Commandeered
“Paranoia starts to make the most sense once you seen your ship blown apart.”
(Part 3 of the “Cypher Sigma” series)
Lieutenant Floris wasn’t in so much pain that it was unbearable. The Andrew was doing a good job keeping him as comfortable as could be under the circumstances, but Floris was breathing heavily, and his heartrate was elevated considerably. The Andrew asked him if there was anything more he could do.
“Am I going to be blind?” the lieutenant asked.
His eyes were swollen shut, and there were burns all over his skin where it had been exposed to space. The Andrew explained that was the case for his eyes as well. They wouldn’t know how damaged his vision would be so soon after. He would have to wait to see how much healing his body could do.
“You certainly will not be blind, though. In fact, I wanted to talk to you about that very thing.”
“What?” Floris asked, “my eyes?”
“More precisely, the captain would like you to look at some images.”
“Sure. I’d love to,” Floris replied, attempting a grin but finding it difficult with his swollen lips. Instead, he just let out a frustrated huff.
“I can explain,” the Andrew said. “Your optic nerve is just as intact as it was before your exposure. I can perform a procedure to connect directly to the nerve by accessing behind your eye. Once we calibrate it, you would be able to see the feed instantly, and we could set it up to receive an input directly from a set of eyewear, in essence restoring normal vision temporarily while you heal. Long-term, this would be how they treat any deficits you incurred from your exposure.”
“What’s the catch?”
“No particular catch, Lieutenant,” Andrew said. “There are a few needles involved.”
“Needles? How many?”
“Four, thin and quite flexible. You won’t feel them unless you blink, which you shouldn’t be doing anyway. Have you heard of acupuncture?”
“When they stick needles all over you?”
“Exactly. It’s that type of needle, only thinner, with a special type of electrochemical nanotech that will interface with your optic nerve. Would you be willing to try?”
“No pain?”
“No more so than what you’re experiencing from the exposure.”
Floris took a deep breath and agreed. The Andrew told him it was going to feel strange seeing perfectly while his eyes were bandaged shut. He began the procedure immediately after numbing the areas around the corner of each eyelid. It took about an hour after the placement for the nanotech to interface with the optic nerve, and then they began to calibrate the connection by going through a bank of images—trees, birds, foods, colors, places, cosmic vistas, objects, the written word. As the calibration progressed, the Andrew noticed a considerable uptick in Floris’s mood. His heartrate slowed by nearly twenty BPM.
“You’re calming down,” Andrew noted. “That’s good.”
“You don’t experience it obviously, but man, I guess it was anxiety, you know, the thought of losing something so important. At least now I know there’s a way.”
“I’m glad to alleviate the stress, sir. Now, if I may, Captain Gennaro would appreciate your help. We took images of a rather unique vessel as we fled the wreck.”
“Of the Byard?”
“Yes, sir. You were not conscious, but we had to rush out. As Lieutenant Pozzer and I were searching the ship for survivors, an enemy vessel jumped in.”
“Trasp?”
“We are uncertain. Pozzer could not identify it, nor can our captain or our database.”
“Well, that’s damn odd. I’ll have a look at the images if you think it’ll help, but if the computer can’t I doubt I’ll be able to.”
“Perhaps that’s so. But we were more interested in having you rule out the possibility that the ship we spotted was responsible for the Byard’s destruction.”
“Oh,” Floris replied. “Sure. Load them up, Andrew.”
Floris flinched a bit as the peaceful forest backdrop that Andrew had been displaying switched to a still shot of space, and, in the center of that stellar backdrop was a ship unlike any Floris had ever seen or even imagined.
“Never seen that, no,” he confirmed. “That looks like one gigantic, furious ball of angry energy ... well, maybe. More like metal. All those angles. What the hell is it?”
“We now know only as much as you. But you can confirm that ship was not responsible for the Byard’s destruction?”
“I can confirm that,” Floris agreed. “I don’t think you’d be talking to me if that thing had come after us.”
“We thank you for your help, Lieutenant. Now if you’ll indulge me with your patience for a few minutes, I will make the necessary connections with the eyewear so you may see your surroundings again.”
“Oh, please do,” Floris stated, taking a deep breath as the image flipped to blackness.
As promised, it took several minutes before the android began to make the necessary connections. There were minor calibration issues, but it was quicker because they had the baseline images locked in. Andrew was asking him questions about the room when he heard the door open.
“Please do not move your head yet,” the Andrew said.
He’d turned, almost subconsciously to see who was entering.
“Is that you, Pozzer?” Floris asked.
“That’s right,” Shad Pozzer answered. “You’ve never seen our mystery ship, I gathered?”
“Mystery megaship more like. No. Any idea what the hell it is?”
“Not yet. No. It must have something to do with the attack on Alpha-Richard, though. We just don’t know what, but at least we have the images to pass on to LSS Intel.”
There was a strange sound that Floris couldn’t quite identify.
“You may turn your head now,” the Andrew told him. “But please, go easy, my friend. You can see, but your body has sustained significant trauma.”
Floris exhaled and turned toward the open part of the room in the direction of the door. He quickly identified the familiar face of that common android model, as well as Pozzer, who looked over at him curiously.
“Can you see us?” Pozzer asked. “It’s kinda strange, because I can’t tell whether you’re looking at me or not.”
“You know what else is strange,” Floris replied. “I see you, and I see this Andrew, and I also see a cat floating beside your head, Pozzer. And it’s wearing a helmet.”
Pozzer looked over his shoulder. “How did you get in here?”
“I’m a cat. Yes. Hello. I’m Santos.”
“You sure you didn’t scramble something while you were poking needles in my brain, Andrew? It’s talking now.”
“The helmet’s talking,” Pozzer replied, reaching for the cat, who backed away slowly, floating by some sort of drone belt. “Kilty, can you please come get your cat outta here?”
“Sorry,” Floris heard one of the girls’ voices in the background.
“What the hell kind of ship is this, Pozzer?”
He saw a young, pretty mate float into the room—one of the curriers, he presumed. She took the cat under her arm.
“Come here, you. You are the most curious little thing.”
“I’m a cat,” it replied.
“So, I guess this thing’s working,” Floris declared. “I don’t suppose this day could get any stranger.”
Pozzer glared over at Floris and shook his head at him.
“Oh, you just had to go and say that out loud, Floris, didn’t you?”
“I do believe I’ve earned the right to say whatever the hell I want today.”
Pozzer laughed. “I do believe that’s a fact. Are you feeling up to moving around? Show you the ship?”
Floris nodded. “Sure, Pozzer. I have a few people to thank aboard.”
Floris seemed to grow more comfortable aboard the Gennaro sisters’ ship as the transit to Beta-Aurelius progressed. He sat at the lunch table with Ellis Ames and Kilty as the cat floated about the ship. The explanation for the cat’s presence, as well as his slightly uplifted nature, helped to put Floris more at ease. Santos himself, vocalizing via the neurotech in his flight helmet, also seemed to lighten the mood during an otherwise heavy time. Floris had only ever seen a cat a couple times before, but this was the first one he’d ever met who said hello and professed friendship. It was a strangely deep sentiment that landed much harder on a day like that.
“I wish I could pet you, little buddy,” he told Santos as the cat hovered about, “but my hands are all swole up.”
Floris held up his two heavily bandaged arms, both of which looked like they had white clubs at the end of them, under which, Andrew had applied gloves and a healing balm to help save what they could of the appendages. And on his wrists, there were pain bands, blocking all sensation, which was just as well—the only thing to feel in those frozen hands was pain.
“Okay, Badou,” Santos said to Floris. “Okay, Badou.”
“Why’s he calling him that?” Ames asked Kilty. “Any idea?”
She just shook her head.
Ames explained to Floris what they’d been doing in Alpha-Richard in the hours leading up to the attack. They shared a good laugh about the way they’d met the sisters in the club at Krystezia in the recreational cylinder group. And then they recounted Floris’s rescue from the Byard. Pozzer explained what the ship looked like when they jumped in—hobbled, the entire front bulkhead blown halfway out, open to space, and then the back half of the ship also blown apart from the engine compartment.
“Do you know what kind of ships they were?” Pozzer asked him. “It might help to know what sort of tactics the Trasp are using, maybe figure out how they tracked us to the emergency dropout.”
Floris seemed to shrug. “I can say for sure it was the Trasp in Alpha-Richard. They hit the mooring field and the spaceport, fast and hard. As for the drop? I’m not sure that’s the same story.”
“You don’t think it was the Trasp?” Kilty asked.
“I don’t think it’s straightforward. That’s all I’ll say right now.”
Pozzer didn’t want to press Floris just then. He was just happy he was in decent enough shape to move about and meet the girls. After Kilty helped fix him a tea and a method for holding the pouch with his bandaged hands, Floris sipped it on his own. He didn’t care to be helped any more than necessary. But he did make his way up to the flight deck to thank Denver for the help they did render, expressing gratitude for saving his life.
She briefly asked him about the mystery megaship.
“Never seen anything like it,” Floris said. “Just like I told your Andrew. I seen some things I never thought I’d see today—that, a flying cat, a CO go off deck during a combat call. Prettiest rescue crew I’ve ever seen too.”
“Your commander abandoned the bridge?”
“I’m not sure I can say for sure. It was chaotic. That’s all.”
Denver chose not to press him in the moment. She invited Floris to sit, more so he didn’t need to adjust how he was free-floating with his damaged hands. Denver helped him clip in. Then they talked for nearly an hour about their homes, their travels in the Letters and Indies, their favorite port cities. Floris was amazed that the girls were so well traveled. He also got a good laugh from the thought that Pozzer had pegged her and Kilty as spies.
“Then again,” he said, “betrayal does funny things to the way you think. Paranoia starts to make the most sense once you seen your ship blown apart.”
Floris dozed for several hours in the evening, hardly ate, and slept nearly twelve hours that night, off and on, which Andrew relayed was normal after such a significant trauma.
With a few hours left in the transit, Pozzer finally got Floris to fully open up about what had happened at the Byard. First he had to reveal to Floris that the girls had helped him to crack open the eyewear of the Trasp spy they’d accosted in Alpha-Richard. He had the gear in his possession, complete with the overview and backtracing in the code the girls’ Andrew had given him. All of it would go straight to LSS Intel when they went in to base.
“They’re not spies, Pozzer, as much as it’s good policy to suspect anyone and everyone right now.”
“What about you? Who do you suspect?” Shad Pozzer asked him.
“It’s hard to say exactly. We jumped out of Richard after taking a string of serious hits. It was like we all took a deep breath because each next hit would be the one to cripple us, bust the ring drive, leave us out there to get picked apart. Then we breathe easy a little, get to the business of fixing what we can fix on the way to the drop point, thinking everything was going to be all right. Then we dropped at the coordinates, and ten, twenty minutes, it’s all fine. CO steps off deck, and the LC the OD at the time, he goes out too. It didn’t feel right. But it wasn’t like me, running off to deal with the different fleet crews needing to borrow hands from the Rangers in both groups. I was just coordinating, and we’re not fleet guys, right? But we know enough to know when something doesn’t look right. I’m telling you, Shad, they were carrying something. Something with the comms interface, I think, if I had to bet. Because the LC had the fleet ensigns who weren’t on deck running around wiping something from a couple of the interfaces. I don’t know if it was tech or intel or whatever, but we were there for just about long enough for them to cover their tracks, then, boom! We get hit.”
“By who?”
Floris shook his head. “Multiple ships. But by that point I was aft, coordinating with the fleet engineers. I only heard all this, like ‘Where the hell’s the CO?’ and same for the LC. And I swear, we shouldn’t have gone down like that. We were outnumbered but not outgunned, but they knew right where to target. And we had the third lieutenant on deck shitting himself as he tried to command a full gunship, one-on-six or something like that, and I swear I heard a pod pop off. I think it was the commander and the LC. And maybe a minute later, the forward decks get blasted out, followed by the entire engine compartment, and who knows what the hell after that. I was just gasping, blind, scrambling like hell to get into a suit. And I don’t know. Then I’m here.”
“Goff and Aerro? You really think they what ... were they in on it?”
“In on what, Pozzer? That’s the question. The attack on Richard? Or whatever the hell was going on aboard the Byard? Or maybe both. I don’t even have a sense of whether they’re related.”
“Hell,” Pozzer exclaimed. “We might stand a chance of defending the Letters if anyone in the LSS had the first clue what was going on.”
“That’s a fact.”
“Well, anyway. First thing for you is to get fixed up as best the doctors can.”
“I’m sure they’ll debrief me first thing. I don’t even know, though. I’ll tell them, I guess, but who knows who in Intel is compromised or not. And then there’s that ship of yours. What the hell was that, Pozzer?”
Shad shook his head, and then, forgetting that Floris could see him through all those facial bandages covering over his eyes, he said as much. “Sorry. I don’t know, Floris. I don’t know what’s going on.”
“You know I can see you, right?”
Pozzer grinned, nodding, “Yeah, I guess I kinda forgot about that. At least that’s one decent thing to be thankful for.”
As they approached Beta-Aurelius, Denver had the sense to drop out early—to sit for long enough to take a good visual survey of the system. Considering what had happened at Alpha-Richard, Denver wasn’t taking any chances. And, for as long as she sat taking a visual survey, Andrew was able to monitor the comms. From what they could see at the edge of the system, they were not nearly alone in their idea to flee that way. Sure, there was an LSS base planetside on Aurelius, but it also seemed like the space within the orbit of the two lunar bodies had turned into a makeshift mobile command center. She didn’t care to go charging in there during such a high-pitched situation. Fortunately, apart from the frenetic comms traffic and high alert, there didn’t seem to be any signs of a Trasp attack.
Denver jumped to within several hundred thousand kilometers and called in, explaining that they were a civilian currier bringing in LSS survivors from Alpha-Richard. They got told to wait. About another hour later, she got a call from the command ship coordinating the system’s response. They had Pozzer transmit details on himself, Ames, and Floris, and they didn’t hear back from the command ship Ovidio-M for nearly two hours more.
“Gamma-Griffin Rangers?” a ping came back cold suddenly.
Denver had nearly drifted off to sleep. Pozzer and Ames were both in the back. She looked around and it was just her and the cat.
“What do you think, Santos? Should I answer?” she asked him.
“Santos fly!” the cat replied.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” she said, taking a deep breath as she opened the frequency. “Hermiad Kappa-Hahn, Captain Denver Gennaro speaking. We have your GG Rangers on board. Awaiting instructions.”
“Standby, Hermiad.”
“You called me,” she mumbled to herself.
“Yes,” Santos agreed.
Denver smiled and reached over to pet their little cargo. She started telling him how he was definitely the handsomest package they’d ever transported.
“Hermiad, we’re transmitting a flight pattern. You’ll be docking with Ovidio-M at spire lock 14 alpha. We must insist you follow the plan exactly. If you need a pilot, we will send instructions for a remote handshake at thirty thousand kilometers.”
“Unnecessary, Ovidio, we’ll take her in.”
“Understood. Heightened security protocols are in effect. Be prepared to present biometric ID for all passengers aboard. Everyone will be required to debark.”
“We can’t just drop your guys off and be on our way?”
“Negative. Everyone must debark.”
“How fun,” she stated to the cat, who looked back at her perplexed. “You know we have a third ranger in need of medical attention, extended exposure? He’s got cosmic burns to his hands, face, feet, eyes, temporary blindness. I can have our Andrew transmit a report.”
“Have your Andrew debark with you as well. He can report to medical directly.”
Denver acknowledged the message and clicked off.
“Looks like you’re flying solo, little guy,” she said to Santos. “Just for a little bit. Then it’ll just be you and me and Kilty to Athos. All this excitement.”
It was a difficult docking along the spire of the Ovidio-M. Denver didn’t call for the remote pilot, but she did bring Andrew up to the flight deck to make certain the ship progressed perfectly along the docking parameters. They were met by a medical team at Ovidio’s airlock, where everyone conveyed their best to Floris. For his part, he thanked the sisters and the GG-Rangers for his rescue before he was whisked off to the medical bay for treatment. Kilty didn’t realize he still had her eyewear until he was already out of sight. She thought about it for a moment before deciding Floris needed them more.
As they stepped down the interior corridor along Ovidio’s outer rotating cylinder, Denver and Kilty immediately clocked the energy as distinctly different from what they’d expected. They’d stepped onto that ship as private curriers believing they were free people, but the energy shifted the moment they were surrounded by LSS personnel. Neither sister had been arrested before, but the looks they exchanged as they progressed expressed a shared sentiment of trepidation with each step they took away from their ship.
The foursome were brought onto the forward hub. A fleet ensign told the Rangers where to sit, alongside the outer causeway, on a bench, out of the way as the command center bustled. Ships were dropping in by the minute, from Richard and elsewhere, and news was coming in by the second.
“What’s going on, Pozzer,” Denver asked him after they sat.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Just relax and be patient. The last thing you want to be on a day like this is a problem for people who have bigger things to worry about than us.”
“Which people would that be?” she asked.
Pozzer didn’t answer.
“They’re probably trying to figure out who should debrief us,” Ames told Kilty.
“And us?” she replied, referring to herself and Denver.
Ellis Ames shrugged.
They were out on that bench for long enough that the girls’ anxiety flattened. An uneasy boredom set in. Eventually, Andrew rejoined them after reporting on Lieutenant Floris’s condition to the doctors and surgeons at the infirmary. They sat for nearly an hour, watching the fleet personnel bustling around Ovidio-M’s hub.
“Rangers!” a voice echoed down the round corridor. The speaker was just within the visible arc, seeming to look down at them. “Gamma-Griffin. The Commodore would like a word. Bring your guests.”
Shad and Ellis popped right up and gestured for the girls to follow.
The four of them, with Andrew trailing behind, were led into a side annex to an inner command center so large that it curved up and away behind a partition with a row of clear glass windows. The first window was slid open revealing an outward-facing counter. Behind that counter, a major sat, whom the boys saluted as they entered the annex. Kilty and Denver didn’t. The major looked all four of them up and down before looking over her shoulder and gesturing.
“Standby,” she said, returning to the desk-screen and ignoring their inquisitive stares.
They stood there waiting for what seemed like ages before finally, an older gentleman with a commanding bearing stepped over to the window. Shad and Ellis both found a way to stand even straighter as they saluted. The man seemed to ignore them, looking over at Denver and Kilty instead.
“Which one of you’s the captain?”
“I am,” Denver stated, stepping closer to the opening. “How can we help you, sir?”
He didn’t answer immediately, instead gesturing with his head to someone behind him. Denver wasn’t sure, but she thought it was an entirely unrelated matter.
“We’ll have some forms for you to authenticate with the solicitor. Your ship and its contents are hereby commandeered into the service of the LSS, pursuant to the Federated Lettered System Defense Treaty of—”
“Wait, what?” Denver replied, almost yelling back at the man. “You can’t take our ship.”
Shad looked over at her and shook his head, his eyes wide, exhorting Denver to keep calm.
“Who do you think you are?”
The man took a deep breath and stated calmly, “I’m giving notice. This isn’t a debate. The solicitor will present you your options, Captain Gennaro.”
Andrew stepped behind Denver and stated softly, “This gentleman is Commodore Eruk DeVantst, the commander of the LSS First Fleet. They most certainly have the legal authority to take possession of the ship under the circumstances.”
“We have cargo aboard. Open contracts,” Denver protested.
The commodore looked back at Denver, slightly annoyed to still be addressing her. “The solicitor,” he said, gesturing toward the last window. “She will explain your options. Be grateful you have any.”
Denver shook her head. Pozzer could see she wasn’t ready to accept that the commodore had the final say in the matter. Shad flashed her a stern look to warn her, but still, he could see that Denver was about to make matters worse.
“Permission to address Captain Gennaro privately, Commodore?” Pozzer asked.
DeVantst gestured toward Denver with a nod.
Shad took her aside and began to speak softly.
“Please, Denver, on this day, at this moment, this is the wrong time to make a nuisance of yourself. Once they take your ship, which they already have, and you and Kilty are left standing here—a capable pilot and an experienced spacehand—what do you think they’re going to do with you two? Take a fighting ship out of service to give you two a ride home? Do not give him a reason to make this worse for you and your sister.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Unless you want to be pressed into service, go and talk to the solicitor. Commodore said you have options. Just go take the best one for you and Kilty. Now turn and say ‘thank you, sir,’ to the commodore. Politely and graciously.”
She shook her head angrily at Shad. He looked back at her sternly. “If you trust me even a little, Denver. Please.”
She shook her head again and stepped around him.
“Thank you, Commodore,” she said. “I’ll see the solicitor when she’s ready for me.”
“Excellent,” DeVantst replied. “The LSS is grateful for your assistance.”
He turned back into the command room.
The major at the first window directed Denver to the third window. “The solicitor will be out as soon as she’s free,” the major said, turning her gaze immediately to the boys. “GG-Rangers, have a seat over there.”
The major directed them to a bench at the opposite side of the room.
Denver suddenly got spooked by the thought that Pozzer and Ames could be ordered out of the room at any moment.
“Hey,” Pozzer said, recognizing the sudden dread in Denver’s eyes. “We won’t go anywhere without saying a proper goodbye. I’ll take a reprimand, for me and for Ames.”
Denver exhaled deeply as he gestured for her to stand behind the empty window. He nodded at her as she stepped toward it. Kilty didn’t know what to do. She wanted to stay with the boys, to hold Ames’s hand, but the room was stifling and she felt it was inappropriate. Denver saw her sister still standing there in the middle of the room. She quickly stepped back and took Kilty by the hand herself, leading her toward the closed back window.
“If they try to separate us, they’re going to have to kill me,” Denver whispered.
She could tell by Kilty’s eyes that the thought hadn’t even occurred to her. Kilty squeezed Denver’s hand, standing close as they waited for the solicitor’s window to open.
“I am reviewing the relevant sections of the provision,” Andrew stated as he stepped behind the girls. “You should be fully informed of your rights under the charter before consenting to any course of action.”
“Please, Andrew,” Denver agreed.
It took nearly five minutes for Andrew to explain the various possible legal avenues for both the ship and the girls under the circumstances. Because an attack like the one on Alpha-Richard was so unprecedented, he couldn’t offer probabilities, only the possible outcomes, which ranged everywhere from being retained as privateers under a temporary LSS lease to complete confiscation of the vessel and conscription for no less than two years apiece for Kilty and Denver with minimal remuneration.
“I will assist you in pressing for the most favorable terms possible,” Andrew stated. “Your circumstances likely depend on their intentions for the ship.”
“What about Santos?” Kilty asked. “What will happen to him?”
“Unknown,” Andrew replied. “At worst, he will become the property of the LSS with the insured amount going to Mr. Hostet for the loss of his cargo.”
Even the android could tell by Kilty’s eyes that it wasn’t an outcome she relished.
“Gennaros,” A woman barked out as the window slid open. “Who’s the signatory?”
Andrew could tell neither sister was prepared for legalese at that moment.
“Miss Denver is the vessel’s captain and the appropriate agent for the corporation.”
“Older sister?” the solicitor asked.
Denver nodded.
“I’m Colonel Helen Fin-Young. You look downright terrified, sweetheart. In the private sector, I’d eat a look like that alive, but we’re all on the same team today. I’ll get you through this.”
“Andrew told me about our rights,” Denver managed to reply softly.
The colonel smiled back at Denver. “I’m sure he did. We’re going to see about all that. Just take a few deep breaths. It’s going to be okay, Ms. Gennaro.”
It was a short goodbye. Both GG-Rangers got called out of the comms hub in the middle of Denver’s conversation with the colonel-solicitor. True to his word, Shad told the fleet staffer to wait while he and Ellis came over to wish the sisters well and thank them for all their help getting out of Alpha-Richard. They all exchanged long embraces before Shad finally turned to the colonel.
“Be good to these girls, colonel. They’re great friends of the LSS.”
She nodded before responding. “Tend to your business, rangers.”
Shad could tell by Denver’s demeanor that the conversation hadn’t gone badly so far. In fact, on that range of outcomes that Andrew had laid out before the discussion, Denver would’ve classified it as about the best case possible. The colonel was discussing per-diem lease compensation for private transport, including pay for captain and crew. After Shad left, the colonel began to explain the compensation package in the case of damage to the vessel while under lease with numbers that doubled the original list price for the ship. The only negative, from what Denver could see, was that they were losing autonomy to decline missions. But from her perspective, Denver considered that their autonomy had already been lost from the moment they stepped onto the Ovidio-M. Considering she was negotiating from a point of such weakness, Denver couldn’t wait to sign. Any scenario in which she and Kilty walked off that ship as private citizens together was a huge win.
About a half hour after their conversation began, with the official files signed, Denver and Kilty were escorted back to their ship and told to standby until directed to take further action.
As soon as the sisters got back aboard with their Andrew, Kilty directed him to clean up her room and went right to the cargo closet to check on Santos, who was quietly snoozing in his carrier without any concern for his fate whatsoever.
“Pretty mama, hi!” Santos said, when Kilty pulled him from his carrier. “Pretty mama, okay. Let’s fly.”
“Okay, Santos. We’re going to fly soon, little buddy.”
The sisters belted themselves in on the flight deck, looking out at the mooring field from the spire of Ovidio. They ate and talked, speculating on what possible cargo the LSS had in mind for them to deliver. Considering the circumstances, both had a range of ideas without any sense for whether any of them might be correct. They also talked about when they might be able to pull free and finally get their furry little cargo to Athos, doing their best to code their language so Santos couldn’t follow the discussion. He still seemed as happy as ever, floating around and looking out the front screen, seeming to believe they were already in flight.
They also talked about the ship’s owner—their father. One of the stipulations of their vessel’s seizure was that it couldn’t be disclosed. Colonel Fin-Young couldn’t tell her exactly why the commodore wanted the vessel, but she did say that the reason they weren’t allowed to notify their father was that the LSS might use the ship as transport in a covert operation. In that case, a private currier ship should be decent cover, provided her crew didn’t call their dad and spill mission secrets.
“Well,” Kilty said, shrugging. “That’s a good excuse to put off that conversation, Captain. I’m pretty sure I can summarize it for you thoug—”
“Kilty,” Denver objected.
She mimicked her father’s tone. “I told you girls not to get into trouble in Alpha-Richard.”
“Shut it, Kilty!”
Denver was visibly annoyed, so much so that Kilty actually did refrain from poking her in that testy moment.
“Shut it, Kitty,” Santos echoed.
Both the sisters started laughing.
“Ha, ha, ha, Mama Kitty,” the cat continued.
“You’re funny, Santos,” Kilty said, pulling the cat down to her lap and scratching his neck.
They sat for a bit up front before sharing a late-day meal at the lunch table midship. The quiet was a genuine change of pace following the excitement of the preceding days. Neither sister wanted to say anything about it aloud, considering the unknown details of their looming future as privateers for the LSS. It didn’t make the quiet any less comfortable, though.
“I wonder what Ellis and Shad are doing,” Kilty said.
“I imagine they’ll be debriefed about everything, probably going through all the data their Intel people find on the eyewear we took from that Trasp guy in Alpha-Richard.”
“I almost forgot about all that, with the ship, with Floris. Crazy couple days.”
The sisters each took some quiet time to relax following dinner. They’d lost track of time almost, but it was evening, late evening, and both of them had dozed off when the ping came through to the deck. Andrew was monitoring and forwarded it to Denver’s room, where she was sleeping.
A deep, commanding voice greeted her. “Passenger Major Jahn Farq-Sen requesting permission to come aboard from Ovidio-M, Captain Gennaro.”
Denver pushed herself out of her rack, pulled her hair behind her head into a ponytail, and headed for the lock.
On first glance, the man who met her there, Farq-Sen, had a bit of an edge to him. He glared at Denver probingly and floated just out of arm’s reach for a moment before nodding his head at her in a way Denver didn’t quite understand.
“Well?” he said.
“I’m sorry, Major?”
“Yes, Captain Gennaro. Permission to come aboard?”
“Oh, sorry. Yes, of course. Permission granted, Major. We’re not always so formal.”
“Excellent. Best not to get off on the wrong foot.”
“Agreed,” Denver said, gesturing for him to follow her in.
She led the way to the midship thinking that he would have some sort of cargo for her to sign for.
“I’m going to need your sister to join us,” Farq-Sen stated as they floated through to the lunch table. “The colonel needs her to sign off as well.”
“Oh?”
The major nodded as Denver pulled herself down to the table, addressing Farq-Sen with a look.
“You two have had an eventful couple days, haven’t you?”
“To ask a question like that, I assume you’re privy to the details.”
He nodded back at her as he fastened the lap belt over his legs and sat across from her. “I had the pleasure of attending the debriefing of your friends the GGs. And Lieutenant Floris.”
“I see.”
“They all had quite a story to tell,” Farq-Sen said. “You won’t though. Colonel Fin-Young insists we make sure of that.”
He pulled out a tablet from the satchel across his chest.
Denver hesitated for a moment as he floated the tablet her way.
“Your friend Shad Pozzer had the temperature of the room in there. Mentioned you were a little unsure of your situation. You were correct to be unsure, because it’s tenuous. Best not to have to meet with the Colonel again on such matters.”
“What exactly are we signing today?”
“Nondisclosures. For everything. Basically you, me, your sister, your ship, the LSS—we never existed.”
Denver laughed. “It’d be simpler if the past three days hadn’t existed. Is there a box I can check for that so we can get the hell out of here?”
Farq-Sen grinned. “Oh, you’re funny. Pozzer didn’t say you had a sense of humor, Captain Gennaro.”
“Only when the occasion calls for it. But I’m going to need you to sign off on that yourself, Major. Can’t have word getting around.”
He smiled as Denver started reading.
“It’s just a boilerplate NDA with vague brackets concerning time and place—for obvious security purposes on documentation.”
“All the same,” Denver replied. “I don’t sign anything I don’t read with my own eyes.”
“Businesswoman,” Farq-Sen said, nodding. “Live your life by the contract. We live ours by orders.”
“Yes. And I presume you would read yours before carrying them out.”
“Sure would. If they came in the written form. In my line, the NDA, classification, that’s pretty much implied.”
“We all have our ways of doing things,” Denver said, flashing a little frustration that the major wouldn’t just let her read the damn document.
“Sure,” he said, his tone signifying something Denver couldn’t infer. “I am going to have to insist on setting eyes on Kilty. She needs to sign as well.”
Denver looked up and nodded at him, insisting that she would continue reading until she was satisfied. Farq-Sen finally went quiet, crossing his arms as she continued examining the document, line by line.
When Denver was finished, she signed. Then she tapped on her eyewear and called Kilty to the lunch table. “There’s a major here with some files, K. Needs your signature. … Yes, you too. He’s in the midship now.”
“Asleep?” the major asked.
“She’ll be out in a moment.”
There was a long, awkward silence at the table as Farq-Sen looked over at Denver. She got the sense that he was trying to see if he could make her uncomfortable, a manner of measuring her. She looked back at him and breathed as easy as she could manage before Kilty finally appeared, shutting the door behind her very deliberately.
“Major Jahn Farq-Sen,” the soldier introduced himself.
“Kilty Gennaro,” she returned, nodding politely before turning to Denver. “What am I signing?”
Denver tossed her the tablet. “NDA. We know nothing.”
Kilty snapped the tablet out of the air and signed beneath her sister, returning the device to the major directly.
He exhaled, a puzzled look on his face. “Hmm. You two are quite a pair.”
“Anything else?” Kilty asked.
“Nothing now,” the major replied. “Enjoy your sleep.”
Denver waited as Kilty disappeared back into her room.
Farq-Sen didn’t get up as she expected, instead he remained seated at the table for some time looking over at her. If she didn’t have a sense that it was his exact objective to make her uncomfortable, she might have allowed it to bother her. She chose to look right back at him. Eventually, he blinked.
“Pozzer spoke highly of you, Gennaro. Both you girls, really. Those things you didn’t see at Alpha-Richard, back at the Byard … there were a few important unanswered questions back there.”
“Believe me, Major, if I could answer any of them Pozzer would’ve told you. He knows everything we know.”
Farq-Sen shook his head. “I’m not certain about that.”
“Well, that’s the truth.”
He shrugged. “Regardless, the LSS wants answers.”
“We’re at your disposal,” Denver replied. “Just let us know what we’re supposed to do.”
“For now, you can join your sister, Captain.”
“You had some cargo for us? Orders?”
“Oh?” Farq-Sen replied. “You thought the commodore pulled your vessel to deliver a package?”
“No? I guess I don’t know what to think.”
He smiled at Denver and unbelted. “I’ll show myself out, Captain. Get some sleep. We’ll have more for you soon enough.”
Denver didn’t hear anything all night. She woke up after a full night’s sleep, which was a nice change considering the stress of the previous several days. When she did finally slip out of her cabin, she found Kilty at the table reading and sipping coffee, and Santos floating nearby.
“Mama Pilot,” he said. “Good morning. Good morning.”
“Good morning, Santos,” she said, turning to Kilty. “Sleep well?”
Her sister shrugged. “I don’t know. I woke up a few times. I guess it freaked me out getting ... I don’t know, what do you call it? Snatched up by the LSS like that?”
“Commandeered.”
“Oh. I guess I’m just happy to be here right now. I thought they were going to take the ship.”
“So did I,” Denver replied, digging in the cabinet for a breakfast and pulling out a coffee cube. “I suppose they’re short on ships and crew right now. If they snatched us up, they’d just have to retrain us and reassign us. And we’d probably end up on some logistics vessel anyway.”
“Well, I’m happy we get to stay with this little guy,” Kilty said, reaching out and pulling Santos down to her lap.
“Mama Kitty, okay,” he said.
Denver laughed and started to sip her coffee. She pulled herself down to the table to sit across from Kilty.
“What do you think they’re waiting for?” she asked Denver.
“I don’t know. They must have something in mind for us, though. I asked that major what sort of cargo we’ll be taking and he grinned at me like I had the whole thing all wrong maybe. It’s hard to say, though. I got the impression he was messing with me the whole time.”
“Probably should’ve stayed out of Alpha-Richard.”
Denver shook her head at Kilty. “Then you’d never have met your new best friend, Mama Kitty. You are going to have to give him up soon, you know. Better not get too attached.”
“Just as soon as we get to Athos,” Kilty replied. “Whenever that may be.”
Denver ignored her sister’s snark and started eating. Kilty wasn’t wrong, though. Whatever the LSS wanted with them, it probably didn’t involve a trip to Athos. She wondered whether they’d even let her inform the client. And what the hell would that guy be thinking about his precious cat? Lost in the Alpha-Richard infiltration? What would dad think?
As Denver was finishing up breakfast, Andrew intruded, his voice coming through the speaker in the midship.
“Visitors are requesting access again via the lock, Captain,” he stated. “Major Farq-Sen and a pair of junior officers.”
“Thank you, Andrew. I’ll greet them myself.”
“Tell them to come back later,” Kilty joked.
“You might want to put him away before they requisition his little paws,” Denver replied, looking down at Santos’s helmeted little head as he peeked over the table from Kilty’s lap.
Kilty considered it for a moment before deciding it wasn’t a bad idea. Denver, meanwhile, cleaned up her place and headed back toward the airlock.
When she got aft and opened the hatch, she was pleasantly surprised to recognize the visitors.
“Junior officers,” she said aloud at the sight of the GG-Rangers.
“I’m sorry?” Shad replied at that greeting.
“Oh, Andrew mentioned Major Farq-Sen had a pair of junior officers with him. He didn’t say it was you guys. It’s good to see you both again.”
“That’s fortunate,” Farq-Sen stated. “They’re coming with us. Permission to board again, Captain Gennaro.”
Her look at that response was equal parts surprise, disbelief, and relief. And then she smiled.
“Permission granted, of course.”
“We’re going to need to do a more direct survey of your inventory and current cargo,” Farq-Sen announced as Denver led the way to the midship. “This little boat of yours is probably cozy enough for two and an android. Five’s going to be a crowd.”
“Five?” Denver asked.
Shad flashed her the same look he’d given her at the commodore’s window the previous day.
“I guess we’ll move Kilty back into my quarters. Just give us a moment.”
“Unnecessary,” Farq-Sen replied. “You two ... honestly, we’re just here to do a quick survey for the Logs team. I’ll need your input, Captain, on the cargo areas. We’ll be consolidating and hollowing out the main cargo area for quarters, and then we’ll need to stock provisions wherever else we can.”
Farq-Sen gestured toward the door to Cargo-3, where Santos’s box and carrier were currently set up on the middle shelf. He could see Denver hesitating when he pointed that way.
“Don’t worry, Captain. These boys can move all that stuff around. You and Kilty won’t have to lift a finger.”
He waited for a moment to let Denver sweat about whether she should tell him or not.
“Oh,” he said. “And I know about the cat. Real cute.”
“He’s cargo.”
“Yeah, debriefers got a real kick out of it. Talking cat. Can’t wait to meet him. Put him in your sister’s room?”
“I think he’s already in there.”
“Perfect. The less upheaval the better. Now let’s go over these boxes and see about provisioning five.”
“By all means,” Denver said, gesturing toward Cargo-3.
Denver was shocked by the stunning efficiency. By the time the Logs team came aboard an hour later, Shad and Ellis had cleaned out everything from Cargo-3 and restacked the critical gear in 2-closet, which they promised the Logs team would re-evaluate and optimize so that it was more useable. They’d stuffed the room so tight it was tough to move in there. But in 3, the only thing remaining were the shelves.
Then, the Logs team came in, cleared the room to the floorplates, installed a magnetic bunk for three soldiers’ racks, as well as storage for clothes, a gear closet, and they jacked into the atmospherics, where they installed an outlet, filter, and a 7-scrubber. That unit would have been overkill for five soldiers, and before she could even ask them about it, one of the Logs techs simply looked up at her and said, “believe me, Captain, you’ll thank us for it once you get a whiff of those GG boys,” which got a good laugh out of Denver.
Then, once the quarters were settled, they attacked Cargo-2, installing new, more efficient shelving and a lock-away wall rack. By the time they were finished in there, the provisions arrived, and the rangers were cleaning out the ship’s cabinets to make room for enough food to feed their little army. The whole time, Kilty was doing her best to keep Santos quiet.
“Mama Kitty, Wanna see,” Denver would hear through her sister’s door every few minutes.
All the noise and activity had primed the curiosity in him to a whole new level.
“Mama kitty,” Shad laughed as he floated through the midship, moving boxes. “Now that’s funny.”
A few of the Logs team made certain they’d get a chance to meet Santos before they left. But while they were working, they were happy to have him safely tucked away, even if it was driving Kilty crazy.
As quickly as everyone had arrived and rearranged the whole ship, after everyone had pet Santos and said hello, suddenly they were gone. Shad had told her they’d be back. He didn’t know where they were going, or he couldn’t say. But he mentioned that he and Ellis needed gear. Everything they’d been issued as rangers was on the Byard when it was hit, so what they hadn’t been wearing on their backs when Denver and Kilty had taken them in was now gone, and it seemed from the remodeling job they’d done on the ship, they were gearing up for more than a one-way trip to Alpha-Bassur.
Two hours later, when they returned, the gear they came with confirmed as much—bags of clothes, full suits, belts, weapons locker, drone suits—ranger stuff. Denver couldn’t help but wonder about her own suit—the one she was hiding under her rack—that Trasp gear. She’d almost told Shad about it to clear the air on the way to the Ovidio-M. Now it felt like a secret that would be better kept with this new major aboard. At least, right then wasn’t the time for sharing, not until they had an idea what the LSS had in mind for them.
“We’re going to be ready to push in ten, Captain,” Farq-Sen announced from the back corridor as the boys finished settling in. “If that’s okay with you.”
“Understood,” Denver replied from the midship, where she was enjoying her lunch. The LSS had brought a nice selection of ready-meals aboard. “I’ll need a destination.”
“It’s just a vector for now. I’ll drop the numbers to your Andrew and meet you on the deck if that’s okay with you?”
“Certainly,” Denver replied. “I’ll shake the dust off.”
She picked up the empty pouches and headed up front with her dessert and her tea. Andrew was already running through the flight prep flowchart. All things considered, leaving Ovidio-M as a privateer with her sister aboard felt like a gigantic relief—even the cat was still aboard. She couldn’t help but smile a little. Denver put on some music as she and Andrew ran through the prep step-by-step.
“K, secure all cabins for flight,” she said over comms. “Door check.”
Kilty clicked back to acknowledge.
“Wait on me before pushing, Captain,” Farq-Sen bumped through comms. “I’ll be up in a minute. Don’t file with flight till I get there.”
“Got it,” Denver replied.
Denver continued going through the flow chart with Andrew, which was nearly complete when Farq-Sen arrived.
“Pull up your transponder, please, Captain,” he said.
When she pulled it up, the manifest was attached, and he inspected. The baseline slots for herself and Kilty were filled, and she also had Shad and Ellis as passengers from the trip in to Beta-Aurelius, docking with Ovidio-M.
“Clear those two, please. You dropped them off here. Your cargo compartment is not crew quarters now, officially. It is cargo.”
Denver raised both eyebrows at that request, blatantly illegal by the letter of the law. But she considered what the law meant in the current context, Farq-Sen clearly having his orders, which came from the LSS directly.
“As you say,” she replied.
“May I sit?” he asked.
Andrew was seated beside her at the moment, but there wasn’t anything Andrew needed to do from that chair he couldn’t do fastened in behind her.
“Please,” Denver said, signaling for Andrew to give up the chair.
He took up his position at the back wall, magnetically securing his body.
“The NDAs you two signed—part of what we got when we took your ship is your cooperation and your silence, including what you saw at Alpha-Richard, what Floris told you, all that.”
“I did read the document. You remember that, I’m sure.”
He ignored the sarcasm. “This is a covert mission. It’s easier to do it in a private vehicle, and if we’re on your manifest, it’s a bit harder to be covert, wouldn’t you say?”
“I think you’ve mistaken Kilty and me for naïve private citizens, Major. We’re out here. We do business all over the Letters. I wouldn’t say anything about anything to anyone, not about the LSS, not about anything covert, not about our business. Didn’t you talk to Shad about us?”
“I did. Pozzer said you were very tight-lipped. He found that suspicious.”
“I should hope you’ll find it useful.”
“I was afraid I wouldn’t like you, Captain Gennaro, but despite my best efforts, I’m starting to think we’re going to get along great.”
“As long as my sister and my ship stay out of harm’s way, I’m certain we will,” Denver replied, gesturing toward the cleared manifest and the flight chart. “Shall we?”
“At your pleasure, Captain. Take us out.”
Denver finished flight prep, and locked off, pushing away with thrusters before engaging the engines.
Farq-Sen sat by silently as Denver took them away from the Ovidio-M, and shortly after clearing the LSS buffer, they jumped out.
Their destination was Gamma-Penzies. Denver and Kilty had never been out there before in all their travels, but they’d certainly heard of it. Even if they’d never heard of it themselves, they easily could have sensed the tone of the place from looking at Shad or Ellis’s face any time Penzies was mentioned. It had once been a buzzing mining outpost for rarer minerals and metals. They’d had trade partners in the Deltas and Gammas as people were building out colonies there, particularly when the LSS was incorporating the Delta-Gamma border outpost as a military hub for that segment of the Letters.
There was a rush to build out several of the Delta colonies, and following that buildout, a population rush never materialized. The Deltas just sort of fizzled, continuing to tread water instead of growing at the rapid rate the Alphas, Betas, and Kappas had over the prior centuries. And without that growth, the Penzies mine couldn’t keep its doors open, not in any significant manner. Smaller private operators and speculators went in and out of business there. But the residential cylinder group in Gamma-Penzies didn’t weather the economic downturn well, and eventually, the bonded government fell. That didn’t mean the cylinders disappeared or the people in them. Management just changed.
Denver and every other savvy traveler in the Letters knew what that meant. Penzies was mostly self-run, but in the case of questions or conflicts, the final word always belonged to the lieutenants of Mirsong Rex. Farq-Sen hadn’t divulged exactly what business the LSS had in cartel territory, but she knew it wouldn’t be as simple as she’d hoped at the outset—take this box to Beta-Kol and pick up a shipment of generators to take to Origgi. That was not what they’d been commandeered for. That was just the cover, and as Denver considered it, the LSS had picked a pretty good cover. A private currier was a good way to conceal the movement of covert operations through the Letters. Denver hoped it would be a fairly limited stint, but she’d also watched the logistics team completely rearrange her ship and move-in three soldiers. She didn’t imagine they did that for a week-long jaunt out to Gamma-Penzies.
Denver asked Farq-Sen about it as he and Shad were eating dinner one evening on the transit.
“You have our signatures on the NDA, Major. Whatever’s covert is covert. You own our silence, so when are you going to tell us what you’re after out there?”
“Never, probably,” he replied. “The best way to keep information we want to be secret a secret is to make sure nobody knows the secret—to the extent that’s possible.”
“How well do you know Gamma-Penzies?” she asked him. “Or the Rexes?”
“Well enough for my mission.”
“Okay,” Denver replied, unwilling to press the issue at that point. “Feel free to let us know if you want our help. We negotiate cartel territory frequently enough.”
Farq-Sen smiled at the comment. “You two are fun.”
Denver thought his tone was more genuine than sarcastic. She was starting to have the same feeling about the major that he’d expressed about her—despite her early misgivings, she was kinda beginning to like him.
There were five space cylinders spread through the Penzies system, three orbiting the inner rocky planets, and two orbiting with the moons of the outer-system gas giant Vera. Farq-Sen directed Denver to the Vera-2 cylinder. There was a pickup for her and Kilty to take care of, and they were to remain on the port lock until the major instructed otherwise.
The major insisted one of the girls debark first. That was an easy choice for Denver. She packed a rucksack and left Kilty on the flight deck to cover the ship. She informed Kilty and Farq-Sen that as long as comms were up, flight decisions went through her. If comms went down, Kilty knew what to do. That part, the unsaid part, went beyond NDAs to family loyalty. The law, the LSS, the Letters. None of that mattered more than family. Farq-Sen was curious why Denver was going herself.
“Shouldn’t you stay with the ship?” he asked her.
“Where are you from?”
“Alpha-Ben.”
“You don’t know anything about the Rexes, do you? At least Shad and Ellis know a thing or two. I’d advise you to listen if they smell trouble out there.”
“Thank you for the advice,” he replied at least half sarcastically. “What’s in the bag, by the way?”
“Contingencies,” Denver replied before walking back toward the rear lock. “Not a bad idea if you have a few of your own out here, Major.”
She had a terrible feeling about this little trip of theirs. She signaled for Andrew to follow her, and gave Kilty a nod as she left.
The LSS obviously had some operatives on that cylinder, as they did in most places. Informants, spies, agents—whatever you wanted to call them. Sometimes it was just somebody they could rely on to call in a job over the wire to a random currier service. She’d be picking up a small box, probably filled with junk, ostensibly to bring to Kappa-Rhodia. What she understood it to be was an excuse for them to stop at the Vera-2 cylinder so Farq-Sen and the GG boys could hop off and do whatever it was they needed to do.
Vera-2, like the other cylinders in Gamma-Penzies, was formerly a residential cylinder. It once housed over three million people. It was also a nice place to live once. That much was somewhat obvious still. It wasn’t tremendously difficult to see the outlines of a defunct community here. Denver could imagine the dusty doors decorated for Founders Week, Carnival parades, music in the causeways on weekends, kids in clean, bright clothes.
Much of it was empty now.
She got the first tap from Kilty. Denver had left her sister with her own eyewear. She didn’t have a set after Floris got off with Kilty’s on Ovidio-M. For now, the taps were tagged through to Andrew, who let her know that Pozzer and Farq-Sen had just left the ship. Denver had her own ideas about this little mission. The main idea was that she wasn’t about to be kept fully in the dark. She presumed Kilty would be doing the same back on the ship, pressing Ellis for whatever details he would divulge.
She and Andrew rushed toward the pickup site, and at the same time, Denver had Andrew using any and all possible means to track where Farq-Sen and Pozzer were headed.
Denver picked up a box from a kiosk outside an old residential block that seemed to be mostly abandoned—though several of the flats’ front doors seemed propped open. She asked the gentleman at the kiosk what he did.
“Apothecary,” he replied.
“Oh,” Denver said, looking in again toward the residences on the block.
“Mostly natural,” the man said. “Biologics. There’s a lot you can’t grow in most places. Regulations and all that.”
“Nothing too dangerous, I hope?”
“Different people have a different threshold for danger,” the man replied casually. “Some people would say flying around the Letters with the Trasp and Etterans at each others’ throats is dangerous enough.”
“Fair,” Denver replied, asking for the apothecary’s digits.
“D-Cr only,” he insisted. “The L-Cr’s down fifteen percent since Lambda-Shadra.”
She looked at him funny. She didn’t know anything about this covert LSS business, but she took it as a quick lesson in espionage—smart operators play all sides against the other, and they were loyal to themselves first. Why take any loss when the government was involved. She quickly picked up the game.
“Fine by me. I’ll be sure to charge it the same on the other end.”
The man was looking at Andrew, who himself was looking up at the cylinder wall, much like a person might look up at the sky for clouds in the day or stars at night.
“Nice looking unit. I could use one of those in my operation. He keep you company on the long trips?”
“I keep my own company,” Denver replied.
She slid the deposit over. A job she’d never have taken in their business. Payment on delivery was one thing. Floating the deposit on behalf of a client they’d never met was something else entirely. But that was the LSS’s problem, she figured. They probably wouldn’t even be going to Kappa-Rhodia anyway.
“You have a fine day,” she told the apothecary, taking up the box and heading back toward the ship.
Andrew had already scouted the area on the walk in.
“Do you have a location on Shad and the major yet?”
“Negative,” Andrew replied. “They’re in transit, but I can keep you updated.”
He was walking them into a dimly lit corner of a residential block that looked vacant. He could tell by the accumulated dust on the floor which flats had traffic going into them recently, and he led her to a dusty doorstep. He looked over both shoulders before jacking into the transmitter and simulating the key-fob. The door clicked open, letting out a slight puff of stale air.
Denver took the Trasp suit out of the bag and quickly began to dress, zipping up, and finally, pulling the helmet over her head. “Get this back to Kilty,” she told Andrew, handing him the bag with the apothecary’s box now zipped inside. “And get me a location as soon as you have it.”
“Are you sure this is wise, Miss Denver?”
“It is almost certainly not wise,” she replied.
At that same moment, she tagged the suit’s controls with her eyes, instantly vanishing from Andrew’s sight.
Ellis was surprised when Andrew returned alone. But as soon as it happened, he realized he shouldn’t have been.
“You two can’t mess around out here like that,” he told Kilty. “This is serious business with the LSS.”
“As opposed to what happened at Alpha-Richard and at the Byard?” Kilty quipped back.
“Ms. Denver simply went shopping,” Andrew told Ellis.
“Aren’t you prohibited from lying by protocols or something?”
“Not even remotely,” Andrew replied.
“You could put a lot of questions to rest by telling us what you’re up to out here, Ellis,” Kilty said.
“This again?” he replied. “We vouched for you two.”
“I’m not sure that made much of a difference, Ames. They commandeered the ship before you even got debriefed.”
“She’s following Shad, isn’t she?”
“She is shopping,” Andrew repeated.
“In Gamma-Penzies? Sure,” Ellis replied. “If Shad or Major Farq-Sen see her out there, she’s going to catch hell. I’m going to catch hell! I’m supposed to report in when she gets back.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem, Ames. For right now, there’s nothing to report. Simple.”
“Or you could tell them she went shopping,” Andrew added.
“Where the hell is she?” Ellis asked in a tone that demanded a response.
Kilty looked back at him quizzically.
“I guess some things don’t change,” he said, sighing and looking over at Andrew. “Just make sure she doesn’t get in the way.”
“I’m sure she has no intention of doing any such thing,” Andrew replied.
Denver spotted Pozzer on a block that looked crowded in the way places that were watched were crowded. Penzies was far enough out of the way and rough enough that the Rexes didn’t need much pretense there. She figured that about half the people kicking around that part of the cylinder were private citizens. About a quarter worked for the Rexes in some capacity beyond that, even if they just paid protection money and informed for the cartel when something happened they needed to know about. The other people there, she figured, were into some other shady business that the Rexes either knew about and didn’t care enough to tax—like the apothecary—or they were wanderers, space vagrants, outlaws. That was the vibe Denver pulled from the place.
Shad Pozzer stood out there, even dressed shabbily as a civilian. He stood too straight, fidgeted, and looked around as he lingered across the causeway from the zero district, which was Kilty and Denver’s slang for a cartel area. Denver watched Shad long enough that she could tell the area he was watching. And before long, she’d figured out that the major was in a bar along the outer strip of the district, one with a human bouncer at the door, fortunately enough. She could see Farq-Sen’s outline through the window in the front. It was strange to look right through it and see no reflection of her own. She did have to step quietly, though, and she was conscious of her footfalls as she approached the door and waited for an opportunity to slip inside behind someone.
It was the strangest feeling—walking in unseen while seeing, avoiding bumping into anyone or anything, to slip through untouched. Denver negotiated the doorway, narrowly avoiding the door as the bouncer let it shut behind the last guest.
Inside, she took a quick assessment, stepping out of the way in order to observe the place more thoroughly. It didn’t take her long to see the color of things.
Farq-Sen was seated at the bar alone. He didn’t fit, but he didn’t quite stick out like Pozzer did. It was the wrong place, though. This establishment wasn’t the type of bar you could just walk into without being noticed, not if you were cut like Farq-Sen. Nor were the two men he was there to observe inconspicuous. Denver spotted them in thirty seconds too. Their heads were down, two guys in a booth with haircuts and civilian clothes that looked like they’d just come off a rack.
She had a terrible feeling about the entire situation.
“Pozzer,” she whispered, pinging the lieutenant. “Pozzer. Who are you tracking?”
She could see him across the causeway, looking over his shoulder, one then the other.
“Pozzer, you two are going to get yourselves killed.”
“Denver, what the hell? Are you watching us?”
“Tell me who they are and what you want with them. I might be able to get the major out, but I need to know what you guys are doing.”
“Hey,” she heard the bartender say to Farq-Sen. “Time to finish up.”
“Yeah?” the major replied. “I was going to ask if you had something to eat.”
“Closing. I recommend the Red Dwarf, stranger. Good Charran rice. Decent noodles too. Our menu’s limited, and, as I said, we’re closing.”
Farq-Sen looked around at the mostly-empty bar. His eyes didn’t linger on the two men hiding in the corner. She considered it an incredible stroke of luck that they were going to let him just walk out of there.
“Get going Pozzer. Don’t let them see him walk out to you. They have eyes all over that area.”
“Where the hell are you, Denver?”
“I’ll answer that if you start walking, Pozzer.”
She could see him looking over his shoulder again.
“Could you be any more obvious? Stop pacing and start walking. Before Farq-Sen gets outside.”
The major was just getting to the front door. Denver herself didn’t intend to follow him out. She stepped into a spot along the wall between two empty tables, directly across from the two obviously out-of-place men sitting in the corner. Pozzer began to retreat from the area.
“We were just making contact. Confirmation of our targets,” he replied, whispering back. “I can’t tell you who.”
“You really need to tell me who. They’re LSS, right? They’re definitely not cartel.”
“Where the hell are you?”
Denver’s attention was suddenly drawn to the door as four men came into the bar from a back entrance. She watched as the bouncer secured the front door.
“They’re going to kill these guys I think, Pozzer. Who the hell are they?”
“It’s the Commander and the LC.”
“Your commander and LC? Of the Byard? What the hell are they doing here?”
“What the hell are you doing here?” Pozzer replied.
Good question, Denver thought as the four men surrounded that table. Then she watched as two cartel heavies who’d been seated in the bar got up and joined the two men at the table.
Denver stood still and listened, the suit’s helmet amplifying the conversation well enough to make out every word. She might as well have been seated at the table herself.
“You didn’t think we’d be stupid enough to bring it here?” Denver heard one of the LSS officers say.
“We’re not sure just exactly how stupid you are yet, Commander,” the elder cartel boss stated.
That was the last thing they said to them. It was just a nod, not even a word. The shade went up on the front glass, prompting the two officers to look at each other in disbelief.
“This isn’t what we agreed,” the Commander said.
“Famous last words,” came the reply from one of the hitmen.
Two of the cartel’s assassins began shooting. A couple quiet snaps each, followed by gurgling and the frenetic movement of their hands as the two LSS men tried to escape the inevitable. A few seconds later, they were hunched on the floor, their last moments of life slipping away from them.
“Trace it back,” the cartel boss said. “And get rid of these two. Find out who was watching them too. I’d rather not have it at all than have it come back on us.”
Denver stood in stunned silence, afraid to move a muscle as the two older men got up and strolled toward the door as though nothing had happened.
She looked at the door and at the dead men on the floor and she thought about how silent her footsteps could be. One foot in front of the other.