by M. D. Cooper
His face was drawn and serious, hands cradling a glass of electrolytes that the medic had handed him but he hadn’t yet sampled.
Tobias couldn’t say that he blamed Calista for her reaction, considering what Enfield Aerospace had just been accused of doing.
They were in Terrance’s executive conference room. Terrance sat next to Calista. Daniel was next to Jason, ostensibly to keep him from bolting.
Jason doesn’t look capable of standing at the moment, Tobias thought, much less escaping.
Shannon had joined them, and she had assured Tobias that the room’s privacy screens were firmly in place.
“Read it for yourself,” Jason said in response to Calista’s skepticism. He sent her a copy of the STA record that Tobias had found, including the scan record of the traffic around Muzhavi Ridge the night of the explosion.
She threw it onto the holo so Daniel and Terrance could review it as well. Both Enfield AIs had digested the information beforehand; Tobias had brought them fully up to speed in the time it had taken to revive Jason, and for the humans to convene here.
The recording on the holo showed the sensor return of a shuttle as it descended into the bowl, then lifted off again after a few minutes. It perfectly matched the recording Jason had made.
The identification of the craft in the STA recording had been erased, but it was a shoddy job, and Tobias had easily recovered its scrubbed identity.
Its ownership was listed as Enfield Aerospace, New Technologies Division.
“I was there, Calista. I saw that shuttle land. Check it out for yourself.” Jason sent her the visual record he’d made, and she added it beside the image already on the holo.
“Take a careful look at the payload, and tell me what you see,” he instructed them all.
They watched from the perspective of Jason’s feed as he witnessed the crew wheel the maglev hauler laden with its cargo. They saw the crew load the ship, watched as Jason crept up to the craft, tagged it, and was lifted into the air as the shuttle took off, before falling into the brush as the craft departed.
Calista looked over at Jason, horrified. “Those AIs were in isolation tubes. Is that even legal?”
Terrance’s voice held a hard edge. “No, that’s certainly not legal.”
Daniel looked grim. “And now we know why those shuttle logs were stolen from our fleet department.”
Jason looked up at that. “Which means your recordings here would show the shuttle was away.”
Calista shook her head. “It wouldn’t hold up in court. All we’d have to do is submit the flight recorders from the shuttle. They’re tamper-proof; they’d show exactly where it went that night.”
Jason shrugged. “Maybe it wasn’t important to them that the fiction stand up under close scrutiny; maybe it was enough that it hide who they were—with the added benefit of being a red herring, for however long the misdirection lasted.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that,” Daniel said. “But why use Enfield as the herring?”
“Depends on who we’re dealing with,” Terrance mused. “It might be sheer chance.”
“Would undermine Margot’s credibility, and potentially endanger everything she and the Foundation have been working toward.”
Aaron said.
“AI trafficking is not something you enter into lightly. It’s almost certainly the Norden Cartel,” Terrance said with a questioning look at Jason, who nodded in confirmation.
“What are we thinking, sitting on this information?” Calista said suddenly. “We need to take this to the authorities.”
Tobias asked by way of reply.
WAR ROOM
STELLAR DATE: 07.06.3012 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Senator’s Office, Parliament House
REGION: El Dorado Ring, Alpha Centauri System
“The Ministry of Home Affairs released a statement today regarding the recent earthquake and rockfall that occurred along the Muzhavi Ridge Divide, just west of Tomlinson City. The Ministry urged the Department of Planetary Studies to look into any possible connection between private industry and the quake.
“Sources—who remain unnamed—have indicated that shuttles registered to an Enfield company were sighted frequenting the area.
“When we attempted to contact to ask them about any connection they may have had to the quake, they refused to comment….”
“So this is what an Expanse looks like.”
Terrance was amazed at how real everything looked, how corporeal it felt.
Shannon was a bit more ethereal than he had envisioned her, wearing a flowy, white gown. Somehow he’d thought the engineer would look more…practical. She and Calista stood off to the side, speaking earnestly.
Daniel’s face looked bemused as he shook hands with his embedded AI, Aaron, for the first time. Terrance was pretty sure his own face wore a similar expression.
He heard someone chuckling quietly behind him and turned as a hand clasped him on the shoulder.
“Welcome to my expanse.” Lysander cocked a brow at him. “Not quite what you expected it to be?”
“Well, seeing as I had no idea they even existed until tonight, I wouldn’t say I had any expectations,” Terrance admitted. “You’re all so…solid. So real.”
“We are real, Terrance.”
He felt embarrassed. “I didn’t intend—”
“I understand.” Lysander gestured to the room. “It’s not something we AIs share very broadly, but it does tend to put everyone on equal footing, and it has the added benefit of being very secure—which is what we need right now.”
“You’ve created a war room,” Terrance realized, glancing around, and the senator nodded.
“Indeed.”
The room looked like a standard ESF military planning room, complete with a conference table that sat before a large holo tank.
The SIS security analyst—Ben was his name, Terrance recalled—was standing next to the display. He’d split the tank to project two diagrams.
The first showed an area of the ring a few kilometers away from the elevator, on the far side of El Dorado. The second was a three-dimensional map of NorthStar Industries’ privately-held space, just above their main distribution facility on the ring.
Terrance moved to take a seat as Lysander gestured everyone toward the table. The Enfield contingent lined one side, while the AIs sat on the other.
Ben opened his mouth to begin the briefing, but the former space commodore beat him to it.
“The files Tobias liberated from the Space Transit Authority,” Eric began without preamble, “show that the shuttle transporting the captives transitioned from the planetary controller, but then failed to check in with suborbital control. At that po
int, the transponder signal stopped, and the shuttle simply disappeared.”
“However, we can extrapolate a trajectory, provided the shuttle didn’t alter its flight path,” Vice-Marshal Esther commented.
“So it was headed toward NorthStar space?” Jason asked.
“Actually, no. At least not directly,” Gladys qualified. “Although it would be a simple matter to—”
“Let’s not lose sight of our plan to take down the cartel’s main operations center,” Ben interrupted. “Our asset says they’re pissed about losing the warehouse. They’ve increased security and relocated again.”
Terrance had wondered how long it would take the analyst to speak up. He watched in amusement as Ben’s attempt to take control of the briefing was brought short by Gladys, who leaned forward, jabbing her finger at the man in emphasis.
“I think the lives of two hundred seventy-seven AIs are just a bit more important than a warehouse filled with drugs and guns,” the pixie-faced AI said severely. “Don’t you?”
Ben’s face reddened. “If we don’t stop these people, if we don’t cut the head off the monster, those AIs will be the first of many—”
“Enough.” Lysander spoke calmly, but his voice resonated throughout the expanse.
Impressive, Terrance thought as the room stilled. Then, shrugging mentally, he launched himself into the breach.
“The way I see it, you’re both right.” He looked from Gladys to Eric. “I’d say this battle has two fronts.”
Aaron nodded. “And it would be best for us to coordinate the timing of it all. We need to shut down their operations on the ring at the same time we liberate our fellow AIs.”
“So we’ll split up,” Lysander said. “With Enfield in the mix, we have the manpower to coordinate simultaneous strikes, once we determine where that shuttle went.”
“So…” Vice-Marshal Esther began slowly. “Our very own Commodore Eric ran the ESF’s black ops program for a few decades…” She waved her hand at the commodore's thunderous expression. “Oh, please, Eric. Yes, it’s classified, but I still outrank you, even if we are both retired.”
Ben spared Eric a thin smile. “Just remember it wasn’t me that outed you, sir. But since you have been outed…will you lead the ringside of the op for us?”
Terrance abruptly realized that Eric had shifted his gaze, and was now regarding him with a level, appraising look.
“Yes,” the commodore agreed. “But I have a better idea….”
* * * * *
Calista felt like her head was going to explode. Things hadn’t been this tense—or events progressed this quickly—in her entire fifteen years of active duty.
She’d certainly never been read into an op like this.
She loved it.
The Vice-Marshal turned the topic to manpower. The way Calista saw it, she and Jason were the ones best suited to go after the shuttle, since they both had a vested interest in it. Jason had been there—hell, he’d tagged the shuttle personally—and she had TechDev’s reputation to clear.
And, as it happened, she had a couple of sweet new fighters they could use—with Terrance’s permission, of course.
“Ben,” she leaned forward, grabbing the analyst’s attention. “Does the Secret Intelligence Service still have offices over at Tomlinson Base?”
Ben nodded at her mention of the main ESF base, where most of the SIS’s operations were directed from.
“Think we could swing by with a few fighters and have the boys and girls over there outfit them for us?”
Ben cut his eyes over to the commodore, who gave a slight nod. “I think that could be arranged—so long as we can keep it off the record. We still have a leak in the SIS to deal with.”
“Great,” Calista smiled at the analyst. “If there are no objections from the owner,” she tilted her head toward Terrance, who gave her a quick nod, “Shannon and I could scare up a couple of prototypes that’ll give us an advantage Norden won’t be expecting.”
She glanced over at Jason. Aw, he looks like the kid who wasn’t picked for his favorite game. Guess I’d better put him out of his misery, she thought with a mental smirk.
“Flyboy here is type-rated on something very similar. I don’t think it’d be a problem for him to take one of them up. That is, if you’re interested, Jason?”
Geez, now he looks like a kid in a candy store. With an unlimited allowance.
* * * * *
“Hold up a moment, kid.” Lysander placed a restraining hand on Jason’s arm as the group broke into teams, preparing to depart. He motioned to Tobias to join him.
Jason looked between the two Weapon Born, trying not to appear overly anxious. Surely the Old Man isn’t going to keep me from playing a part in this….
“I know you’re an outstanding pilot, kid,” Lysander began, and Jason groaned inside. He was going to bench him.
Dammit.
And then the AI said something so unexpected, it took Jason a moment for it to register.
“Remember the red dot game Toby and I played with you when you were a kid?”
Uhhh…Why would he bring up a simple, tap-the-moving-dot game they played with me when I was first learning how to control my L2 reflexes?
“Yeah,” Jason looked blankly from Lysander to Tobias. “But—”
“Jason,” Tobias said gently. “Those weren’t dots.”
As the AI’s meaning dawned on Jason, Lysander nodded.
“You’re a great pilot, Jason. But you’re also a great shot. Remember the red dot, and you’ll do fine. You’ve got this, kid.”
EMBEDDED
STELLAR DATE: 07.07.3189 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Secret Intelligence Services HQ, Tomlinson Base
REGION: El Dorado Ring, El Dorado, Alpha Centauri System
“ ‘What’s it like being embedded with an AI? Just like any other partnership, I suppose. Here in the ESF, it means there’s always someone there who has your back. Of course, they’re not much help when it comes to keeping the barracks clean—’
‘Hey! I can order the sweep-bot around better’n’ you can, ya big meat-suit.’
‘At least you don’t like listening to opera every night, like the sergeant I was embedded with on my last deployment….’
‘Thank you, ladies. This is Travis Jamieson, and as always: like, share, and subscribe…’.”
“You sure you’re okay with this?” Eric’s avatar looked gravely over at Terrance from where he was projected, a few meters away.
In the past two hours, Terrance had experienced a lot of firsts: his first encounter with an L2 human, his first expanse, his first read-in for an off-the-books spec op. And he’d met not one, but two real-life, genuine Weapon Born.
So he figured he was ready for another first: having an AI embedded in his mind. Not just any AI, either; a former ESF Commodore.
Ben had taken them to the Secret Intelligence Service’s HQ, in a bunker deep beneath one of the ESF bases on the outskirts of Sonali. There, he had shown them to one of three small operating theatres, furnished with a state-of-the-art auto doc. The units were programmed to embed AI, with settings for implanting into a mech, a humanoid frame, or into a human being.
It had been a tricky affair to get there, but with Esther and Eric pulling some strings, no one would ever know this operation had taken place. In addition to Terrance and Eric, Ben had secreted Lysander into the base, where he was temporarily ensconced in a secured node not far away.
“It’s a perfectly safe, automated procedure, so there’s little risk. But you’ll have a retired space dog sharing the space between your ears,” Eric continued, his avatar searching Terrance’s face as if trying to catch the slightest hint of hesitation.
Terrance considered the commodore’s words for a moment before replying. “Just one question, Eric.”
“Fire away.”
“Why are you doing this? I mean…Ben has enough mech frames that you could take one of them…what need do you ha
ve of a meat-suit like me?”
Eric let out a throaty laugh, and Terrance felt as though the AI would have slapped him on the back if they were still in Lysander’s expanse.
“Well, lad, for starters, you’re a business person who’s willing to put your ass on the line along with your money. That’s rare enough, but I know a bit about Enfield’s history—and why your grandmother won’t allow any AIs to be paired with her executives. I think it’s high time that a new legacy was established for Enfield.”
“Proteus,” Terrance said softly.
Terrance pursed his lips, trying to think of a suitable response. None came to mind, so he just nodded slowly.
Terrance thought briefly of what his grandmother would say, should she learn that he’d violated her mandate. It was worth the risk, though, and after tonight, he could have the procedure reversed and he and Eric would once again be separate.
Sophia needn’t know, and Terrance would have had the experience of a lifetime—one that no other Enfield had.
Provided we survive the incursion against the Norden Cartel.
He met Eric’s gaze steadily and nodded. “OK,” he told them both. “I’m ready.”
* * * * *
While Terrance and Eric underwent the tender ministrations that the SIS’s medical bays offered, Calista and Shannon transported Jason and Tobias back to the Enfield dock.
Calista rested her gaze on Jason, mentally sizing him up and wondering if he was truly ‘fit for duty’. Not just the whole throwing-off-the-stun thing, but fit, fit.
It was one thing to hack the black. It was another thing entirely to not crack under the pressure of a mission like this.
Jason must have sensed her intense regard; he turned toward her and sent her a crooked half-smile. “I’m fine,” he assured her. “And I promise your baby will be safe in my hands.”