by M. D. Cooper
“Amy Lee is our head of external security. She’s a former Marine from the MCSF. The three platoons under her are from a few fully manned Q companies down on the ring. No commander with them, so we put her in charge.”
Tanis nodded.
Angela all but echoed what Tanis was thinking.
“You appear to have things well in hand here, Lieutenant.” Tanis looked at the Regulars manning the checkpoints. “We’ll be expanding our area of control. I want you to begin considering shift and personnel changes for moving our perimeter out to the maglev stations and elevator banks.”
The lieutenant’s eyes widened, but she didn’t question how Tanis planned to take control of a few kilometers of the MOS.
“Yes, sir!”
“Carry on.” Tanis saluted and they moved forward to be processed by the soldiers. Minutes later they were driving over one of the bridges between the dock and the ship.
The cargo bay was even larger once inside. It turned out to be a main corridor off a hundred other cargo bays; a corridor large enough to fly the Steel Dawn III through.
Equipment moved through it on a dozen different levels. Holo emitters outlined several roads for ground vehicles and Commander Evans sped the ground car down one, deftly following its jinks and curves.
The corridor ran to the far side of the ship, some ten kilometers distant. Tanis cycled her vision and saw what appeared to be a multi-tiered docking port for external cargo. The construction drones clustered in the distance showed that it was still incomplete and all cargo was being funneled through the shipyard’s dock. She glanced back at the porous dock security and wondered what it would take to accelerate the external dock’s completion.
After two kilometers, they passed the entrance to the port cylinder.
“That one’s been named ‘Old Sam’,” Commander Evans said. “The other is named ‘Lil Sue’.”
“Have you been in them?” Tanis had been in dozens of cylinder habitats, but never one that was mounted in a ship.
“A few times, yeah. Ouri, one of our lieutenants in the SOC, has managed to get her hands on a small lakeside house in Old Sam. I guess she’s also pretty big into botany and is maintaining some special garden and overseeing several other areas in there. We’ve had a few cookouts down by the lake recently.”
“What, with a fire?”
“Yeah, nuts, eh? We had no trouble whatsoever getting the authorization for it. Apparently the carbon cycle needs a little help, so the more the merrier.”
“Fires on a starship for fun.” Tanis shook her head. “Not something I think I’ve ever heard of before.”
“It’s nice when we do it, you’d think you’re dirt-side.” Commander Evans smiled absently as he spoke.
His features cut a nice profile. Either he had good genetics, or his parents had paid special attention to his looks.
“I’ve been in a few of those cylinder habs before. Every now and then I look up and see a lake or a forest rotating over my head and have to suppress the instinct to duck.”
Commander Evans laughed and they drove in silence the rest of the way to the tubes.
The lifts were guarded by GSS security and they processed Tanis and Joe swiftly. They stepped into an empty car and held the handrails as the platform shot up through the tube.
The tube’s walls were clear plas and the effect gave the sensation that the floor of the cargo bay was falling away from them. Above were several levels containing everything from life support to supplies and storage. Once past the lower levels, the tube shot out into empty space, anchored to one of the gossamer struts running around this section of the ship. They sped over the matter accelerator which ran from the ramscoop back to the engines and moments later were swallowed by the upper section of the vessel.
“You know”—Tanis peered through the plas—“Even if you take off the cylinders, scoop, engines, and even the docking levels below, this ship is still one of the largest I’ve ever been on.”
“I know what you mean,” Commander Evans said. “I’ve taken the grand tour by maglev train. It literally takes an entire shift.”
The tube terminated in a large transit station and their security clearance was checked again by GSS authorities. There seemed to be a clear division of TSF and GSS control on the ship. There were also some MSF folks in the mix. It shouldn’t have bothered Tanis, but after what she had seen on the MOS that day she had a bad taste in her mouth when she thought of the Mars Security Force having anything to do with her safety.
Commander Evans led her across the terminal to a maglev and they took it to the forward sections of the ship, arriving at their final stop roughly a kilometer aft of the bridge. The Security Operations Center was just off the train station’s foyer and they stepped through the sliding double doors into a controlled chaos.
The main room was a two-tier affair with physical and holo consoles arrayed in three concentric rings. Interspaced amongst these were several large multi-d holo screens showing various news and security feeds. Leading off the outer circle were several doors to private offices, the local synaptic processing networks, and several labs.
They walked to the executive offices while the staff in the ops center cast her wary glances. Her address down at the Dawn had been posted to the SOC’s private net and contained her designation as the CO, so everyone was already aware of the change in command. She placed a hand on Evans’ shoulder when they reached the upper tier and turned to address the room.
“As you are all already aware, I am Major Richards, your new CO. Right off I want you to know that I’m not here to supplant Commander Evans as much as to supplement him. I’ve spent a bit of time working ops like this: competing priorities, unknown threats; it’s an ugly situation.” The looks in the room were coolly appraising, no one showing their feelings one way or another. Without a doubt some of the people she was addressing had alerts on their HUDs that had matched her ID to the media coverage from ten years earlier.
“I’m not here to shake things up, but I’m also not going to shy away from saying what needs to be said, or doing what needs to be done. I know you all have a lot of work to do, but I want to see section chiefs and reps in the conference room…”
“At 1600 hours this afternoon.” The crowd remained unreadable. “That’ll be all.”
Commander Evans gave her a scrutinizing look.
Tanis smiled at Evans.
Commander Evans showed Tanis into her office and she got herself situated. He transmitted her codes to the CO’s private system on the SOC net and the desk recognized her and logged her on. Tanis opened several subnets and looked over the pending issues and upcoming schedule. She could tell Evans had a concise and organized mind, but at the same time he lacked familiarity with large security operations. There were duties he performed exceptionally well, and others he appeared to not have been aware of at all.
Not that she could blame him. Pilots almost never had AI, and Evans was no exception. The majority of their available cranial space was taken up by the structural bracing and specialized processors which were needed to handle a spaceship at velocities near half the speed of light. Pilots simply didn’t have the implants for a job like this.
Her orgstruct showed four section heads, and she pulled up their files and reviewed them in preparation for the meeting. Her head of the Lab and Forensics was Terry Chang. Though Terry was a colonist who would be making the trip, until they debarked she would be listed as one of the GSS contractors. Her primary qualification was several years managing New Seattle’s police labs on Mars and her record showed good performance.
Net Security was headed up by Lieutenant Caspen. He was Mars Security Force, attached to the station, and from what Tanis could see his record wasn’t particularly impressive. He had a few complaints against him for insubordination and some of his COs had private and rather unflattering comments on his file. From what Tanis could tell, it was not immediately apparent why he would be on an assignment like the Intrepid.
She left his file open on the desk’s holo and shifted her attention to First Lieutenant Amy Lee. She was the only person in the SOC that was TSF Marine branch and not Navy or Regulars. It would explain why she was down at the physical perimeter.
The MSF liaison was a Commander Gren. Because MSF followed more traditional naval structure and not the mixed format that the TSF used, Gren technically outranked Commander Evans. In the TSF the rank of commander was analogous to the old rank of captain. It had been renamed when the structure merged to avoid confusion with ship captains. Gren’s rank was functionally the same as Tanis’s. She was getting a better picture of why Commander Evans had struggled so much to get cooperation out of the Marsian personnel. A perusal of several incidents showed that Gren tended to treat MSF and MOS security personnel as though they were under his direct command. On top of that, a MOS security liaison was present as well—a Sergeant Davidson. Davidson’s record was better than most of the personnel that the MOS had supplied to the Intrepid, but Commander Gren overrode any good suggestion the sergeant made.
Shipstats listed the Intrepid’s current population at just over ten thousand, and once the colonists began to arrive to be put into stasis, daily averages would be several times that number. In preparation for that time an internal police force was present, headed by First Lieutenant Ouri of the GSS. Ouri seemed competent enough and was temporary crew on the Intrepid with a permanent colony position upon arrival.
The Intrepid was unlike most colony ships in that it was designed to make multiple trips. Upon reaching New Eden it would detach the cylinders and cargo pods. Once the orbital habitat was functioning, the ship would return to Earth to pick up more cargo pods and a pair of new cylinders.
Typically the entire ship remained at the colony, usually being salvaged or turned into insystem transport. This was the first GSS to have a permanent crew that would not be staying at the destination.
Angela gave the mental equivalent of a sigh.
…………………………
Tanis sat at the head of the conference table sipping a cup of coffee. It was just before 1600 and the various department heads and liaisons began to file in. Tanis had requested a physical meeting as it was much easier to read people when they were actually in front of you—easier for Angela to monitor them too.
While the conference room was listed as a nanoprobe-free zone, the records for previous meetings indicated that room sweeps were not normally implanted. She was betting that someone here was used to taking advantage of that and would be in for an unpleasant surprise. Angela was remotely controlling the scanning systems and would alert Tanis the moment she caught any bots moving in the room.
She eased back in her seat, silently eyeing each person as they entered. Commander Evans took a seat beside her and leaned over whistling softly.
“Got them all here in person, that’s something I never managed to pull off.”
Tanis tapped her collar. “It’s the oak leaves. They imply wisdom. Makes people listen better.”
“I think my two bars must somehow suggest I’m easy to ignore.”
“I’m sure part of it is that they all want to size me up,” Tanis said. “See how they can mess with me.”
“There will most certainly be messing, sir.”
A minute later the last straggler came in: Commander Gren, as Tanis had anticipated. He took his seat across the table from her and held her eye for several moments. Tanis flicked her eyes to the left and blinked rapidly as though she were accessing her Link. She didn’t have any tells, but it never hurt to make people think they had you all figured out.
“Good afternoon,” Tanis began. “I’d like to thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules for this little session.” The stares from around the table were blank, no one revealing anything until they had a better idea of her intentions. “I’ve been going over our records and procedures and I believe we will have to make some changes.”
“What types of changes might those be?” Lieutenant Caspen asked.
“Changes at every level,” Tanis replied. “Commander Evans has done an admirable job. However, there have still been security breaches, some minor, others not so minor. Luckily—and I do mean luckily—nothing serious has penetrated as far as the Intrepid itself. However, we need to determine what is the root cause of these breaches if we are to consider ourselves successful.”
“We already know what the root is,” Sergeant Davidson said. “MOS Sec is very certain the disturbances are originating with small radical groups.”
“I don’t think you can label what happened today as a ‘disturbance’,” Lieutenant Ouri said. “Those terms are for the press. We nearly had a catastrophe.”
“Speaking of things that are for the press, and things that aren’t”—Tanis cast a stern eye down the table—“Lieutenant Caspen, please recall your nanoprobes. As I’m certain you are aware, they’re not allowed in here.”
“I’m not sure I know what you are talking about,” Caspen said. “I don’t have any probes deployed.
There were several distinct hissing sounds and Tanis smiled. “Not anymore, you don’t.” The lieutenant shifted uncomfortably and Tanis continued. “As I was saying, we need to determine who is behind these attacks. My brief encounter with the en
emy proves we are dealing with an organized, well-funded group. They have both physical and net resources beyond what any known anti-colonization group possesses.”
Lieutenant Caspen spoke up again, “I looked you up, Major. You’re that Tanis Richards. You’ve got a history of going overboard in situations. How can we be sure you’re not doing that now?”
Tanis and Caspen stared at each other for several long moments before she broke his gaze and looked around the table. “Most of you have read my file. Surprisingly, one or two of you haven’t. You are, of course, seeing only the non-classified portions of it. I’ve battled more radical splinter groups than I’m certain you even knew existed. Most have quality tech, and they are all very dedicated, but none of them would have the funds or the contacts to sneak a nuclear weapon aboard a station as secure as this one.” Only by supreme effort did she keep the sarcasm from her voice. “Only a group with corporate contracts, or a mercenary organization, would be able to pull that off.”
“If you say so.” Commander Gren’s tone was acerbic.
Gren and Caspen had an obvious partnership. Caspen would make the less defensible statements with which to draw her out, following which Gren would attempt to devalue her answers. It wasn’t even worth rising to the challenge.
“I do say so.” Tanis locked eyes with him. “Your interpretation of the today’s events aside, I’ll be going ahead with my alterations to the Intrepid’s security structure. I’ve reviewed all of the reports each section has logged over the last few months and several of you have echoed my own thoughts. There are too many cooks in the kitchen. Effective immediately we will be removing much of the diversification in our command structure.”
At that statement, several uncertain looks were cast around the table. Tanis couldn’t help but revel in the discomfort for a moment. In her experience, there was no way a group could pull something like the job on the Dawn and not have people in all the local security organizations.