit—a task I am more than willing to turn over to her.”
“Thank you, Commander.” Tanis took over the ’cast. “For those of you assigned to the Intrepid, I look forward to working with you, and for those of you with the MOS, I appreciate your attention. I’ve filed a report with sector security and Commander Evans has also made it available on our security net. You’ll note the specifics about the hostiles’ weapons and the nuclear device. I also want particular attention paid to how they were able to act with such precise timing. The equipment and software they used to do this is not readily available and the more data we have the sooner we can track them down.
“Dismissed.”
“No fanfare?” Commander Evans asked with a smile. She was glad he had let their tense moment slide by. They would most likely be working together for a very long time. Hundreds of years, if all went well.
“They know their jobs. Me wasting their time with speeches won’t help get answers,” Tanis replied. “Besides, I’m not a huge fan of the new CO that comes in and gets in everyone’s way.”
Commander Evans chuckled. “I’ll be honest, sir. You could be some nasty little toady and I’d still be grateful to hand the reins over to you.” He coughed as he glanced at her. Even with her uniform dirty and wrinkled she cut an imposing figure. “Not that you’re ahh…nasty at all.”
The comment was a bit too familiar, but Tanis found his cocky flyboy behavior amusing. She let him squirm for a moment before letting him off the hook.
“At ease, Commander. I don’t take offense easily…well, not normally anyway.” She decided it was time to get back on task. “Admiral Sanderson indicated you’re to take me to the Intrepid. I assume we have facilities there?”
The commander seemed more than willing to let his gaff slip by. “Yes, sir. Since the radicals started attacking we’ve been given a full Security Operations Center to help keep an eye on things.”
“Lead on, Commander.”
He directed Tanis out of the debarkation area toward a maglev train station. They passed through a lack-luster security check and took a high-speed car to the Intrepid’s berth. The train accelerated to over a thousand kilometers per hour, speeding down its track in silence. Moments after reaching its top speed, the car passed out into open space and Tanis caught her breath as the Intrepid came into view.
The ship was nearly thirty kilometers in length, the dominant feature being the two sixteen kilometer cylinders around which the ship curved protectively. The cylinders gleamed dully in the sunlight as they rotated nearly twice a minute, creating 0.82g of centripetal gravity within their hollow interiors. Inside, the environmental systems were already working, creating habitable areas with fields, lakes and forests that contained the base biosphere to be transplanted to New Eden. Beneath the floor of the eco-space were the stasis chambers. There were pods for the one and a half million colonists, plus several thousand backups to cover failures and the possibility of children being born to any crew who stayed out of stasis.
While the twin cylinders were the ship’s most notable feature, they were not technically part of the ship and would be left behind at New Eden. Also staying behind at the colony were the massive cargo cubes which were positioned between the cylinders. Three were currently in place, but seven more were being readied, each filled with supplies and equipment for building the colony.
Draped over those sections, as though cupping its cargo, was the ship itself.
The front looked much like a porpoise, sleek and curved, tapering as it ran back over the cargo containers to the engines. A large cone rested at its fore—the emitter for the Intrepid’s massive ES ramscoop which would draw in hydrogen and fuel the ship as it journeyed through the interstellar medium.
While the engines were proportionally smaller than many of the ship’s other sections, they were still quite massive, over five cubic kilometers in size. Specs that filled Tanis’s HUD showed they were capable of delivering over a trillion newtons of thrust, creating enough impulse to ultimately bring the ship up to over fifteen percent of the speed of light.
Arching down from the ship’s spine and encompassing the entire structure were the gossamer strands of super CT which held all of the disparate sections together. It appeared almost as if strings of light had drifted through space and settled across the ship, wrapping around the engines, body, cylinders, and cargo pods. It was a breathtaking sight. Tanis had seen few vessels of this size so beautiful.
The commander noticed her sharp intake of breath and smiled. “She has that effect, doesn’t she?”
“It’s magnificent,” Tanis said. “It’s hard to believe I got a berth.”
“I know what you mean,” he replied. “This was the fifth GSS I’ve applied to; I imagine I’m only on it because they’re tired of interviewing me.”
“Are there a lot of military among the colonists?”
“Numbers-wise yes, but then with the size of the colony roster there’s more of everyone.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Tanis said. “Many officers?”
“The usual mess of lieutenants, a few commanders, some good sergeants, and two other majors like yourself. Above you it’s just the admiral, and the captain, of course.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the train’s arrival at their destination.
The maglev station was both large and packed with people. It was directly off the Intrepid’s main cargo dock, and everyone was coming or going from that direction. Tanis observed dozens of potential security nightmares. Something would have to be done about this.
Before they made it across the station and through the short corridor leading to the dock, she was filing reports and looking up data on numbers of essential and non-essential personnel who accessed the dock.
The dock was to scale with the ship.
Needing to handle the transfer of billions of tons of cargo, the dock was over three kilometers long and one deep. In the distance, looming over hectares of crates and equipment, was the Intrepid’s yawning cargo hatch. Tanis’s HUD provided the portal’s size and she was surprised to realize it was large enough to fly the Steel Dawn III through.
Commander Evans led Tanis to a bank of ground transports and they sped off toward the ship. They wove around slower transports and cargo lifters, some hauling massive mechanical devices as tall as a hundred meters, all moving toward the ship’s entrance.
“We could have gone
up a few decks and taken one of the maglevs up there. They run down an umbilical directly to the forward crew section of the ship, but I figured you’d like the view down here,” Commander Evans said from his position at the controls.
Tanis nodded, looking over the operation around her. “Good plan, showing me the security and control down here.”
Commander Evans gave his easy laugh again. “Yeah, you must be a Micky. Only they could think of duty and work when peering into a ten-kilometer-deep cargo bay for the first time.” He gestured at the space within the Intrepid’s yawning portal.
She resisted scowling at him for using the vernacular term for MICI while privately admitting that seeing atmospheric distortion within a cargo bay was unusual.
Twenty meters from the ship, a thick white line was painted on the deck. The far side was Intrepid. Tanis signaled the commander to stop and examined the security threshold. Holographic emitters projected the barrier, vertically displaying it to the flits and cargo hovers that moved around the dock.
The security itself was manned by Terran Space Force Regulars, unlike the previous checkpoints which had all been operated by MOS security forces. Tanis added the fact that TSF and not GSS was running security for this ship to her list of anomalies. Today’s near miss was not the first significant threat this project had faced.
Above, at the levels where maglev tracks moved cargo through the barrier, more Regulars manned the gantries and inspected physical ladings while spider-like automatons crawled over everything, checking sources, destinations and contents.
Someone must have warned the soldiers that their new CO was coming through as they were brisk and businesslike, coolly efficient and quietly threatening. Tanis spotted a lieutenant and gave her a nod. The woman jogged over and saluted.
“Sirs!”
Tanis’s HUD flagged the woman as First Lieutenant Amy Lee. The name caused Tanis to bring up the woman’s record. Two names for a given name and no surname was common for the Scattered Worlds; it was unusual to find someone from the disk in the Terran Space Force. However, that was the case, the lieutenant was from the Scattered World’s capital of Makemake.