by M. D. Cooper
Ouri began her hosting duties, greeting and introducing all the visitors as they arrived. A few assistant heads from the SOC that Tanis knew came down the path next, as well as the division head for stage three terraforming on the colony roster. The chief New Eden 1 station engineer came a bit later; she would be the woman in charge of taking the two habitation cylinders and mounting them to a space station when the Intrepid reached its destination. Her escort was the head of habitat environmental systems, a large-framed man with an easy smile and the biggest moustache Tanis had ever seen in person.
“A damn fine job you’ve done with your neck of the woods,” he said to Ouri as he surveyed the area around them. “You’ve turned what was little more than dirt two years ago into a very nice place indeed.” He turned to Tanis and gave her a hearty clap on the shoulder. “And you’re the lassie I understand we owe being in one piece to.”
“I’m just happy to be here.”
“Believe us when we say we’re happy too,” said Erin, the station engineer. “You’re doing a fantastic job.”
“I want to get out of here as much as the next person. Just doing my part.” Tanis hated all the compliments.
“Not here here, I hope,” Ouri said with a smile as she handed out drinks.
“Only in as much as here is still in the Sol system.” Tanis accepted the offered beverage. She looked up at the arching landscape overhead, just beginning to be draped in the shadows of dusk. “Once we get outsystem, here is a place I can see myself frequenting in the future.”
Later in the evening, Tanis found herself sitting with Ouri and Joseph around a fire that had been made by some of the revelers for the purpose of roasting marshmallows.
“I’ve been looking over the proposed duty schedules and I realized something odd.” Ouri slowly rotated her marshmallow over the fire.
“Mmmm?” Tanis said around a mouthful of sticky goo.
“Well, I don’t have a debarkation date for Abby and Earnest,” Ouri said. “I think they’re staying on.”
“Huh? That can’t be right. What would people like them be doing on a colony mission?” Joseph asked.
“I know,” Ouri said with a nod. “That’s what’s so strange.”
Tanis gave momentary debate to telling the truth and decided to do so. “They’re trying to keep it hush hush,” she said after finally managing to swallow the three marshmallows in her mouth. She erected a security barrier around them and put a hand over her mouth to mask her lip movement. “From what I can tell, they’re coming along. Even stranger, I think Terrance is coming too.”
“What? Why’s he coming? Doesn’t he have some big multi-world corporation to look after?” Joseph asked.
“More than one.” Tanis nodded. “But he’s coming nonetheless. There’s something afoot here, something else. Think about it. Andrews is one of the best, one of the most qualified starship captains alive. Terrance is the owner of one of the largest private corporations in history and Earnest and Abby are two of the most important scientific minds of all time. Couple that with the fact that Admiral Sanderson is nowhere near retirement and you have a very interesting set of circumstances.”
“Interesting doesn’t even begin to cover how weird all of that is,” Ouri agreed.
“No kidding. When you consider all of that together...” Joseph nodded.
“Even more,” Tanis continued. “Why does the Intrepid have an AI that could manage a dozen planets—possibly the most advanced AI ever—and why are we taking over twice the personnel and equipment than any other colony ever has before?”
“You’re making me nervous,” Ouri said. “What do you think it all means?”
“Damned if I know.” Tanis prepared another marshmallow. “But one thing is for sure. Something very interesting is planned for New Eden. Something that someone else doesn’t want to happen, and even our own benefactors don’t want us to know about.”
“So you’re saying that we shouldn’t be speculating amongst ourselves.” Joseph couldn’t help but cast an eye around him.
“I think we’re best off not knowing what the underlying elements are here.” Tanis nodded in agreement. “At least not for now. Terrance is a bit shifty, but I’d trust Captain Andrews with my life. Sanderson may be a dick, but he’s a by-the-book dick who wouldn’t be involved in something subversive.”
“Damn, I hope you’re right,” Joseph said.
“When haven’t I been?” Tanis smiled as she dropped the security shield and proceeded to roast her next marshmallow, signaling the end to the conversation.
The gathering lasted long into the night. Some visitors left early, but others arrived late; a few of Ouri’s neighbors around the lake came by to visit as the evening progressed. It was nice; it was a hint of what their lives would be like when they arrived at New Eden.
Until then, before they could be on their way, the work of completing the ship had to be done; the schedule had to be maintained. The GSS Dakota was meeting all of its milestones early, and with the recent security issues, no one was feeling as confident as they had several years ago.
But tonight, for a few hours, everyone forgot those concerns; everyone pretended they had arrived at New Eden and were living the life they had always dreamed about. Tanis wasn’t sure when her dream had begun, but she knew now where it would end.
AMBUSH
STELLAR DATE: 3227223 / 09.27.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Mars Outer Shipyards (MOS)
REGION: Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation
“How is it, Commander, that you seem to end up a part of my security detail so often?” Tanis asked Joseph. “Don’t you have a fighter to fly or something?”
Joseph laughed his deep chuckle that Tanis found herself liking more and more every day. “I’ve got plenty of flyboys and flygirls now to handle that end of things. My main concern is keeping you alive so they don’t force me to do your job again.”
It was Tanis’s turn to laugh. A more common occurrence in Joseph’s company—perhaps a connection existed… “I’m glad you have such an altruistic motivation for keeping me safe.”
“I’m all altruism. So, where are we going today?” Joseph asked.
“To meet with some mercs that want to capture or kill me.”
“Pardon?” Joseph nearly tripped. “Don’t have enough trouble in your life as it is? Do you always have to go running toward it?”
PFC Lauder chuckled at that and earned a glare from Corporal Peters.
“It’s OK.” Tanis glanced at the four members of squad one/fireteam one from Forsythe’s platoon—her usual security detail. “We’re meeting with Lieutenant Grenwald first. He’s got tactical on the situation. Besides,”—she gave Joseph a playful look—“if you’d known there would be danger, would you have passed on joining me?”
Joseph coughed and stammered, “Of course not.”
She explained the situation to her companions as they boarded a maglev. Some mercs had set up what they must have thought would be a great lure; after somehow taking control of a cargo ship that ran tech goods to the Intrepid from Ceres, they slipped some contraband into a shipment. Not enough to set off all the alarms, but enough to get Tanis down there in person.
“So then why are you going down yourself?” Joseph asked. “Couldn’t you have Grenwald take them without you?”
“Perhaps, but there’s a possibility they may have rigged the ship to blow. I have the best AI and highest-grade nano available at the moment, so I’m the best one to run point.”
A cross corridor away from the dock, they slipped through a nondescript doorway and came face to face with Grenwald’s platoon.
“Is everything in readiness, Lieutenant?” Tanis asked.
“It is, sir. We’ve got one/two on the dock, four remote sniping units in the ducts, and the rest of the team is ready to move in if needed. I’ve also got a direct line to engineering in case anything goes wrong.”
“Excellent.” Tanis nodded. “Comm
ander Evans and my detail are with me. Don’t shoot unless I give the word; the more live bodies, the better.”
“Yes, sir.”
With that they swung back into the corridor and around the bend. Dock E3 was directly ahead, its bay doors watched by two guards who were TSF Regulars. Grenwald had briefed them via the Link and they saluted Tanis and Joseph as they stepped onto the dock.
Dock E3 was a multilevel affair with ships docking at the highest level and cargo moving via down-ramps to the lower storage and distribution areas. Looking up through the twisting array of chutes and gravity-powered elevators, Tanis saw four ships in interior berths.
Her overlay lit up with the people on the dock, highlighting the positions of the four Marines who were undercover as cargo handlers, working the shipments on the other vessels. Red halos surrounded the men from the suspect ship and their cargo glowed yellow.
Tanis and Joseph stepped onto an open lift and rode it up to the level at which the ships were berthed. Ahead, the mercs posing as traders were looking annoyed as one of the MOS’s cargo inspectors read off the long list of statutes they had violated.
“And you are certainly going to be cited with failure to declare deviation of flight plan as you were half a percentage off on each of your two final trajectory alterations. MOS will be levying a fine against you for that.”
“Look, we just want to deliver our cargo and get off this tin can,” said the man who appeared to be in charge. “We’ve got a schedule to keep and this delay is going to cost us more money than your damn fines.”
The cargo inspector’s AI must have notified him of their approach; he turned and gave Tanis an exasperated look. “I’m sorry to have to call you down here, Major, but as per your regulations you are to be brought in on any event of this nature.”
“Indeed I am.” Tanis nodded. “So what have these fine men brought aboard your station?”
“Nothing that’s any big deal,” the pseudo-captain commented.
“They’ve brought a C9 type lubricant onto the ship.”
Joseph asked.
“What receiver ordered this?” Tanis asked.
“None of yours,” the inspector said. “Manifest has it destined for AR Spec, a systems assembler on the station that handles final assembly of nav controller boards for the Intrepid. Except this isn’t what they ordered.” Tanis already knew all of this, but it was best to let the little drama play out.
“So someone shipped the wrong cargo?”
“No, the seal on the container has been tampered with. This cargo was replaced, that’s why I called you down.”
Tanis shifted her hard stare to the merc in charge. His ID said he was Captain Sundy, but she had conflicting data. Some records did show that the man before her was Captain Sundy, but older ones had the bio of a completely different person, the hallmark of either shoddy work or a rush job generating a fake ID.
“I expect you have full serial records on this cargo?” she asked. “I’ll want to know everything about it, from the moment it was conceived of.”
“Of course,” the captain smiled. “If you’ll step into our hold I can bring the data up.”
Grenwald gave the signal over the Link and two of the Marines from one/two boarded a crawler headed down the length of the dock. It was on a route that would take it very close to Tanis and her team; she hoped the mercs didn’t pick up on the timing.
“I don’t see why that’s necessary. Why don’t you step onto your ship and load the information onto a plas? That way I can have it handy for my report.”
“I would, ma’am, but our plas interface is down right now. I can let you Link to the ship to get the information, but that’s it.”
“Very well.” Tanis shrugged. She motioned with her head for Joseph and one/one to follow.
Joseph said privately to Tanis.
Tanis sent an image of her avatar sticking its tongue out at Joseph, as they stepped over the threshold into the cargo bay of the small freighter. Even as she did so, her eyes darted up to catch the furtive motion of more than one man on an upper catwalk that circled the compartment.
She sent commands over the combat net to Argenaut and Lauder to stand on the far side of the hold and cover the catwalk. Tannon and Peters took up positions on either side of the hold’s airlock.
The merc posing as Captain Sundy led Tanis and Joseph to a hard terminal and brought up the cargo’s records. She turned to the console and let it appear as though she was reading it in detail. What she was really doing was positioning her left hand—which the merc couldn’t see—under her jacket and on her pulse pistol.
Angela deployed remote nano, which relayed multiple views of the hold to the combat net; enabling Tanis to watch the merc captain from behind. He paused for a moment, thinking her distracted by the readout, and then slid a hand between two crates.
“I wouldn’t do that, Captain Sundy.” Tanis didn’t turn as she addressed the captain.
“Do what?”
“Don’t pull that weapon out from there. I’ve got mine trained on you already. Your ship is surrounded and we’re going to have to take you into custody.”
The man gave an ugly laugh. “You’re in error, unfortunately. We’ve got people on the inside. Your little TSF force won’t be able to help you.”
“And yours won’t be able to help you.” Tanis fired. The shot hit him square in the chest. It knocked him back, but wasn’t lethal. He’d be doing some talking later, lots of talking.
Lauder let out a cry as she raised her rifle and peppered the catwalk with pulse blasts. Argenaut was moments behind her, his laser out, intensity set low—just enough to blister the skin if it made contact. Behind them, Peters and Tannon were firing shots back onto the dock as the mercs stationside attempted to rush them. The MOS inspector went down under a hail of projectile fire from the mercs.
The two members of one/two arrived on the crawler and the mercs ended up caught in a heavy crossfire. Moments later they were down. However, Angela’s nano was still picking up four heat signatures on the catwalk inside the hold. Her detail, assisted by Joseph, focused all their attention on that problem.
As she scanned the combat net for the best view of the catwalk, several explosions rocked the dock outside.
Williams filled her in.
Ta
nis gave it a moment’s thought.
A moment later, affirmative signals showed on the combat net. Tanis could hear boots pounding on the dock and Jensen and Lang burst through the airlock.
“Seal it!” Tanis yelled. “Commander, take Peters and Tannon and secure the bridge, we’ll finish off our friends above.”
“Like hell you will!” a voice called down.
Using hand signals, Tanis directed the Marines to lay down suppressive fire. That done, she instructed Angela to lock down the airlock and attempt to get in contact with the ship’s AI.
Tanis looked for the weapon the merc captain had been going for. It was a high-powered pulse rifle. Just what the doctor ordered. She took stock of the situation from everyone’s feeds, then rolled out from behind her protective cargo and placed three well-aimed shots into the torso of a merc as he rose up from behind his cover to take aim. Three left on the catwalk.
Angela had gotten the ship’s layout and fed it to the combat net. Joseph sent a thanks and informed Tanis that he was almost at the bridge. No resistance encountered thus far.
Jensen got off a shot that nailed a merc in the head and he toppled over the railing to the deck below. Two enemies left.
Re-examining the situation, Tanis climbed onto a crate and pulled herself up some webbing to get a new vantage point. Sure enough, just as a merc leaned over to get his gun around his cover, he came right into view. Two shots to the torso and he slumped over.
“Last man,” she called out. “Care to surrender the easy way, or get beaten into submission?”
A scuffling sound echoed in the hold as a gun was tossed over the railing and the man stood up.
“Good choice, man,” Lauder grinned. “With all of us gunning for you, you’d’ve been pulverized. And wouldn’t that just mess up your pretty merc face?”