by Robert Boren
“You’re only worried about Simone, right?”
I shook my head. “We’ve talked to only two people with the Central Authority Fleet, and they locked their supreme commander in the brig during our first attempted conversation with him. I know Bryce and Stuart, but it’s been years since we’ve talked on a regular basis. I don’t know the dynamics that put Boeraton in charge, or the dynamics that turned everybody against him. Things aren’t usually that tidy.”
“You didn’t mention that concern before.”
“It’s been working on me since we watched Boeraton hauled out of that meeting. Wish the conversation would’ve been a little calmer. Boeraton can be kind of a blow hard, but he’s not an idiot. He’s got reasons for his position.”
JJ took another sip of her cocktail. “Dammit, I’m getting worried again. You always do that to me.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, I’m glad you’re telling me your thoughts. I just wish we had more info. There’s too many moving parts in this mess.”
Our food came, a collection of appetizers which we attacked.
We left the bar after an hour.
“Are we going home?” JJ asked.
“I want to be on the bridge when that flight suit makes it to Hodge.”
“Oh, that’s right,” JJ said. “Me too.”
Nolan was still on the bridge when we got there, Skip and Sondra both gone.
“The others took off,” Nolan said. “I’m watching until Andrea, Tim, and Izzy get here. They’re on the way to handle the night shift.”
“What?” Nolan asked.
Nolan and I glanced at each other.
“What?” JJ asked.
“They sent people to the surface and got themselves infected,” I said.
“How did they get all eight ships infected, assuming the one that remained was in that condition?” JJ asked.
“Simple,” Nolan said. “They planned to invade the planet. We’ll find evidence of landers on the surface.”
“I’m not buying that,” JJ said.
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m a little skeptical too.”
“You’re thinking the other Clan ships will destroy them,” JJ said.
“We’ll know pretty soon,” Nolan said, turning away from his screen. “The approaching Clan ships weren’t very far away.”
“That’s faster than we expected,” I said.
“Commence scans,” I said.
“Hey, I still like to feel I’m in command.”
“Dojo,” Nolan said. “Proper decorum on the bridge, please.”
“Check for landing craft on the surface of Hodge.”
The middle screen lit up with a video feed. The bay door was open, and there were blast points around it.
“A battle happened here,” I said, staring at the screen.
“With the people of Hodge?” JJ asked.
“No, those are plasma gun blast points,” I said, walking closer to the screen and pointing. “Hodge doesn’t have modern plasma weapons.”
“Maybe the other ships didn’t want anybody from the infected ship to take a shuttle over.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Landers, Butch?”
“I hate when he says that,” JJ said.
“How much damage are we talking about?” I asked.
“Why would they want to attack Hodge?” JJ asked.
“If the Clan has access to Central Authority records, they might have figured out that there hasn’t been contact, even scientific survey teams.”
“Wouldn’t that have tipped them off about the parasite problem?” JJ asked.
I chuckled. “I’m sure it was mentioned in the survey documentation, but you know how long those are. They might have stopped their study before they got to that little jewel of info. Remember they were in a panic when they went there.”
“Ah, you’ve been watching this, huh?” I asked.
We watched the screen, video from the flight suit showing us the inside of the Clan Razor bay, a broken shuttle near the door, bodies floating around.
“Oh, geez,” JJ said, turning her head away.
“I’m on,” Estes said. “Taking control of the flight suit. We’ve never tried our mechanism for a direct physical data connection, but they’ll have strong controls on wireless data connection. Physical is safer. If we try and fail with wireless, the system might shut down.”
“We have a way to attach?” JJ asked.
“Like blades,” JJ said. “Yes.”
“Yes, got it!” Estes said. “Looking okay on your end, Drake?”
“Hodge has satellite warfare capability?” JJ asked. “They must be going crazy on that planet.”
“Oh no,” JJ said.
“That satellite killer won’t even dent the Razor, you know,” Nolan said.
“What if they reverse-engineer the worm-hole projection drives on that ship?” Nolan asked.
“Then they get into the club earlier than they would’ve normally,” I said. “That’s far from my main concern right now. They’re already close.”
ainst landing it in a populated area anyway. It’ll be contaminated.
“Dojo, are the Clan ships still leaving our zone?” Nolan asked.
“Yes sir,” Estes said.
“Why was it so important to get data on this?” JJ asked. “We know what happened.”
“We’re not interested in data on the Hodge incident,” I said. “We’re interested in the other data they had. Locations of bases and supply depots, for instance. Battle plans. Central Authority government contacts and plants.”
{ 22 }
Traitors
A ndrea, Tim, and Izzy arrived on the bridge as we were watching the video feed from the flight suit. It was still uploading data to the Rocky Mountain lab.
“What’s going on?” Tim asked, staring at the screen.
I filled them in.
“Wow,” Andrea said. “I remember the problem with Hodge. If they reverse-engineer those drives, we’ll have to deal with their problem.”
“It’ll take them a while,” Nolan said.
“Hey, I’ve got an idea,” JJ said. “Why don’t we send the flight suit back in there to release Variant Three Nanos? That’ll make it much more difficult.”
I laughed. “That’s a good idea. Butch, did you hear that?”
“Of course. How about that satellite killer?”
“It’s about to pass now,” Nolan said. “Wow, pretty tidy piece of hardware. Hodge has some advanced thinkers.”
I laughed. “This ought to be interesting. There aren’t any humans in that thing, are there?”
“Wish we had time to drop off some literature,” Nolan said.
“They are probably a free society already,” I said, “because that’s what it takes to get to this point on your own. When government controls thought, the big ideas don’t take hold, unless they’re stolen from a nearby free society.”
“Data transfer completed, Captain Clarke,” Estes said.
“Great. Butch, you know what to do.”
The video feed disappeared from the center screen.
“Izzy, prepare to jump to Amberis.”
“I just sent you the coordinates,” Nolan said.
Izzy nodded. “I’ve got them, Captain. Off we go.”
The dizziness hit us as we took off.
“Andrea, you’ve got the bridge. JJ and I need some shut-eye.”
“Enjoy, you two,” she replied.
“Oh, and Nolan, you go get some rest too, please,” I said.
Nolan nodded. “I will, Captain. Need about a half hour to finish what I was doing.”
“No more.” I left the bridge with JJ.
“Hope we get some good info from that data dump,” JJ said as we walked to the transit station.
“We will. Might be encrypted, though.”
“We’re good at breaking Clan encryption. They’re ahead of us in some ways, but behind us when it comes to data processing and data protection. They’re also way behind us in AI technology.”
We got into a tin can, the door shutting behind us.
“They’ve got decent AI,” I said. “They’re running their ships with it.”
JJ froze. “Dammit, I’ll bet that was part of the deal.”
“Deal?”
“The Prime Minister might have given them our AI technology.”
I thought about it for a moment, the tin can slowing to a stop at our destination. “They might have gotten better on their own, you know. The Razor ships are a major step forward for them. They had to rely on us for Samson Drives only a short time ago, remember?”
“Maybe they got the drive technology from us, Trey.” We stood before the stateroom door as it opened, entering. “Put on the night lock.”
“Oh, have something in mind, do you?” I clicked the lock shut.
“You said something about horizontal refreshments. Got my mind working in that direction. Get those clothes off.”
I smiled, watching as she stripped out of her uniform, getting more and more excited.
“Come on,” she said.
I stripped, pausing to watch her peel the Nano suit off, her soft curves a delight.
“Are you just gonna look?” she asked, striking a pose.
“For a moment.” I finished undressing and climbed into bed. She was ready, straddling me and sinking, the feeling almost too much. We made love frantically, drifting off to sleep afterwards.
I woke first, JJ still snoring softly. My PA said we’d overslept by more than two hours. I got out of bed, JJ stirring, her eyes opening.
“You were on fire last night,” I said.
She smiled. “Yes, I was a little naughty. Sorry.”
“Are you kidding?” I slipped on my Nano suit, pausing to pick up the cleaning capsule and toss it into the trash bin.
“What’s on the agenda today?” JJ asked as she stood.
“I’m hoping we learn something from Estes about that data.”
“I’m almost afraid to hear what’s in it.” She pulled her Nano suit on. “Oh, mine cleaned itself too.” She picked up the capsule and put it in the trash. “These suits are amazing. I feel naked without it now.”
“Seriously. We still need to roll this out to the rest of the crew.”
“You think we’re still doing that?” JJ asked, getting a clean uniform out of the closet.
“I’ve noticed how much better the AI response is with the number of people we have on the system now. Imagine if everybody was on it. That would lead to a higher level of thought and problem-solving capability.”
“It doesn’t scare you?”
I shook my head. “No. Why does it scare you?”
“It might change us in ways we don’t understand yet.”
“That’s been a concern for every leap in technology we’ve ever had,” I said.
“Yes, and sometimes those concerns were right.”
“Give me an example.”
“The PA system,” JJ said.
I shrugged. “Okay, point taken. We should’ve known better about that, too. Remember the social media problem we had in the 2020s? It almost ruined our society. Maybe we need to study this more before we pull the trigger.”
“That look. It drives me wild.”
I eyed her. “What look?”
“Get your clothes back off.” She started to strip.
“Why?”
“When we connect. When I change your mind. You look at me differently, and it’s a huge turn on.”
“What kind of look?” I asked, taking my uniform off.
“Reverence,” she said. “You have to take me hard.”
I was naked again, as was she, and we joined, me on top of her the whole time, staring into her eyes as I took her hard, her legs around my middle, open, giving everything to me. We were left panting, faces flu
shed.
“I’m so in love with you, Trey.”
“Me too.”
JJ snickered. “You’re in love with yourself?”
“No, the me too meant I’m so in love with you,” I said. “Always keeping me on my toes, aren’t you?”
“I get a little jealous and possessive, you know.”
“Yes, I know, and so do all of our cocktail waitresses, from what I’ve seen.”
She punched me in the arm. “Be nice. They’re all younger and firmer than I am.”
I moved my hands against her, caressing her breasts. “I like soft, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“Yes, I noticed. Are we starting up again, or should we get up?”
I smiled. “We need to get up, unfortunately. I’m surprised Butch hasn’t been bugging me yet.”
“Think about something else before you wake him. We need some privacy.”
We got dressed. “I’m hungry.”
“Yes, let’s get something on the way.”
“Butch, wake up.
JJ shook her head, hearing him. “Emerald, wake please.
“Stop,” JJ said.
“You didn’t hide your thoughts, I take it?”
JJ chuckled. “It’s not worth the effort, is it?”
“No, and I tried. Let’s get going.”
We stopped for a bite, getting to the bridge in about twenty minutes. Skip, Sondra, and Nolan were all there.
“Andrea and the others left, huh?” I asked.
“Two hours ago,” Sondra said. “Sleep well?”
“We did,” JJ said.
“Anything going on?”
“No, Captain, nothing out-of-the-ordinary. Chairman Vermillion was here once looking for you, but said he’d let you sleep.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Butch, tell the Chairman that I’m available if he needs me.”
“Got it, thanks.”
“JJ, want to work the cloaking issue?” Nolan asked.
“Sure, I’m ready. Shall we go to Engineering?”
“Yes, I’ve got a new test-bed set up there.” They left the bridge.