Version Innocent

by Pete Molina

Chapter 34

  Dawson watched the whole meeting that Terra and company had in the vault from Sam’s perspective on playback. Fortunately, Damon Harding had had the foresight to add a recorder that buffered up to two hours of video and audio. What he heard greatly distressed him. The amount of antimatter Terra’s other version had given to Storm was impossible. Dawson didn’t know that much about the controls placed on the antimatter production stations strewn about the inner solar system, but he had thought that the controls would be tight enough to ensure that a hundred kilograms couldn’t just walk away.

  So Storm 6.7 had a weapon of mass destruction of some kind. Dawson wasn’t falling for Sam’s line not to use it as such that had convinced Terra’s other version. The man was obviously off his rocker. He’d already sent a virus that killed three thousand and seriously inconvenienced millions of others, not to mention the drop in confidence of the US controlled restoration system. No, Storm was probably going to follow up his virus attack with an antimatter bombardment of the restoration center, but that much antimatter was far more than Storm should need for that purpose. Dawson couldn’t figure out what he was going to use it all for unless he was going to destroy a substantial part of the continent or power a huge ship…or a fleet of ships. The possibilities were mind boggling.

  He was lucky that the bug integrated with Sam’s companion knew enough to stop transmission if a scan were run on it. If they had confirmed that Sam was in fact the leak, they would find a way to stop his transmission, and then he wouldn’t know about any of this. But now that he had this information, he wasn’t sure what he should do with it. It was true that if the Fleet or the Government got wind of it, they’d send everything they had to get Terra Gates regardless of whether she was an out of date version, and then where would he be? They’d destroy the one chance to track Storm down and stop him before he unleashed whatever he was working on.

  Dawson knew he should send the news to Damon Harding; he would understand that to let too many people know about this would be disaster. And he’d make sure Dawson could carry on his mission. But what should he do about this trip Storm’s younger version would be making to the Hyatain station? He couldn’t send the Marines without fear that the amount of antimatter would become known to them, and that they would report it up the line. No, he had to settle for watching Sam through his bug. But meanwhile Terra Gates and Jeff Hughes would be planning some type of getaway diversion, and that he did need to know something about.

  It took a few minutes of suspension in his fog bed thinking about the problem before he realized that no matter how they left Mars he would still know by watching Sam, when and where he was going…unless Sam were left behind. That was unlikely, however. They’d gone through enough together that they wouldn’t leave someone behind unless they knew he was jeopardizing their plans. Well, he’d just have to make sure they didn’t find out that Sam was the leak.

  Dawson got up from his suspension field and walked from his quarters, jumping into the lift tube and giving orders to take him to the barracks where his Marines had recently returned from their operation on the surface. He went to open the door but found that it wouldn’t admit him. He had his companion query the ship as to why the door wouldn’t open, and it replied that the door had been locked from the inside.

  “What the hell is going on now?” Dawson said to himself while trying to decide what to do. He resolved to contact Lieutenant Madison through his companion. She answered after letting it ring for a minute.

  “Agent Dawson, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon after the operation. We’ve completed our debriefing to the computer. We thought it would take you a while to go over it before you had questions,” Lt. Madison said a little flustered. It was the first time Dawson had seen her that way.

  “I wanted to discuss with you a new assignment for some of your Marines.” Dawson said. “I haven’t reviewed your debrief yet…have I come at a bad time?”

  There was a pause before Madison replied, “Actually, Agent Dawson, you have.”

  “Well, I’m sorry. I need you to do your job,” Dawson said sternly.

  “You don’t know, do you?” Lt. Madison said in an uncharacteristically unprofessional way.

  “Know what?” Dawson asked, beginning to be irritated. Were they Marines or weren’t they?

  “After a mission where we are deployed and linked, it’s standard procedure to give the platoon two hours of R and R,” Madison said as if that explained it, but it just confused Dawson.

  “And why is that?” he asked. It was a strange procedure. What if they were in the middle of a crisis.

  “Because, Agent Dawson, the mind link makes us like one person and that stimulates our sex drive for which there must be a release for us to continue to work together,” Lt. Madison explained with a little embarrassment, the first emotion he had seen her display.

  “So, are you telling me that you get these two hours to have an orgy?” Dawson asked insensitively.

  When Madison replied, it was curt. “Yes, Agent Dawson, but not so crudely as you put it. We have no families but each other. We have no one but each other.”

  Dawson was taken aback. Did everyone know about this but him? “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize. I’ll expect you to report to me in one hour, Lt. Madison.”

  “Yes, Agent Dawson,” she replied curtly and was gone.

  Dawson was a little embarrassed himself, now that he thought about it. Of course with a link that made eight people into essentially one being they would be able to hide nothing from each other…ever. Everyone did know about this, he realized, and because he wasn’t Fleet, he hadn’t been informed. Well, it was a little strange, he’d grant, but if it delivered results like he’d seen on the surface, he could put up with their policy so long as they were really finished with their mission. Dawson headed back up the lift tube to his quarters and started working on his report for Damon Harding. When he was finished, he encrypted it and had it sent directly to Harding’s companion. He didn’t want anyone to get even a glimpse of his findings.

  After he sent it, he was just beginning to read over Lt. Madison’s debriefing of the mission when there was a knock at his door. It was her. Dawson released the lock on his door and beckoned her in. She was back in uniform now and looked all business except for a little redness in her face that was probably embarrassment.

  “Agent Dawson, I’d like to apologize..” she began, but Dawson interrupted her.

  “It’s not an issue, I simply hadn’t been informed. And if that is the price of your platoon’s performance, then so be it. We don’t need to discuss it any further,” Dawson said.

  She looked relieved. “Thank you. You had an assignment?” Now she was all business. Even that slight reddening was disappearing.

  “Yes, I’d like you to have you send two Marines to watch Terra Gates, I want to know what she’s up to. I suspect she will be trying to leave Mars shortly, and I’d like to know where she’s going before she takes off.”

  “I’ll have two men on it immediately. Should they try to penetrate the Gates Family Dome?”

  “No, just watch them if they leave…I assume that their camouflage won’t deter you.”

  “No sir, their camouflage is less advanced than our own. We can track them.”

  “Good. That’s all, Lieutenant Madison.” Dawson said, dismissed her.

  She turned and left immediately.

  Then he contacted the Captain. “Captain, I’m having Lt. Madison send two of her Marines back to the surface to keep an eye on Terra Gates so she doesn’t slip through our fingers.”

  “Why didn’t you just leave them down there in the first place?” the Captain asked with a little contempt in her voice.

  “The situation on the ground is fluid. I’m just trying anticipate their next moves. I apologize for the inconvenience,” Dawson tried to be diplomatic.

  “Of course, anything we can
do. Do you expect us to be departing in the near future?”

  “Yes, but…” He began to say before she interrupted.

  “Let me guess. They are leaving, but you don’t know to where or when yet, but you’ll let me know.”

  “Exactly.”

  “We’ll be ready to break orbit on your notice,” she responded closing the connection.

  The Captain had been getting more peeved at him as time went along and he took more control over the mission. Dawson thought that wasn’t quite fair of her. He wasn’t attempting to command the ship, just the Marines. The snafu with the Marines reporting directly to him had sparked the whole thing off. Hopefully she’d get over it. But as long as she continued to do what he needed, he didn’t care if she liked it or not.