by Isaac Hooke
When she reached the door labeled thirty-two she glanced toward the winding hallway’s ceiling speaker.
“Open up lot thirty-two, please,” Shaw said.
The door clicked and then opened upward.
The storage lot was empty, just like the footage from her Implant had shown.
“So what are we looking for?” Tahoe asked, following her inside.
“Not sure,” Shaw said. “Fourth star on the left and straight on until midnight...”
There were long, floor-to-ceiling bars set into the rectangular walls at regular intervals, ten per side. She went to the fourth bar on the left wall and examined it. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it. She felt all along the surface, searching for an indentation or recessed button of some kind.
“Anything?” Lui asked.
“Nope,” Shaw said. She examined the rest of the empty compartment, gazing from ceiling to floor. Nothing stood out at her.
“There has to be something...” Lui said.
“Maybe we misinterpreted December twentieth,” Tahoe said. “Maybe we should be looking at unit twelve. Take twenty steps inside, and then look for the fourth bar from the left of that position.”
“There are countless ways to interpret that December line,” Lui said. “I guess we’ll just have to try all the variations, one at a time.”
“Yes, after we finish here.” Shaw paused to consider something. “What if it’s not the bars, but the spaces between them that count as the ‘stars’ in the riddle?”
She went to the wall area that matched the fourth section the bars subdivided. Then she began searching again. There were no secret switches on the surface, none that she could find anyway.
“Straight on until midnight,” Lui said. “Maybe it’s a reference to hands on an analog clock? Midnight is up.”
“It’s also dark at midnight,” Shaw said. “Attendant!” she called. “Turn off the lights in this unit, but leave the hallway globes active, please.”
A moment later the cell plunged into darkness.
“Attendant, shut the door,” she said.
The security door sealed behind them.
The door apparently wasn’t airtight, and small gaps were evident between the slats composing the surface, allowing small points of light to penetrate. Those points of light cast small dots against the different walls inside.
“And here are our stars,” Shaw said.
She went to the fourth “star” on the left and touched it. Instead of her fingers lying flat against the wall, she encountered something knobby just in front of it, something that wasn’t visible to the naked eye.
“Lights on!” Shaw commanded.
Illumination returned to the unit. Shaw touched the wall again and once more was met with invisible resistance.
“Look up!” Lui said.
She glanced at the ceiling. Part of a cylindrical container had come into view above her. As she moved her hand back and forth in front of the invisible object on the wall, the motion blocked off whatever rays the device was transmitting to hide the ceiling.
A holographic emitter.
She felt around at the invisible object on the wall until she had a firm grip, and then she applied pressure and ripped it off. The small device materialized in her hands. Definitely some sort of emitter.
She pocketed it. Overhead, two previously hidden pods were now clearly in view. Broad straps secured each pod to the ceiling. The metal containers were about big enough to hold a single four-year-old each.
“Attendant, open up this door!” Shaw shouted. “I need a step ladder immediately! And summon the station paramedics!”
“I’ll get the ladder.” Lui darted from the unit.
Shaw had Tahoe give her a boost in the interim, and she worked at the straps that secured the leftmost pod to the ceiling.
Lui arrived with two stepladders.
Shaw used the first to open up the straps, while Tahoe stood on the second and held the pod in place while she worked. When the pod was free, Tahoe lowered it to the floor with Lui’s help. Looking down from her perch on the stepladder, she could see clearly into a translucent glass panel located on the top side of the pod.
Sil was inside, seemingly asleep.
Shaw leaped down from the ladder and tried to access the remote interface, but had no luck.
“Let me,” Lui said. He knelt before the pod.
Shaw wanted to keep trying, but she knew Lui had more hacking experience than she did. She would have to trust that if anyone could get her daughter out, it would be him.
While Lui concentrated on Sil’s container, Shaw adjusted the stepladder’s position and worked to release the second pod still strapped to the ceiling. Tahoe repositioned himself as well, so that when she freed it, he helped her lower it to the floor beside the first.
Alex was inside that one.
Shaw knelt beside Lui. “Well?” she said urgently.
“Almost...” Lui said.
And then the translucent panel slid open. Shaw immediately pulled Sil out of the unit. Her daughter was breathing, but still unconscious.
Shaw took her to the door of the storage unit, and held her close, waiting for the paramedics to arrive.
Lui meanwhile worked on the second pod. When it opened, Lui pulled out Alex.
“He’s alive,” Lui said.
As the words left his lips, flames abruptly erupted from both stasis pods.
“Whoa!” Lui said. He quickly moved past the pods and carried Alex to the entrance. “Must have activated some sort of dead man’s switch.”
Shaw watched the pods burn in the flames.
“Or we saved them just in time,” Shaw said.
Zhidao hadn’t been joking about incinerating the children.
“Where are those damn paramedics? Come on!” She raced down the winding ramp and met the paramedics as they arrived at the entrance to the storage facility. The two robots quickly revived the twins.
“Mommy...” Sil said groggily.
“Hello honey,” Shaw said, grabbing her daughter and hugging her tight.
“What happened?” Alex rubbed his eyes.
Shaw gave him a hug, too. “You just were asleep for a little while. Everything is okay now.” She couldn’t help the tears of joy that fell.
“We’re taking them to sickbay for observation,” the paramedic robot said. “They need to be rehydrated, and fed. Stasis pods aren’t meant to house children.”
“No, they’re not,” Shaw said. “I’m going with you.”
An hour later Shaw found herself seated in the sickbay waiting area aboard the station with Tahoe and Lui. The twins were recovering well. Shaw, meanwhile, felt exhausted.
“I don’t get it,” Lui said. “Why did Zhidao go through all this trouble? Why play all these games with us? It can’t be simply for his own entertainment. Tahoe and I went back there and checked, but there were no hidden cameras or other surveillance devices in the storage unit. No other holographic emitters.”
“He did it to distract us,” Tahoe said. “That can be the only explanation. He wanted Surus off his tail long enough for him to do whatever it was he needed to do. A backup plan, in case Surus escaped her doom. He probably wasn’t entirely ready when the opportunity arose to capture her: he knew his containment field wasn’t good enough, and would probably fail before Surus was trapped in the star. So he needed a way to distract her in case that happened. He knew the Green would never abandon us, not while we were still alive, so he spared us. He also knew we and Surus wouldn’t go after him until we found the children. That gave him all the time he needed to escape, and to set in motion whatever other plans he had in mind.”
“How did we miss that holographic emitter in the unit in the first place?” Lui said.
“Simple,” Shaw said. “We didn’t know it was there. If we knew what to look for, it might have helped.”
“But we made extensive sweeps of the walls,” Lui said. “Searching for EM em
itters, and the like.”
“Yes,” Shaw said. “But that device was probably late Tech Class IV or early V, and didn’t give off any readable emissions.”
They talked some more, arguing about the reasons behind Zhidao’s strange actions, and eventually concluded that his motivations were too complex to decipher, at least given their current limited information.
Shaw sent off a message to Rade shortly after that, informing him that the children were all right. It was one of the happier messages she had ever sent.
twelve
Rade spent most of his remaining days during the trip back to Metare and the space station in the gym. It was his way of distracting himself, because he really wanted to see his kids and Shaw.
He recalled the message he had sent to her when he heard the news. “You were right. They were there all along. I’m sorry for ever doubting you. I shouldn’t have yelled at you the last time we talked in person. I shouldn’t have shouted accusations. I love you. Thank you for everything.”
Shaw’s return message a few days later had started with: “Hey my big warrior. Don’t you dare be sorry for a thing. I’m equally to blame. Tensions were running high. The kids are all right now. I love you.”
The Argonaut’s gym was only big enough to fit a few of the crew at a time, and since Snakeoil had lent a few of his own crew to help out with repairs, they had to share it, so Rade rotated workout partners. Today his partner was Bender. The man usually put Rade to shame in terms of the weights he could lift. Snakeoil happened to be visiting today from the Motley Brown as well, and he joined in with them so the testosterone was really flowing. As such, Rade made sure to choose exercises that he excelled in, like pull ups: because he was lighter than Snakeoil and Bender, he could do about thirty body weight repetitions, whereas each of them topped out at twenty.
“You think you’re hot on pull ups, huh boss?” Bender said. “Maybe you should try adding a weight so you match Snakeoil and I.”
“That’s all right,” Rade said.
“Why don’t you come bench press with us then,” Bender said. “Test of a real man’s strength.”
“Sure, I can do that,” Rade said. But instead he moved to the side to work on abs.
“By the way, Snakeoil old pal, there’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Bender said. “Why’d you call it the Motley Brown? You know that motley means multicolored, right bro?”
“Yep,” Snakeoil said. “But in this case, since motley is acting as a modifier for brown, it means different colors of brown. Kind of a variation on the theme: same shit, different color.”
“Ahhh!” Bender said. “I get it now. And I love it! I take Motley Brown craps, baby!”
Bender finished another pull up set and wiped his brow. He glanced at Rade.
“Scissor kicks!” Bender said when he noticed the exercise Rade was doing. “He goes and does scissor kicks. I haven’t done those since back on the grinder in BSD/M training.”
“Those were the days, huh?” Snakeoil said from where he was benching nearby. “Doing push ups, sit ups, and scissor kicks until we vomited on the asphalt. Man, the instructors would shout insults at us while spraying us with freezing cold water, all the while the scent of marshmallow cream donuts and steak drifted our way.”
“Yeah, those instructors were cruel bitches,” Bender said. “Though I always thought it would be fun to be one myself.”
“What, an instructor?” Snakeoil said. “Or a cruel bitch?”
“Both,” Bender said. “Get to call those weak recruit maggots by the names they deserve, and while they work, I get to chow down on steak and donuts. Now that’s my kind of job. It would almost be as fun as bug hunting. Almost.”
Rade finished his scissor kick set and found a bench to do leg lifts on.
“Speaking of bug hunting, so what now, Boss?” Bender asked him. “The kids are all right. Our ship is intact, and sure, it needs some repairs. But when that happens, what’s next?”
“After I spend some quality time with my kids and Shaw,” Rade said. “Well, I think it’s pretty obvious what has to happen next. We hunt down Zhidao. And we might not wait until the Argonaut is ready. Assuming Snakeoil is up for a little alien hunting.”
“As long as your Phant keeps paying me, I’m happy to provide my services,” Snakeoil said.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Bender said. “This is what I signed up for. Operation: Bug Spray.”
“Yes indeed,” Rade said. “After what Zhidao did, he can’t be allowed to go free. With him out there, we’ll never know when he might strike again. Plus my children will never really be safe again until he’s gone. Not even if I leave them with their grandparents on Earth. The Phant is obviously unstable.”
“He’s a little unhinged,” Bender agreed. “So it’s settled then. The hunt is on. It’s not a question of if, but when.”
“You got it,” Rade said, beginning another round of leg lifts.
“Snakeoil, you’re in for a treat, bro,” Bender said.
“Oh yeah?” Snakeoil lay back to do another set on the bench press.
“Yeah,” Bender said. “When bugs die, they don’t go quietly.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Snakeoil lifted the barbell off the rack and pressed.
RADE WAS THRILLED to see Alex and Sil doing well. The pair were rooming with Shaw in one of the short term rentals on the station. When he entered, he relished in the “daddy daddy” chorus that came his way, and swooped both of his kids up in his strong arms.
“What took you so long to get here?” Sil said. “It felt like for-ever!”
“Yeah, it was a bit of time, wasn’t it?” Rade said. He glanced at Shaw, who was smiling widely.
“And now you’re going to stay for-ever!” Alex said. When Rade didn’t answer, Alex, still in his arms, glanced at Shaw. “He’s going to stay, right?”
Rade set down his kids and knelt to look into their faces. “Look, I can’t make any promises yet. The bad person who put you two to sleep, well, she’s still out there.” Shaw and Rade had exchanged messages during the whole return trip, so he knew Shaw had told the twins they’d been sleeping for the past month. “Your mom and I haven’t decided yet what we’re going to do. But when we do, you’ll be the first to know. Let’s just enjoy our time together while we can.”
Sil crossed her arms. “I don’t want to enjoy my time. I want you to stay forever.”
Alex dashed back to Shaw. He sat beside her, and also crossed his arms, a surly expression on his face. “You don’t love us.”
Rade sighed. “Son, I love you more than anything in this galaxy. You have to understand that. But the galaxy isn’t the friendliest place. This is a hard lesson you’re going to have to learn someday. We’ve done our best to shield you, but it won’t always be this way.” Shaw was shaking her head, like she didn’t want Rade to tell them this, but he felt it was necessary. “There are bad men and women out there. And... monsters. Your mom and I, we fight the monsters, Alex. That’s what we do. And we’re going to drive them so far away from here that they’ll never harm you again. So believe me when I tell you, if I have to go away, it’s for your own good.”
Rade was still kneeling, and Sil suddenly jumped on him and gave him a tight hug. “Daddy, please don’t go! I promise to be on my bestest behavior! I promise I promise I promise! I’ll never do anything bad again. I’ll be nice to Alex. I’ll share with him... sweets, toys, everything. I’ll even let him play with Digibear.” That was the name of her favorite digital augmentation.
Rade smiled and hugged her back. He glanced at Shaw. Her expression was unreadable. No, wait, that wasn’t true.
She gazed at Rade with a mixture of sadness and steely resolve. The latter, mostly.
She was ready to hunt down Zhidao, too.
RADE HEARD FROM TJ and Bender a few days later. The pair had stayed aboard the Argonaut, and just finished removing all the malicious code from the Centurions and H
arlequin. They’d started the robots up one by one, and were satisfied that all of them were ready for duty. Rade gave the a-okay, ordering the robots to remain aboard the Argonaut for the time being to help out with engine repairs as much as they could, with strict instructions to stay out of the way of the dry dock crew if doing so hastened the repair process.
Rade summoned Tahoe, Shaw and Bender for a meeting with Surus that evening.
“Station records indicate two merchant ships departed shortly after the Argonaut arrived here,” Surus said. “I tracked both of them via my contacts at CENTCOM, and determined the first went on a route typical of a trader from this system. The second, a Regina Mercante class Franco-Italian vessel, the Volare, traveled on a strange course. It took Gates leading to the Sino-Korean controlled Da Haui Shou, Zhanshi, and Qi Yu systems. There are no trading outposts in any of those systems. In fact, they don’t welcome traders, as trading is prohibited.”
“Maybe the captain hopes to make money on the black market,” Tahoe said.
“Or maybe he’s not in control of his ship anymore…” Rade said.
“If trading is prohibited, how would Zhidao enter the system in the first place?” Tahoe said.
“Bribes,” Rade said.
Surus nodded. “Correct. Sino-Korean custom officials in this area are particularly amenable to monetary donations above a certain amount. Usually these donations would be far too high for an ordinary trader to recoup any costs of trading on the black market. That alone would be enough to point to Zhidao’s presence. But there is something else. Take a look at this footage.”
Rade accepted the footage sharing request. The video showed Hoplites jetting across empty space from the hangar bay of one ship to another vessel floating beside it.
“What you’re looking at is security footage from the station’s external cameras,” Surus said. “That’s the Argonaut on the left, where the Hoplites are emerging from. Parked across from it is the merchant ship Volare.”
Rade nodded slowly. “Zhidao. Bastard stole our Hoplites. Has your contact given you the final destination for the Franco-Italian ship yet?”