by White, Gwynn
Hale slammed the cargo door, his dark eyes wide as he stared at Keva. He hadn’t managed to get his helmet on before the atmosphere had been released.
“How about we get out of here? Huh?” Keva took her helmet off and headed for the cockpit. She should be glad they’d just escaped with a pretty pricey cargo, but she couldn’t shake the feeling they’d barely escaped a trap.
2
You want to tell me about your military background now?”
Keva ignored Hale and stepped into the cockpit. She took the pilot’s seat. “ILO, I need support.”
Initiating, ILO’s message translated into Keva’s brain.
Keva started up the shuttle, scanning the immediate area for more military activity.
Nothing.
“ILO, check for a scattergun.”
Scattergun technology would not be best in this situation, Keva Duste.
“Agreed. If there was an atmosphere to worry about, but it was just spaced.”
You are correct, Keva Duste. Searching now.
Keva took off.
Hale slid into the copilot’s chair, giving her a look that said that as soon as they were in the clear, they were going to have a little chat. But in the meantime, his ability to survive overrode any need to drill her for answers.
Just one more reason Keva didn’t mind working with him. He never let his emotions get the better of their situation, whatever that reality was at any given moment.
The scattergun has not been initiated, Keva Duste.
“Why aren’t they shooting at us?”
It appears that no one is manning the station.
Wait. What? “Is there a supply of Hexium there?”
Yes, Keva Duste.
Sometimes, Keva wished ILO wasn’t so damned formal, but all the AI’s were. It was a mandate in their programming.
But the personnel were called away about a Kal-hour ago.
Why would they remove all personnel from the supply station and leave it vulnerable? “Hale,” she asked, her nerves quieting, “did your contact have something to do with the fact that no one is here?”
Hale shook his head as he stabilized their propulsion.
But he also didn’t add anything, either. “ILO, alert me if you pick up anything on your sensors that would mean trouble.”
Of course, Keva Duste.
“So, you can talk to your AI even out of comm range?”
Keva nodded but otherwise ignored his question. She wanted to know why the military personnel had been called away just when Hale and Keva needed them to be, but she wasn’t going to chase it.
They were free and away, and Hale had his cargo, which meant she had a pay day.
She twisted around to input their course back to Kalamatra then leaned back, her hands folded behind her head as she regarded Hale with new curiosity. He’d managed to trick her into admitting she had been speaking to ILO. “That was sneaky.”
“What was?” He continued working on his console, doing something Keva couldn’t see.
“You know what.” She didn’t want to say anything about her military experience with Stekil just on the other side of the wall. Hale had already guessed at it, but she didn’t need to go around announcing it to his entire crew.
Hale stopped and tipped his head at her. “We’ve all known you have military background, Keves. It’s hardly a surprise.”
She hated it when he used that name on her.
“And you want to keep it a secret? That’s fine by me. No sweat off my back.”
That was the calling card of the Black. You live your life. I’ll live mine.
“But, just know, that whatever you’re hiding from, you can trust me.” He flinched.
Because he’d just said the two words real spacers didn’t utter out loud. “Trust you?”
He held up his hands and grimaced. “I’m just saying I will help if you need me.”
She appreciated it. Having friends in the Black was tough. Developing long-term relationships was even harder for those who traveled the Black. Most had short life spans.
Incoming message from Finn Wyters, Keva Duste, ILO said over the chip.
Keva had the luxury to tap her message back. What is it?
A moment later, ILO responded. Meet him at the Jiggling Donkey one Kal-hour after arrival.
Excellent. Keva had been wondering when the Codex Syndicate would bring her back into the fold. Finn Wyters was Keva’s handler. She wasn’t privy to a lot of information, but Finn was. He ranked a lot higher in the chain-of-command. If he wanted to meet face-to-face, the mission had to be pretty damn important. The last time he’d hand delivered a mission, she’d failed completely. Barely escaping with her life, ruining another, and leaving with none of the information she’d been sent to retrieve.
Hale pulled out a vidscreen and punched something onto it. “Your payment, plus a little extra for your ‘expert’ advice.”
Keva didn’t pull hers out to check it. Hale was good as his word.
They traveled the rest of the way in relative quiet. Well, as quiet as Stekil could handle, which wasn’t a lot. As soon as the soft hum of the engine filled the shuttle, he started rambling, talking to no one in particular.
When they landed, Keva did the same as always. She left. She wasn’t one for formalities. That had been ingrained into her since the test tube. When the mission is done, move to the next one. She also didn’t want to stick around just in case Hale decided to ask more questions once they were a little more alone. She’d done her job helping them obtain the cargo. She’d even scanned the crates on her way out for listening or tracking devices.
None.
As far as she was concerned, it was a clean grab.
Though, she couldn’t let go of the fact that a surveillance gnat had grabbed her picture. It might have been uploaded to the military database. There might be a flag out there. Hopefully, though, the gnat was lost in the black due to the release of the atmo. Her bio-scans would pop clean, but any facial recognition scans might not, gnats weren’t capable of deep scans, and the light was bad, so hopefully, she was clear.
Keva walked along the pathway that connected the outer rings to the space station. Those rotating rings partially provided Kalamatra’s artificial gravity, and they produced the kinetic energy required to slingshot spaceships down the traffic lanes. The giant fusion core that contained the heart of a star, housed within the station helped, too.
Smaller versions of this station, without fusion reactors, peppered each of those lanes, giving the ships the continual pushes they required to maintain as near a constant speed as could be managed. The system resulted in the ability to fly at jump speed between the four systems.
The view from the docks was breathtaking. Black space all around, a sea of asteroids littering the sky, and the massive spire of the station looming above and sinking far below her. The upper ring rotated slowly far over her head. That was the ring she was most familiar with. The military docks. Above those was a much smaller ring where the corporate Elite docked their ships.
Stepping inside the large bay door, Keva joined the press of people. She put the hood of her jacket over her head to protect her face from the surveillance gnats swarming overhead. Those would be the only facial scans she would pass through on her way to the upper levels, but they were easy to avoid.
She blended in here with her dark pants, black vest, and a black jacket that hid her knives. People liked to keep as much to themselves as they could. Not easy in a place with so much surveillance. Vidcams were mounted everywhere, keeping track of everyone coming and going. Some were easy to spot, some, not so much.
Keva followed the herd to the bay of twelve lifters. Six sped in a semi-continuous stream upward, and six went down. This bay held lifters that only allowed people access to the one hundred floors comprising the Commons. Another set of lifters could take Keva to the military’s command center, and yet another set went to the Elite levels. She knew where those lifter bays were a
nd could even use any of them if she wanted to with her encoded DNA.
Interesting thought, but useless. She didn’t need to use them and would end up dead or an experiment for Heliac Nine if she attempted it.
Like her pod twin, Yling. She’d disappeared weeks before Keva’s… release from the military. Was she there? On Heliac Nine?
Keva shook herself. She needed to go up to the eighty-eighth floor.
She waited as the throng of people pushed forward toward the lifters that would relocate them to other levels. They paused at the entrance just long enough for the bioscanners to admit the maximum number of patrons aboard before moving on.
When the next lifter arrived, Keva and three others shoved through the opening, the red grid of lights the only thing to indicate they had passed through the bioscanner.
The lifter stopped at every floor, even the ones where no one waited. Another control mechanism. The Station controlled the flow of travel and had ultimate control over the people. It was impossible to forget who was in charge around here.
Passengers boarded as others left, some with tools from shifts in mechanics, and some with pungent smelling foodstuffs that Keva couldn’t contemplate eating.
The corridors of the eighty-eighth floor weren’t as wide as the lower levels, and the ceilings weren’t as high. Fewer lights flickered overhead. There were more neon signs, and lights of different colors came from the storefronts on either side.
Thumping music blared from the shop doors closest to the elevators. As she stepped past the bioscan, the few gnats that had been following her fell to the ground, shocked temporarily inert by the electric field around the entrance.
She never paid them much attention but she realized how much she hated those gnats everytime she passed through a protective screen and watched them fall. Stupid little things.
She walked along the curved corridor sometimes glimpsing the star field through one of the few plasteel windows. The neon sign of the Jiggling Donkey glowed pink, and an animal with hooves stood on two feet with a large head. It also had two large, purple balls dangling between its legs.
It was easily memorable, which was the point. The owner of the bar came from an engineered pod and had brothers and sisters born of the same genome. They ran a franchise of similar bars throughout the four systems. For those who knew the secret handshake, the Allow brothers were extremely helpful.
And Keva was on the inside, being a fellow engineered human.
She slipped through the doors, and instantly a light floral scent greeted her. Soft staccato beats worked their way into her brain, her heartbeat trying to match the rhythm of the music.
She snaked through the crowd to the far end of the bar.
“Keva Duste,” the barkeeper called out in greeting. “Long time, no see.” He was tall, his torso—or what she could see of it through his open, blue vest—sported dark tattoos in elaborate patterns. His long blue dreadlocks matched his eye shadow and lipstick.
“Hey, Fallow.” She pushed her hood off her head. “Been in HUMP a bit, thinking about Reyher, next.”
He leaned on the bar in front of her and poured a blue drink. “Word came from Sparrow. I have what you need.”
Their pod scientist hadn’t been super creative with names. The males were all variations of “allow”: Fallow, Tallow, Wallow, Ballow, Swallow. That last one was especially unfortunate. Their pod sisters had variations of “arrow”: Sparrow and Farrow being the only two Keva had ever met.
They had the ability to communicate over vast distances. That’s what their scientist father had created them for.
His untimely death had provided them the opportunity they’d needed to escape.
Now, they offered their unique services to those fighting for the little people, the ones the military and the Elite forgot.
“Thanks.” She’d ordered it months ago, a piece of art from an artist Swallow had introduced her to who specialized in taking broken bits of twisted metal and trash and making them into something oddly beautiful.
Fallow shrugged. “It’s been delivered to your ship.”
“Excellent.” Keva grabbed the drink he offered.
“When are you going to give that ship of yours a proper name?”
This discussion had been going on since they’d met. “When I care enough about it.”
“You hate the name.”
She did. “It’s a stupid name for a ship.”
“I agree.” He leaned in, his expression wide and open with mirth. “So, change it.”
She glared at him, enjoying the argument. She was horrible at naming ships. Frankly, she was awful at naming anything.
Fallow leaned his hip against the bar, letting the argument go. He gave her a sly look instead. “I heard you went out on a run into the Field.”
Fallow knew her origins. They were fellow engineered humans, born out of test tubes, surviving their pod groups. That bonded them. He also knew the significance of her being caught…in the Field.
She took a sip of her drink. Her heart still raced when she thought about their last mission. Something—something—was off, wrong. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
He raised a dark blue eyebrow. “With Hale Reeve.”
Fallow wasn’t matchmaking, was he? She needed to keep her distance from Hale Reeve for a while. And the timing was perfect for some distance. He was headed to Set’ar in the Qo System, which meant she needed to go somewhere else, and with her track record on Terra Qar, she was certain that whatever mission the Syndicate had for her, it wouldn’t be there. “He had a salvage run.” She shrugged, deflecting attention from what they’d been up to.
“Military’s in a tizzy over something.”
She went on high alert. “Did you hear what?”
He shook his head, his coy expression turning serious. “Are you in any danger?”
It felt good to know she could trust one person on this station. “Could be. Gnat might have snapped a pic.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again with a toss of his head. “We’ll keep our ears to the walls.”
“Thanks, Fallow.”
“Wyters arrived a few minutes ago.” Fallow pointed with his sharp chin toward a corner behind her.
Keva raised her glass for a fill-up, then turned to leave once she’d received it. She wound through the tables filled with people who would rather not be seen. Shoulders slumped, heads bowed.
All but two.
One sat straight, his sharp eyes casually scanning the room. Bounty hunter, but not a serious threat.
Well, if she was lucky, she wasn’t on his radar. Yet.
His gaze ran over her features, and then he looked away, uninterested.
Good. Her nerves went on high alert. If that gnat had gotten a picture of her, she still wasn’t on the Infonet.
Wyters, the other, sat in the corner so he could see the entire room, his thin body draped in a ratty, rust-colored robe. A slight smile widened his overly long lips. The man looked like a failed science experiment. His strange colored gray eyes were laced with a milky substance and stood out, too big for his long face, his eyelashes nearly transparent. His nose was hooked and long. When he smiled, he showed off a magnificent set of large, crooked teeth.
Finn had to be careful. If anyone caught a picture of his face while he was on a heist, there would be no hiding his identity.
Keva pulled out a chair and sat facing most of the room, not beside him but not across from him either. “What do you have for me?”
He slid his glass toward her, then lifted it to his lips.
She set her glass on the table where his had been and pulled it toward her, raising it to her lips and swiping the data disc he’d offered into her hand. Anyone watching wouldn’t even notice the exchange.
“We’re sending you back.” Finn’s words came out sharply, even though his tone was even.
There was only one “back” he could mean. Terra Qar. One of the two planets of t
he Qo system the Elites claimed as their own dominion. Her entire body went still. “That cover is blown.” In her biggest failure, ever.
“We need you there, Keva. Negotiations have been made some that you will not face any formal charges, but you’ll have to navigate the social contracts you broke the last time you were there yourself. The information is too valuable for you to mess it up this time.”
She hadn’t just “messed it up” the last time. She’d caused someone else to be set up to die a slow, agonizing death through marriage.
Finn pursed his lips, the top almost touching his too long nose.
Keva bowed her head. Going back to Terra Qar was the worst idea. Ever. Even Finn didn’t know how badly she’d screwed things up because he hadn’t followed her. Elite access only.
Finn stood. “Download the details and get there quickly. And, Keva.”
She looked up, dread filling her.
“If you mess up this time, hundreds of thousands of people will die and it will be the beginning of exponential more deaths” He squeezed her shoulder. At least his hands were normal. “Don’t fuck it up.”
3
It had to be on Terra Qar. Of course it did. The setting of her greatest failure. She’d failed her mission, succeeded in getting her only friend married and then murdered, and had blown her cover.
Keva didn’t know how she was going to pull this off, but if her cover was indeed fixed like Finn said it was, then the only thing she could do was to get there.
She needed a lift and time to download the data disc into the chip implanted in her brain. It was the only way to decode the message thanks to the set of genes that allowed her to use her genetic code to hack the data and resist the commands of her implant chip. The J-genes. An evolutionary anomaly that made her helix rotate the wrong way thanks to the aberrant genes that popped up randomly in military grown humans.
Her ship, Ghost Star, besides having a crappy name, was a short hauler. She was fast, sleek, and large enough to carry cargo, but small enough for an atmo run if needed. But making the treks between the systems via the jump system was slow. She could travel from Kalamatra to the Qo System in the Ghost Star, but it would take three weeks to do it. If she got a lift from another ship, a larger hauler, it would take one.