(Part 18 of “The Misfits” series)
After Athos, life got unusually quiet aboard Yankee-Chaos. It wasn’t for want of activity or effort. There was nothing Carolina and the crew wanted more than the next crucial piece in the puzzle they were trying desperately to put together. They’d learned more than they ever imagined they’d know about the origins of the war. They even had the particulars—money exchanging hands, the dates, even some of the names. Yet the organizing force behind it all, the story that would make sense of it, hadn’t revealed itself in the data or the accounts of eyewitnesses, the historical records they’d stolen. And Carolina’s father, Barnard Dreeson, certainly hadn’t shed any light on the questions she’d wanted answered. If anything, all he’d done was cast more doubt over her certainty that something was wrong with the story everyone had been told about the war—that the Trasp and the Etterans were fighting each other for the oldest reasons: over territory, over resources, over future hegemony of the region.
It was difficult to know what piece of knowledge they should even be seeking. So Carolina resolved to settle for the last item they’d all agreed on before their visit to Athos. That piece also had human intelligence attached to it in the form of Fieldstone, who was out in the Lettered Systems somewhere, trying to track down Akop Hernan, the only living Etteran Deputy War Chief who wasn’t known to be on Etterus. Or at least Fields and Transom thought he was still living, and if he was, Fields had been confident he could find him, even in a vast swathe of star systems as enormous as the Letters. The trouble Carolina and crew had been dealing with was finding Fields again, even with the crafty old Etteran Major dropping breadcrumbs for them to follow.
Letter hopping was what Ren and Sōsh called it—familiar territory for two former members of the Letters Select Service. They’d gotten shipped around to hot spots more times than they cared to remember during their years in the military. Transom had done his share of Letter hopping as well, albeit far more quietly than the others. Carolina was starting to knock Letters and systems off her list—Kappa-Rhodia, where they’d dropped off Fieldstone before Athos; Alpha-Origgi before that, where Carolina had a few vivid memories and a souvenir in the form of a leg wound from a bolt-round at Ash-Vedal; and that was only a marginally worse memory than her trip to Pax Heavy in the outer Betas.
Since Athos, fortunately, their stops hadn’t been quite that eventful. They’d picked up Fieldstone’s trail and lost it again four times over nearly four months. Carolina now had seven more Letters on her list: a Lambda, two more Kappas—Aynor and Moffinga—a Beta, three Alphas, and even a stop in the nearly-vacant Deltas.
Fieldstone was leaving coded notes at outposts using references and character names from an obscure Charran novel by Lusol about the world wars on Earth. Old school spycraft of the kind he and Transom liked. No way to crack it except to know, and nobody else could know but those two.
Still, what they usually got was vague: A hint of Jasmine. A building made of concrete and stone. Jeremiah Youngblood. Fish Creek. Coffee at midnight. Himler. Pine marten. Elizabeth Harris. The Jesuits. And somehow, Transom would disappear for fifteen minutes and come back with a list of places Fieldstone had checked and come up empty, as well as a list of possible places he thought Akop Hernan was likely headed. Even the Maícons couldn’t quite figure out their methodology completely. But Fields was certain now that Hernan was out in the Letters and that he was moving around—never settling in one place for very long.
They were on the third possible system from the last valid update they’d gotten from Fields over six weeks prior—Nix. There was some debate, even within the system, whether Nix was an Alpha, a Beta, or an Indie. But following the outcome of Carolina’s meeting with her father on Athos, and the fact that no one had bothered the Yankee-Chaos in several months, the crew had grown complacent. When Transom went out to the drop location to see if Fields had left a message, Ren attempted to sneak off the ship without an escort.
The Maícon clone caught her on the outpost’s security feed about a hundred meters into the concourse. Carolina sent Sōsh chasing after her. Ren could hear his metal leg clunking up behind her in a rush.
“Really, Sōsh? You’re going to chaperone me while I shop for underwear?”
“Not my call, doctor,” he said. “Talk to the captain.”
He handed Ren an ear link.
“Ren, what the hell?” Carolina asked from the flight deck of the Yankee-Chaos as Ren popped in the earpiece. “Sneaking away is one thing, but deliberately dropping coms?”
“I couldn’t exactly sneak away if I were carrying a device, now could I?”
“What are you sneaking away for, Ren? It’s not like Sōsh or Harold have a busy afternoon planned.”
“I shouldn’t need to go through chain of command to go off ship, Carolina. We haven’t been bothered in months. At some point, it’s appropriate to take down the alert level, and I’m tired of asking permission, frankly. I’ve done far more than enough of that in my life. I don’t need to be answering to you or Sōsh or Transom or anybody else.”
“Maybe so, and maybe I’m not the one best suited to make the call when we should ease up on security, but neither are you, doctor. Not without a conversation at least. Take Sōsh with you and we’ll discuss it among the group on ship.”
“This is bullshit,” Ren grumbled, handing the earpiece back to Sōsh.
He popped it in and stood beside Ren for a few seconds, nodding as Carolina relayed her orders.
“Still want to go, Ren?” he said to her as he tapped off the earbud.
“Well, I suppose if I must have a chaperone, I could do worse.”
Sōsh smiled. “I read there’s a good noodle place on B-Deck—after you’re done shopping of course.”
“I could be talked into noodles,” Ren said, nodding. “Yup. That would not take much convincing.”
The outpost at Nix nearest the incoming airfield was little different from a hundred other places in the Letters with similar services. There were shops for staples and provisions for long-haulers. And there was a cargo hub adjacent the front-facing consumer areas that the capitol city magistrates kept well segregated. That way their visitor and tourist segments looked far more appealing than many similar outposts. A few more amenities and posh hotels and the outpost might blossom into a genuine destination for regular people one day. But for experienced Letter hoppers like Ren and Sōsh, Nix was no different from a hundred other outposts strewn about the Letters. Shops, hotels, restaurants, suppliers, travelers, and locals. Déjà vu.
Ren got her shopping done fast and figured as long as she had to have an escort, at least they should both have a decent time. They got noodles, had a few beers, and were walking back through the shops, occasionally popping inside to check out something that caught either Ren’s curiosity or Sōsh’s desire for something either alcoholic, sweet, or both.
They couldn’t resist entering a chocolate shop whose inviting aroma had been calling to them from down the concourse. While she was browsing, Transom pinged Sōsh to check on their status. Ren continued to browse, completely unaware that she’d stepped out of her escort’s line of sight while he was distracted.
Suddenly, a man was directly in front of her, so large and so terrifying that the sight of him left her breathless, unable to react. She froze, fixated on his menacing face, a head taller than Sōsh or Transom. Shock. Before she’d recovered from that momentary loss of composure, his gigantic right hand was around her throat, pushing her back into the dark rear corner of the shop. Then he moved her with such ease, silently into the annex that opened to the rear supply room behind the shop.
“Don’t try to cry out,” he said emotionlessly. “I know who you are. Today, I mean you no harm. Do not do anything rash that would force this to become unpleasant. Do you understand me?”
Ren nodded. She was simultaneously paralyzed with fear but oddly calm. She had the sense that whatever this man was—a killer of some kind certainly—he didn’t seem to be a liar. She felt her neck in his hand. She knew he could crush her throat.
“I would like you to pass this message to your captain. It’s okay, you can look at me when I’m talking to you.”
He could see she was afraid to even raise her eyes up to meet his. Most people were—afraid that they may offend him with their reaction. He knew he wasn’t pretty. That wasn’t his gift. She reluctantly looked up and met eyes with him. Eyes as cold as Transom’s at the Etteran’s worst moments.
“A memory stick,” he said. “Simple. Give it to her with my compliments. A few things she should know. Also, I have it on good authority the Etteran you’re looking for is on Beta-Kol, or at least he was there recently. There’s something very strange going on out here and your captain and your Etteran friends are fixing to step in it. Something is coming. Make your choices accordingly, doctor. The first and most important of which should be standing right in that spot for at least a minute when I go, and the second should be acting like nothing at all happened when your half-metal friend asks you where you disappeared to. I don’t want to have to work today, and you don’t want that either, doctor. Understood?”
Ren nodded.
“Considerer this a favor. Perhaps someday you’ll have the opportunity to pay it back. You’d do that right?”
“Of course,” Ren said. “Of course, I would.”
“I knew I’d like you best of all your friends. Buy some chocolate, Dr. Ren. Calms the nerves.”
He released her neck and walked back through the annex to the employee entrance and freight access. Ren let out a deep breath and reached for the wall, steadying the legs she hadn’t realized had gone nearly gelatinous beneath her. He’d nearly been holding her up with that one hand. Slowly, she began to count out a minute, breathing, processing, grateful.
Ren waited until everyone was back aboard Yankee-Chaos and underway before telling Carolina about the encounter.
“About those security measures,” she said to Carolina, who was strapped into the captain’s chair aboard the flight deck.
“What about them? Honestly, Ren, can’t this wait until we jump out? I know it’s frustrating, but—”
“No, Carolina,” Ren interrupted, “there was an incident.”
“An incident? What do you mean? Sōsh didn’t say anything about an incident.”
Ren pulled herself down to the seat beside Carolina and buckled herself in across the waist.
“Sōsh didn’t say anything because he didn’t know. And I didn’t say anything to him because I like him, and I didn’t want him to end up dead because I couldn’t keep my cool.”
“Ren?”
“Someone approached me. Well, not someone. He was pretty much like the living incarnation of all your greatest fears sprung to life in human form.”
“Is this a joke, Ren?”
“No. Seriously, Carolina. The guy was terrifying.”
“Why am I just hearing about it now?”
“That’s why you’re just hearing about it now. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. He told me to keep my mouth shut and give this to you.”
Ren passed the data stick to Carolina.
“I got the feeling that if he’d had any motivation to hurt us, we’d all be very dead. Very dead, Carolina. I don’t know why he didn’t want to kill us or what he wanted other than for me to hand you that, and to be honest, I didn’t ask in the moment because I was too absorbed in the very real struggle to control my bladder. So apart from telling you that you were right about keeping the security measures in place and handing you that data stick, I don’t have much more to add—oh, wait! He did say one thing that was important, or at least I thought so in the moment.”
“I’m going to have Sebastian and Maícon debrief you, Ren.”
“Well, fine, I guess. But, Carolina, he said something strange was happening. Like in the Letters, I guess—something building. Or … maybe he said something was coming. Anyway, that’s it—oh! And he said, Fieldstone is on Kol.”
“Is that all, Ren? And where’s Kol, by the way?”
“In the Betas, and yeah, I think mostly that’s it, but on second thought I may be underselling the degree to which I glossed over most of the important things. He was really scary. I almost peed. I wasn’t exaggerating about that.”
“Beta-Kol?”
“Maícon will know.”
“Sebastian,” Carolina said over coms, “Will you come up to flight, please? I need you and Maícon Prime to debrief Ren.”
“I’m pretty sure I told you everything.”
Carolina looked over at Ren, shaking her head.
“Maybe, pretty mostly sure.”
“Make it a heading toward the Betas, Ship,” Carolina instructed the Maícon clone. “We’ll dial that in after the doctor’s debriefing.”
“Very good,” the Maícon answered. “General heading, plotted.”
At first, Ren’s debriefing went smoothly, with Maícon asking simple questions, leading her through gentle memory exercises while Transom looked on. Sōsh expressed that he thought something funny had happened in the chocolate shop simply by Ren’s behavior after the incident, but he hadn’t pressed the issue, because Ren had been adamant that everything was fine. She still insisted it was, but after Maícon had extracted all the details of the conversation, he pressed Ren to generate an image of her abductor from the recall program in the neuroband.
“Not a chance in hell, guys. No way.”
“You object?” Maícon asked.
“Could I be any clearer?”
“More rightly, I should ask why you object, doctor?”
“He’s not the issue. If I generate an image for you, everyone’s going to think it’s a good idea to chase this guy down. That’s the last thing we should do—the last thing in a million years, Maícon. The message is important, not the messenger.”
“You said this guy is like galactically badass,” Transom said. “What are we talking here? Clearly, he’s got skills if he pulled you away under Sōsh’s watch.”
Ren looked over at Transom, shaking her head. “I’ll put it this way. If he came after you, Sebastian, you’d be lucky to come out of it the way you did with Aballi. I know that’s a low blow, but I’m just talking facts here. You’re a kitten compared to this guy. I know that’ll probably just trip your ego, but so be it.”
Transom scoffed and smiled at the same time, shaking his head. “Doctor, I’m not still alive because I think I’m the toughest guy in the universe. I’m still alive because I’ve always known exactly where I stand. There are definitely fights not worth having.”
“This is one of them.”
“Okay, that’s fine,” Transom said. “None of us have a death wish, which is exactly why we need to know what’s motivating this guy. He tells us we can find Fields on Beta-Kol, and maybe that’s true. Or, maybe it’s true that he knows there’s something else waiting for us there.”
“Trust my instincts on this, Sebastian. If he wanted us dead, we’d already be dead.”
Transom shrugged and looked at Maícon Prime. “What do you think, bolts?”
“He surely could have killed the doctor and likely gotten the jump on Sōsh as well. If he knew who Ren is, then he likely knows about the rest of the crew, or at least some of us.”
“Beta-Kol was in Fieldstone’s drop two notes ago. We didn’t go there because it was third on the list, but the odds of this guy pulling out a random place that was in Fields’ notes?” Transom shook his head. “Miniscule to non-existent.”
“The question is whether we’ll be flying into a trap if we go there,” Maícon stated. “I would still prefer to identify your assailant, doctor. That would help us to determine how to proceed.”
“Unnecessary,” Carolina said, floating into the atrium from the fore decks. “I have an idea what his motivation was, at least in approaching Ren. I doubt he had any intention beyond passing on information that he happened to have regarding Fieldstone.”
“Care to share?” Transom said as Carolina approached the table and pulled herself down.
Carolina sighed. “For now, no. His message was for me personally. I’ll share it if it becomes relevant, but I’m confident he has no ill intent. It’s as Ren said, if he did, we wouldn’t be here having this conversation. We’d have been dead a long time ago. I’ve ordered your clone to set a course to Beta-Kol, Maícon. I’ll leave it to you, Sebastian and Sōsh to work out a probable location to start a search for Fieldstone when we arrive. Ren’s assailant is to be strictly forgotten.”
“Galactic badass,” Transom said, raising his right hand to his brow and saluting. “Aye, aye, Captain.”
“I will say,” Ren added, “that I’m getting the feeling all this quiet since Athos, I think it was just an aberration—the calm before the storm. I hope I’m wrong.”
Transom, Maícon, Sōsh, and Carolina spent some time en route planning for Beta-Kol. Their tactics for re-acquiring Fields were well practiced. Ingress and Egress were always Transom’s focal point. Fieldstone would have to arrive and depart from defined funnel points if he were traveling commercially. From there, he’d likely be searching for Akop Hernan in a finite number of suitable locations for an Etteran war chief in exile. Those hot spots would be on the list of places to visit as well. And given this was their hottest lead in months, only Carolina and Ren would remain on ship—Carolina to coordinate, Ren, because she didn’t feel so adventurous after their last stop.
Kol was a well populated planet by Letters standards, not nearly as populous as Hellenia, Athos, or Iophos, or even Port Cullen or some of the Indies. But any planet where people could breathe the air and otherwise not be crushed by a dense atmosphere or weighted down by an oppressive gravitational pull tended to attract settlers. And settlers generally came with an expansive vision, if not for the settlement, certainly for their own lives. Beta-Kol, like many similar planets in the Letters offered people the opportunity to put that vision into practice under a real sky, on real land, with real air to breathe. So people came in droves.
The commerce, travel, and growing communities offered ample opportunities for someone to genuinely get lost. Unlike stations or cylinders or more established planets with clearly defined travel corridors and approach enforcement, a ship could set down in the wastelands here without much trouble. So it was possible Hernan was hiding on Kol in some obscure outpost. But Maícon and Transom began their search for Fieldstone around the two spaceports and their landing fields.
The Maícon clone spotted Fields five hours after Yankee-Chaos landed. He popped up on the specific facial recognition filter the Maícon was running on the planet’s open camera feeds. Fieldstone was in the southern city of Sangoi, just outside the second largest landing field on the planet. From there it was just a matter of hours before Transom, Sōsh, Maícon, and Harold managed to locate him in a crowded market. He wasn’t alone.
“Fieldstone made a friend,” Transom announced to Carolina over coms.
“How much does she know?” Carolina asked.
“Way to cut right to it,” Transom replied. “I hope you’ll be a little more hospitable if we decide to bring her aboard.”
“Given recent circumstances, can you blame me for being cautious first?”
“Fields vetted her. Maícon is verifying her identity and background through the city’s network. We won’t bring her back if anything suspicious pops up, but Fields says she’s solid, so I expect her to check out.”
“And he expects her to come with us?”
“Look, boss. He’s been on a unit his entire life. I’m a rare case of a solo operator, but Fields is used to being around people. He’s been out here for months, so it makes sense.”
“I need to account for whether it makes sense for us, Sebastian.”
“Our ship is half empty, and she seems all right. It is a spaceship, Carolina, we can always dump her somewhere later if she’s not worth the trouble.”
“I want you to vet her seriously, Transom. Don’t just wave her through because Fields says so. We can’t afford mistakes, not in the personnel department.”
“Roger that,” Transom said. “Heavy scrutiny incoming, boss. We’ll see you in a few hours whether she clears or not. I won’t get too heavy into the details, but Fields says we’re on our target. He’s out here.”
“Very good,” Carolina said. “Please tell Fieldstone we’re looking forward to seeing him again. It’s a relief to finally reconnect.”
Carolina kept them all waiting in the atrium during takeoff. She didn’t want to sit out there on the sands of Kol’s southern airfield for very long with the ship powered down. She’d discussed it privately with the Maícon clone. There was danger that Fields could have been seen by Hernan’s people and followed. It was also possible his guest could still pose a threat despite Fields, Transom, and the Maícons clearing her. It did them no benefit to sit on the deck when they could just as easily be safe in space with a clear line of sight until they got their plans straight. Hospitable it wasn’t, though.
She found Fieldstone, Transom, and Sōsh strapped in at the atrium table with their guest when she came floating in about an hour after takeoff. The room got instantly quiet as all eyes turned her way. Their guest, a brown-eyed, brown-haired woman a few years younger than Ren by the look of her, gazed over at Carolina curiously and then at the others around the table.
“Interesting,” she said.
“Oh?” Carolina said. “What’s so interesting?”
“I’m guessing by the energy in the room that you’re the captain. Please stop me if I’ve missed the mark?”
Carolina shook her head.
“That’s interesting. Two of the hardest Etterans I’ve ever set eyes on and a Letters rock hopper so hard he wouldn’t let them put him back together properly, and they’re taking orders from you?”
The woman raised an eyebrow.
“I was going to ask you how much you’ve read her in, Fields, but I guess the answer is not much.”
“That’s really your discretion, Captain,” Fieldstone said. “Draya has been invaluable tracking down Hernan.”
“Our ship’s AI relayed as much, yes,” Carolina said. “Draya, I’d like to thank you for your help so far and welcome you aboard. I understand you’re an investigator?”
The woman shrugged. “That’s really a bit of an overstatement. I find people for a living is all. Never anything like this, though. I’ve never seen so many …” Draya paused and looked around the table. “Let’s call it a unique group of people you’ve put together here, Captain.”
“Fate’s got as much to do with it as I have. That’s for sure.”
“So you haven’t told her like anything?” Sōsh asked looking over at Fields and then back at Carolina. “Not even?”
“My name?” Carolina said, looking at Draya.
She shook her head. “I just knew there was a captain. Fieldstone didn’t say anything about you. They’re pretty good at keeping their mouths shut, these Etterans, at least as it comes to tactical matters. But I can see why these boys jump when you say so.”
“There’s a little more to it than that,” Transom said. “How about you get us started, old man. Presumably, you’ve done a little more than locate Hernan in all this time.”
“Yeah,” Fields agreed. “Draya’s been extremely helpful with that. She’s got a knack for finding the easy way of doing things, especially keeping track of people.”
“I’ll want to hear more about that after the briefing,” Carolina said, gesturing for Fields to continue.
“We picked him up nine weeks ago in the Alphas. I’ll give you a detailed set of notes when we’re done, but the short version is that Hernan has been hopping around between planets, and we’re not exactly sure what to make of the pattern of behavior. It’s not entirely strange for an Etteran to be out in the Letters like this, and at first, I thought he might be hiding.”
“At first?”
“Well, I doubt that’s what he’s up to. The stops have been short for one—a couple weeks here, a couple weeks there. And even that wouldn’t be so odd for such a high level official if he were hiding, moving from safe house to safe house. If he’d really run afoul of the High Command, I wouldn’t really want to be so stationary either until I was one hundred percent sure of the setting. But the thing that bothers me is his people. Draya’s been close enough to put eyes and cameras on them twice, and I’ll confer with Sebastian on the video for his take, but mine’s this: These guys are operating out here, planning something. I’m almost certain Hernan’s in play.”
“What makes you so sure of that?” Transom asked.
Fields shook his head. “My gut mostly. But I look at the way they move. It wouldn’t be so unlikely for a guy like Hernan, if he were to go into hiding, to take like five or six loyal guys—his guys—to run his security for him. A cushy retirement for everyone. But Hernan has been out here for some time, and these guys—I’ve watched them—they’re razor sharp. The way they walk, they move, they scan a perimeter. No. If this guy were just hiding, I just don’t see it. His guards are operating.”
“He would have the best to choose from,” Transom suggested.
“Even the best, when they retire, still look retired,” Fieldstone insisted. “These guys aren’t on a sunsetter.”
“That’s not all,” Draya said. “I noticed they’re only jumping to and from planetary outposts. And fine, it’s a little easier to get on and off worlds like Kol and Petros without anyone noticing, but if I wanted to hide, I’d poach an identity and vanish into some innocuous little residential cylinder group and never be seen again. Disappear. I might be able to find him given enough time, and maybe people in my line of work could, but few others. The thing you can’t do inconspicuously from megastructures that you can from planets is move people and weapons and even bots.”
“That’s the gut part of it,” Fields continued. “I don’t have any direct evidence for it, but I can feel something coming out here. Almost every place we’ve stopped there’s that feeling in the air. Things just a little too quiet. People uneasy.”
“What’s your sense of it?” Transom asked.
“Akop Hernan doesn’t look like a man in control of what’s coming. I think they’ve got some intelligence about a move coming, human intel or Ketch calculating something. My guess is that Hernan was out here hiding, and the HC knocked on his door to have him get a read on it. I suspect he’s been gathering intel from local informants and deep embeds.”
“Spies?” Carolina asked. “Does Etterus have many spies in the Letters?”
“Where’s she from?” Draya asked. “I had you pegged for somewhere east, and I know you’re not Etteran from your accent, but?”
“She’s not local,” Sōsh said.
“That’s not important right now,” Carolina said. “Please, Fields, continue.”
“Well, that’s it really, Captain. I’m confident something’s about to pop off out here soon. I have no idea what it is, but I know that energy when I see it.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Wait,” Sōsh said. “Just so we’re clear, are we talking offensive here? Out in the Letters? Or just a few local skirmishes like we get out in the Lambdas and Kappas on the regular?”
“Something major.” Fields said. “You can bank on it. And I suggest we pick up Hernan before whatever’s coming goes down. After that, all bets are off.”
Transom scoffed. “You said he’s got what? Five? Six operators around him?”
“Five,” Fields said. “And they’re top guys, but whatever it is they’re looking for, they aren’t looking for us.”
“Can she fight?” Transom asked, gesturing toward Draya.
Fields shook his head. “She doesn’t even take bonds, Sebastian. I told you. She does things the easy way. Draya finds long-lost cousins and people who skipped out on mortgages.”
“So us three?”
“And your friend, presumably, right?” Draya said, gesturing to the aft decks of the ship where Maícon Prime was monitoring the conversation remotely. She picked up on the group’s reaction even though no one said anything. “Is he a bot? That shell he’s running—whoa! He looks human. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“He’s from back east too,” Carolina said, grinning. “Well, that’s a lot to think about Fieldstone. Alpha-Petros is a few days out. Get your notes to the ship, please, and we’ll continue this discussion as we get closer.”
Nobody had been to Petros, not even Sōsh, who’d been to more planets in the Letters than a fair amount of deep-space curriers. By reputation, it was a harsh place—deep rocky canyons and craggy mountains were the major features of the landscape, with a thin atmosphere and very little water, so the sky was clear, almost perpetually, and dark. It was cold and required a nanosheet to breathe almost everywhere on the planet’s surface except for the three deepest impact craters. Each of these massive flat-bottomed bowls were distinct municipalities, population-dense cityscapes, the two smaller of which were covered over with vast nano-diamond filament domes that were as much to protect against incoming particulate matter as to retain the thin atmosphere that did little to shield against that low-probability, high-cost threat. Petros would never be a high value planet without serious terraforming efforts, and so far, in its history, nobody with serious resources and know-how had been seen Petros of worthy of those efforts. This was a place for deep-space miners, grunts, workers, and the support services that catered to the tastes of such folk.
“My guess is that you and your people will stand out down there,” Draya told Carolina in a briefing. “Honestly if we need to go in, I don’t even think Fields should come with me. Sōsh could pass, and maybe the Harold, but not even that other bot.”
“I thought you said you haven’t been there,” Transom said.
“I haven’t, but I know these outlying Alphas. Trust me, we’re close enough to the Protectorate, the second you and Fields open your mouths, you’ll get noticed, and not in a good way, Sebastian.”
“What about Hernan and his people?”
“That should make it manageable for me to find him,” Draya said.
Carolina was still skeptical of Fieldstone’s new friend, but her experience finding people who were tough to locate had already proven useful to Fields in quickly picking up Hernan each time he jumped worlds.
Carolina invited her up to the flight deck to teach her some of the tricks of the trade as they were approaching Petros. Draya began by synching her notepad with the Maícon clone’s location algorithm. She had data categories that people outside her line of work wouldn’t think of, and importantly for this stop, she had access to data for the landing fields. That sort of information would allow the Maícons to scan the landing fields for all the ships parked above the rim of the craters.
“According to Fields,” Draya told Carolina, “Etterans like to run in certain types of civilian ships when they’re sneaking around out here. They switched out Hernan’s ship about a month back, but odds are good he won’t have any suspicion anyone’s onto him. We should be able to ID his ship from orbit. Then it’s just a question of finding him in the city nearby.”
“Maícon?” Carolina asked the ship’s clone.
“Draya is correct,” he said. “A high likelihood.”
“Wow, a genuine Maícon and that other bot, Mr. Perfect back there? What are you doing on this ship, young lady?” Draya said, pausing and then putting up a hand. “You know what, I’m not sure I want to know. I’ve really stepped into something with you folks, haven’t I?”
Carolina exhaled and shook her head. “Maybe. Yeah, probably we all have.”
“I’ve never met two Etterans like that. I took one look at Fields, and like, whoa boy. They don’t make many like him. Not in my parts. I had to get to know him.”
“I’m not sure there are many like him anywhere, even on Etterus.”
“And they both want to get close to this retired war chief? But they’re Etterans too? I don’t know what Fields must have done that he can’t approach his own, but that’s something else I probably don’t want to know, right? I would like to know something, Captain, if you can tell me?”
“Sure. If I can answer.”
“Are we going to end up dead? I mean, like high likelihood?”
Carolina smiled. “Doubtful.” She paused. “Well.” Carolina sat for another moment, considering.
“That’s not a good sign,” Draya laughed.
“You’d be safer tracking down long-lost cousins,” Carolina conceded. “I honestly think there’s a good chance I could get killed doing what we’re doing eventually. But I’m not worried about that today.”
“Right,” Draya said. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be aboard with you all, but do me a favor and tell me when you do get worried?”
“Oh, believe me,” Carolina said. “You’ll know.”
The Maícon clone located Akop Hernan’s ship on approach to Petros. With a thin, cloudless atmosphere, the Yankee-Chaos wasn’t even in orbit before they’d narrowed down their target to the Gavron crater, the middle city, as it was known on Petros, located in the northernmost impact basin under one of the clear, diamond domes.
Draya suggested she go alone to attract the least attention. When Carolina offered to send Harold with her, Draya balked. “Even that nice multi-use will draw eyes on this outpost.”
Maícon Prime had a better idea than Harold. “I’ll get George out of storage,” he told Carolina.
“George?” Fieldstone asked when he overheard Carolina and Transom discussing it.
“Another bot shell we have for our Maícon,” Carolina answered. “Juice built him. He’s not good looking, but George is pretty inconspicuous.”
“If ugly’s inconspicuous,” Transom added.
“Who the hell is Juice?” Fieldstone asked.
“Where the hell is Juice is a better question,” Carolina muttered. “Not important right now. Anyway, yeah. Tell Draya we’ll be sending George with her.”
“Roger that,” Fieldstone said, shrugging.
Draya was apparently busy loading local directories from her subscription service onto her eyewear—common practice for people in her profession out in the Letters. Her license as an investigator provided access to Letters-wide government and law enforcement databases even the Maícons would struggle to crack. Carolina was already warming both to Draya as a person and as a potential asset to the team. Even so, Carolina was glad Maícon would be on her shoulder as she approached Akop Hernan and his people.
Draya’s reaction was priceless when George joined her at the rear airlock door once they’d set down at the airfield.
“Well, Carolina, you officially own the prettiest and ugliest two bots in the Letters.” Draya laughed and shook her head. “No offense, George, you bucket of bolts.”
She, of course, had no idea she was speaking of the same AI, who piped up, “I shall follow your lead, ma’am.”
“Oh, you better,” Draya answered. “You can’t be disobedient when you’re that ugly, pal. That’s like Physics or something.”
Carolina waited until they’d stepped out the airlock and then turned to Fieldstone.
“I get what you see in Draya. She’s growing on me quick.”
“She does that,” he answered.
It wasn’t more than a couple hours before Draya had located Hernan and his people. The crew was sitting at the atrium table, finishing dinner when she pinged.
“I’ve got good news and bad,” she announced. “Good news is we have a location on Hernan. Bad news is it’s in the middle of a convention of Etteran badasses. Kind of like a bunch of clones of our two guys only younger and angrier looking, if that’s possible. Encrypting a stream now. Hang on.”
Carolina gestured for the ship’s Maícon to route Draya’s stream to the floatscreen, which popped up over the dinner table.
“We got those two guys there,” Draya began. “This is a hotel in the Lowtown, I guess they call it—right outside the city center. And there’s those two guys over there. Two more on that roof up there, hiding back from the edge right now, which no doubt means they could put up drones in a heartbeat as well as snipe you out of existence if anyone got near our target. And if they’re climbing on rooftops, I bet they got the entire block surveilled. Probably an AI watching from as many cameras as they could hang, and more. This is more security than we’ve seen for Hernan by far. I haven’t seen the big guy again since he and his five guys went inside. So that’s the summary.”
“Okay,” Carolina said. “Thanks, Draya. Let us know if anything changes.”
“Sure,” she responded, cutting the video from her eyewear. “Oh, and this is nothing concrete, but this city, I mean, something is off in the energy around here. It’s a kind of quiet I’ve never seen in my life. Like dread. Maybe it’s me and all this stuff has got me spooked, but this city seems like it’s holding its breath.”
Fieldstone looked over at Transom, who shrugged and just stated. “We’re not going to know until we know.”
“Right,” their new friend stated. “Draya out.”
The audio feed cut.
Draya checked in two additional times that afternoon, and each time it was to report more security, up to fifteen more Etteran soldiers in civilian clothes sticking out badly enough that the regular people in the city were staring at the outsiders, doing double takes as they went about their usual business near the hotel.
The consensus aboard the Yankee-Chaos was that there had to be an even heavier hitter than Hernan inside that hotel—a present day member of the War Chief’s cabinet or maybe a lesser commodore here to take a report on whatever it was Hernan was doing out in the Letters.
It took the ship’s Maícon clone several hours, but at Transom’s request, he pored over citywide footage near the hotel trying to identify the other major Etteran player, hoping to get a head shot as the group entered the hotel. He identified the moment the group arrived but found that the Etterans must have been using some EM interference to scramble the signal. Even he couldn’t clean it up using any algorithm he knew.
“Y-C, this is Draya,” their newest operative called back early that evening. “Hernan is moving. Relaying video feed now. It’s probably tough to see in this light, but he’s got his guys with him. All our old friends, Fields. No more, though. I do think he’s staying at the hotel, but he’s clearly not the big security concern.”
“Copy that, D,” Fields said.
“What do you guys want me to do? I’ve walked a perimeter around this hotel about forty times. I’ve sat on benches and stood around, but I’m feeling obvious and not so inclined to stand out here all night. This is clearly not a good place to approach Hernan if that’s the plan.”
Fields shook his head as he signed off, telling Draya to stand by.
A few minutes later, the ship’s Maícon cracked the shipyard’s camera bank, and within seconds had the footage of three different Etteran teams arriving: a forward security team that preceded the main protectee, the high-value target’s arrival, and Hernan’s arrival with the last team.
“Which would you like to see?” the Maícon asked.
“All of them,” Transom said. “But get us stills of that big fish first and identify if you can, please.”
“That will hardly be necessary for me to do,” Maícon said, displaying a clear headshot of Myles Kuartice, eliciting an audible grumble from Transom, who shook his head at the sight.
“Shit,” was all Fieldstone said.
Carolina looked up at the floatscreen and then over at Transom. “Well?”
He was still shaking his head in disbelief. “Give me a second, boss. I’m thinking.”
“What’s there to think about? We need to lie low and reacquire Hernan later,” Fields insisted.
“Who is he?” Carolina asked.
“Myles Kuartice?” Fields said, a bit surprised Carolina didn’t know who he was by name. “He’s commodore over eight of our twelve fleets. He’s my former commodore Grice’s boss’s boss. Literally the highest-ranking flag officer still under commission and not on the War Chief’s staff. He’s practically High Command. If they get a sniff of Transom’s socks in the breeze while they’re on this planet, they’ll nuke this airfield, Captain. I assure you, we need to get gone yesterday.”
“No,” Transom said, simply leaving that one-word statement there and making no follow up.
“No? What do you mean no?” Fields asked.
“Think about this for a minute,” Transom said. “It gives us like ten different advantages we’ll likely never have again.”
Fieldstone’s face was indignant, in disbelief, “Like what? Name one.”
“Ingress and egress,” came a voice from the far side of the atrium. Ren, who had been half listening from the commissary, had turned her head toward them, smiling.
“You’re being a smartass, doctor,” Transom said. “But you’re being a smart smartass at least.”
“I’ve been listening. Ingress and egress. Ingress and egress. Blah blah blah.”
“She’s right, sort of. We’ve got footage of the ingress, so we can identify the teams exactly,” Transom explained. “We only care about Hernan, right? So presumably he’s going to leave with his team, not with the commodore. They’re not going to be looking for us. Not in a million years. If they’re looking for a threat it’ll be a lone assassin or a Trasp strike team or pretty much anything not us. You and me, Fields, we can file in and pass for security agents well enough at a distance. We just need to get somebody close to him.”
“How the hell are we going to do that, Transom?” Fields asked.
Transom looked back at Fieldstone with a devilish grin. “I’ve got an idea, Captain, but it’s going to mean taking down a layer of secrecy with both our new friends. A matter of trust.”
Carolina looked over at Transom, not quite picking up on the plan until he looked toward the rear of the ship ever so briefly—to the back where Maícon Prime stored his vacant new shell.
“Oh,” Carolina said. “Oh, interesting. That might work.”
“You said your new friend likes to do things the easy way, Fields?” Transom said. “No easier way than having our target walk right into our airlock.”
“That I’d like to see, Transom. You pull that off and you’ll be worth your reputation.”
“It’ll take some work,” Carolina said. “Let’s get Draya and George back aboard so we can start to run through this.”
When Draya returned, Carolina and Transom met briefly on the flight deck, with Maícon Prime participating in the discussion remotely. They had questions about how well that new body of his mimicked humans. Clearly it was a close enough representation to fool Draya into at least having questions. It also helped that the human avatar he’d chosen wasn’t exactly a Maícon shell look-alike. They’d also seen Rishi’s shell. And though none of them had met the real Rishi when she was human, they’d all remarked on how they never would have guessed she was anything but human—Rishi the person.
“I can spoof almost anyone,” Maícon said. “I cannot promise perfect reliability, like fooling someone’s mother, perhaps—shared memories are certainly a vulnerability. But if you are thinking of putting me close to Akop Hernan, I think there is a high probability of success over a very short timeline.”
“What do you need?” Transom asked. “Can you just look at a guy and, poof, take his shape or what?”
“More data is better, but I could stitch together a 3D model from multiple stills. Known points of reference will improve the accuracy of the physical avatar. Recordings of his voice should be sufficient. You’re not the only one with that talent, Sebastian.”
“No doubt,” Transom said with a wry smile, mimicking Maícon’s voice.
“So we’re going to need to get close to them beforehand?” Carolina asked.
“That would dramatically improve the odds of my deception being successful.”
“And Draya,” Transom asked. “Are both of you comfortable revealing our prime here to our new guest?”
“She seems to have her eyes open to some degree,” Carolina said. “I’m not sure, though. She also seems to have a sense that knowing what we know could put her in danger.”
“Let’s let them make the call on it then,” Transom suggested. “Tell them it’s dangerous and then, eyes open or shut. Their choice.”
Fields and Draya were sitting down together at the atrium table, finishing up a very late dinner. They were both smiling and laughing as Carolina and Transom approached from the flight deck.
“The easy way,” Transom said, looking at Draya as he and Carolina sat. “Fields said that’s your specialty, and we’re going to need a little bit of it, if you’re willing to help us.”
“So far, I haven’t seen any reason not to.”
“Good,” Transom said. “We need a way to get close to Hernan’s security detail without tipping them off.”
“For who to get close? You and Fields or any of us? Because any of us is real easy, you two would take some finagling.”
“Any of us.”
“Oh that’s super easy. If we’re confident they’re not going to fly out of here in the next couple days, we just watch them, figure out where the boys go to drink when they’re off duty, then me and blondie get all dolled up and honey pot them. Maybe even the doctor if she’s up for it. She seems like a secret fun girl, I have to say. But you’re going to have to lighten up a bit, Carolina. You know, act natural—not so distant.”
Transom was laughing.
“I won’t be joining you,” Carolina said. “But someone else will. I have a serious question for both of you. I want to know how much you’re willing to risk, you especially, Draya.”
“Look, Captain, I know this is dangerous, and I’m kind of okay with it. This has been eye opening for me. Kinda fun.”
“It is serious, though.”
“Sure. Serious.”
“People would kill you to get the information you’re going to learn working with us.”
“Yeah, but I don’t get the sense you’d hang me out to dry like that. You back your people, right?”
Carolina nodded.
“That’s all I need to know. I’m all in, Carolina. Ready for the secret sauce.”
“Maícon,” Carolina said, gesturing for the Prime to step into the atrium.
He was wearing his advanced shell from before—the one Verona’s sect and Eddis Ali had made for him.
“That bot, Draya, is also a Maícon. He’s also the same AI that accompanied you to the city in the body of George.”
“He’s also Maícon Prime,” Transom said. “He loves telling everyone that.”
“Yes, Sebastian. Thank you for stealing my thunder.”
“Boom,” Transom said, grinning.
“That’s not all,” Carolina said, gesturing to Maícon.
“Apologies, Captain Dreeson, but apart from yourself and Dr. Ren, I haven’t been close to a better candidate for a female avatar.”
Draya looked over at Fields probingly. He shrugged, shaking his head.
Maícon then morphed, before their eyes, into an eerily perfect replica of Carolina’s oldest Athosian friend, the socialite Triss Ball.
Draya gasped, and Fieldstone’s eyes got wide. Transom began shaking his head, glaring over at Maícon.
“Triss,” he grumbled. “Really?”
“Oh, she’s perfect,” Draya said, wide-eyed. “But sorry, I gotta come back to something. Maícon Prime, you said?”
“The one and only,” Maícon said, perfectly mimicking Triss’s voice.
“And you called her, Captain Dreeson?” Draya said, gesturing to Carolina. “Carolina Dreeson?”
She paused, her eyes alternating between Fields, who nodded, and then back to Carolina. “Oh my God, I’m so stupid. I’m supposed to be an investigator! I thought you looked—but—you weren’t even using a fake name, Carolina. I thought you looked familiar. I just didn’t think it was possible.”
Transom was grinning. “I guess I didn’t get to steal your thunder after all, bolts. So sorry.”
“That’s okay, Samson. I still love you.” Maícon replied in Triss’s voice.
“Okay, wait,” Carolina said. “Maícon, you’re creeping me out. Take off Triss’s face, and everybody settle down, please. This is serious.”
“So serious,” came Ren’s voice from the hallway to the medical bay. She was standing there beside Sōsh, both of them practically doubled over laughing.
Transom was glaring at Maícon, shaking his head.
“Welcome to the team, you two,” Sōsh said, half-smiling. “It doesn’t get any less ridiculous from here.”
After the crew had settled down and discussed their preliminary plans for extracting Hernan, Draya went back down to the city with Maícon to observe the Etterans. Transom zeroed in on the egress, specifically the lift from the crater’s basin up to the airfield above. There were four operating lifts, two freight elevators and two passenger cars. That was the pinch point Transom was focused on. The goal was simple. Get Maícon to convincingly copy one of Hernan’s security team, incapacitate the others on the ride up the lift, and one way or another, get Akop Hernan from the top of the lift to the Yankee-Chaos before any of the Etterans had the chance to intervene. Then, take off, jump out of the system, and interrogate him.
The element of surprise made it a reasonable possibility, and the security footage the Maícon clone had pinched helped them to sketch out their probable exit protocols. Their largest question was when Hernan’s group was planning to leave Petros.
Transom and Fields were sitting at the atrium table with Sōsh and Carolina sketching out contingencies for the operation. They’d decided that the easy way in this case would be attacking the elevator station’s security. They tasked the Maícon clone with probing how difficult it would be for him or Maícon Prime to quietly gain control over the elevator cars. City infrastructure like that tended to be fairly hardened. Maícons were known to be dynamic, sophisticated, and notoriously mischievous AIs though. The Maícon clone returned an answer after about fifteen minutes of probing.
“I will need forty minutes lead time to seize control undetected. I could do it in twenty, but that would leave a trace.”
“That’ll work,” Fields stated. “They’ll send two guys up to clear the ship. As soon as we see them coming up, we start the clock. We just need to know approximately when to get Maícon Prime inserted and how, and I like our chances. Presumably, he’ll have some input on that when he and Draya get back.”
“He does,” the Maícon clone interjected over the atrium’s speakers. “They are on their way back now. We’ve been discussing their progress. Apparently, Miss Ball was quite a hit with your Etteran counterparts, Sebastian.”
Transom shook his head.
Fields grinned. “Something I should know about, Transom?”
“Athos,” he grumbled. “Never mind. As long as we’re on track.”
“Prime has requested that you await his return to discuss contingencies with him and Ms. Draya,” the Maícon clone stated.
“When’s this all going down, Ship?” Sōsh asked. “Not like a few hours, right? Tomorrow? The next day?”
“The day after tomorrow.”
“I’m going to get something to drink. Vodkaberry anyone? Carolina?”
She shrugged. “What the hell?”
Sōsh looked over at Transom, who glared back at him.
“Vodkaberry?” Fields asked.
“Athos,” Transom grumbled. “Don’t ask.”
“Suit yourselves,” Sōsh said, smiling.
They sat for another twenty minutes or so, mostly making small talk while they waited for Maícon Prime and Draya to get back to the ship.
When they returned, Maícon was wearing his normal shell and Draya was wearing a wide smile, leaning into Maícon Prime, her arm locked in his.
“Your friend, here, Captain Carolina, he makes a convincing tipsy, flirty girl from Athos. I have to say.”
“I had an excellent model from which to build my avatar,” Maícon said.
“Yeah, well I’m glad you two had your fun, but don’t expect to see her again unless it’s absolutely necessary. I think we’ve all had enough fun at my friend’s expense, wouldn’t you say Sebastian?”
“Agreed.”
“I did have a lot of fun,” Draya said. “I knew you weren’t the only Etteran who knew how to have a good time, Fieldstone.”
She let go of Maícon and took a few deliberate steps over to the table, where she set herself down on Fieldstone’s lap.
“We have a time of departure, I hear,” Carolina said.
“Not precise, but our Etteran friends were looser with their schedule and a few other details than they should have been.”
“And you got close to a few of those boys?” Fields asked.
“Oh, so close,” Draya said, leaning in and kissing Fieldstone’s neck. “She did. I didn’t. They had a major too, but he wasn’t as well seasoned as this one.”
“Well,” Carolina said. “Sounds like you two had an interesting time.”
“I’m sworn to secrecy,” Draya said. “I kinda like you guys. Weird bunch. But it’s been fun so far.”
“Give it a little time,” Transom said. “All kinds of different shades of fun around here.”
“Tomorrow, then,” Maícon said. “We’ll drill through the op until we’re ready.”
Fieldstone tilted his head back behind Draya to meet eyes with Maícon. “Tomorrow,” he said. “Good idea.”
In the morning, the group met and made adjustments to their strategy. And though Fields awarded Transom style points for his plan to get Hernan to walk into the Y-C’s rear airlock on his own, they ultimately decided on a higher-percentage option. Isolate the group in the elevator, incapacitate, and evacuate before the Etterans had any chance to respond. That plan was fully dependent on getting Maícon into that elevator in the form of one of Hernan’s security agents. The tricky part was being sure which of the five agents would be in the elevator with him, as one would likely be left on the airfield to watch their ship after they’d cleared it, and one would be waiting at the top of the elevator to ensure a clear path to Hernan’s ship.
Apart from that wrinkle, the plan was the same. Sōsh and Fields would take out Hernan’s man at the top of the elevator. Transom would take the guy at the ship. Their only other concern was getting Draya out smoothly, as she’d volunteered to help Maícon slip into Hernan’s security team as seamlessly as possible.
Watching Fieldstone drill the group gave Ren and Carolina an even deeper sense of how well-practiced a finelytuned operation like their team could be. It reminded Carolina of a stage production—perfect choreography, each dancer in step.
They ran through their ideal scenario, so many times Carolina lost count. Then Fields took them through a long list of contingencies for all the possible variables they anticipated.
After every possibility had seemingly been drilled, Carolina asked about the one part that hadn’t come up.
“Sebastian, you’re in charge of the guy at the ship, right? How are you going to take him out?”
“Don’t worry, boss,” he said. “I won’t kill him unless I absolutely have to, and I won’t.”
She looked at him probingly.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said.
And that was the end of that conversation.
The rest of the evening they spent relaxing and watching the security feeds, monitoring Hernan’s movements from afar.
There was unexpected activity the following morning. Myles Kuartice’s forward security group arrived at the airfield to clear the two ships they’d arrived in. After they’d cleared Kaurtice’s ships, they left four people to watch the ships and two more at the top of the elevators. The crew of the Yankee-Chaos had yet to see any sign of Akop Hernan’s people. Fieldstone took that as a sign that Kuartice was still planning to leave before Hernan’s group. Nonetheless, Draya insisted on rushing down to the hotel in case Akop Hernan’s team began to move out with them.
“If Hernan does leave with Kuartice’s group, there’s nothing we can do at this point,” Fieldstone said.
“That’s not true,” Transom responded. “It’s not preferable, but it’s doable.”
“No, thank you, Transom. We’re not shooting at our own people.”
“Let’s keep our options open,” Transom insisted. “Last resort. We can’t allow Hernan to slip away.”
“Run the op,” Carolina stated. “I will make the call if it comes to shooting.”
“Roger that, captain,” Transom said.
Draya and Maícon stepped out, she dressed in casual civilian clothes, he dressed similarly atop a shell mimicking Triss Ball once again.
They hurried down to the hotel, with the Maícon clone keeping Prime updated on all the feeds he was monitoring from Yankee-Chaos.
Draya and Maícon Prime made record time from the ship to the hotel lobby, which they entered under the pretext of having brunch. Draya sighted and approached one of Hernan’s forward guys in the lobby. He was clearly focused, working, and had no interest in being distracted—or at least being seen as distracted by his boss. Draya managed to get him to reveal they were upstairs getting ready to leave.
“Sorry,” the operative said. “You girls missed your chance the other night. We’re out of here.”
“We missed out?” Draya said. “You sure about that? It doesn’t have to be that way. We are in a hotel.”
He smiled. “You’re about fifteen minutes too late. But I’m working, so I can’t talk right now.”
Draya stepped away, feigning disappointment when the second forward operative appeared. “Start the clock,” she relayed to the ship.
Those two forward operatives left the hotel to clear Akop Hernan’s ship and the top of the elevator, the same as Kuartice’s forward team, who were still standing in the airfield. Draya relayed that there was an urgency about the two operatives as they left, that perhaps they were late. Something.
Suddenly, the lobby was filled with Myles Kuartice’s people.
“Where’s Hernan?” Transom pinged Draya. “Any eyes on him?”
Draya and Triss were just being seated in the lounge inside the lobby. They hadn’t seen Hernan or his other three people.
“Something’s up,” Draya said. “Hernan isn’t here, but Kuartice practically sprinted through the lobby.”
The crew, who were monitoring the external hotel feeds from Yankee-Chaos, could see that the commodore’s people were already departing. They weren’t waiting for Hernan.
“I’m going to try and pick up the major at the elevator,” Maícon Prime stated. “Hopefully, he comes down alone. If not, I’ll assume one of the forward operatives’ identities.”
“If this goes any more sideways, we’re aborting,” Carolina relayed. “They weren’t supposed to be leaving for hours, right?”
“Affirmative,” Draya whispered under her breath, casually glancing back and forth between the lobby and the menu she was pretending to peruse.
“Any idea why they’re all running out of there now?” Carolina asked.
“You know what we know,” Draya responded. Just then she caught a glimpse of Akop Hernan’s major, who signaled to her with a tug on his ear. That gesture informed her that Maícon had acquired Hernan’s major.
“He’s in,” Draya said. “Prime’s in. Hang on.”
The service bot approached the table, and Draya did her best to pretend to be interested in the menu, feigning indecision. Just then, Akop Hernan, Maícon, and the two remaining Etteran security operatives rushed through the hotel lobby to a waiting vehicle outside.
“I have to pee,” she told the bot suddenly, getting up from the table. “Sorry.”
The Maícon clone had a vehicle waiting for Draya, who casually left the hotel herself now.
Their entire meticulously planned operation had become a matter of timing. Kuartice’s forward detail, six operatives strong, was still on the airfield deck, and Hernan’s two forward guys were also heading up the elevator to join them.
“That’s eight guys up here,” Fieldstone said.
“We can count, old man,” Transom told him. “Let’s get our affairs in order.”
Sōsh was waiting for them by the walkway leading back to the gear hall.
Transom greeted his half-metal shipmate. “Metalface?”
“Another good day to be alive.”
“And stay alive,” Transom agreed.
Carolina and Ren watched from the flight deck as Akop Hernan made his way toward the elevators. There was now a shrinking window of opportunity to execute their plan, and it depended entirely on the commodore Myles Kuartice and his party taking off without waiting for Akop Hernan and his people.
“He won’t wait,” the Maícon clone announced. “Prime has relayed the reason for their urgency. An attack is imminent. Maícon Prime presumes this attack is Trasp, as it seems there is uncertainty among the Etterans. They just got word minutes before vacating the hotel.”
“Should we abort?” Carolina asked.
“Negative,” Transom stated from his position in the rear airlock. “Our timeline extends to getting Draya and Prime back aboard anyway. If we can take Hernan without extending our stay on Petros, then we scoop him and screw. Let’s not abort unless grabbing him delays us.”
“What do we know about this attack?” Carolina asked the ship.
“Prime’s answer is rather sardonic,” the Maícon clone stated. “He says that the Etterans are running, which should tell us all we need to know.”
Carolina watched as the dots on the floatscreen cleared various landmarks—the base of the elevator, the airfield concourse, Kuartice’s ships, Hernan’s ship. And creeping along, in blue dots on the floatscreen, were her people. Draya’s vehicle was tailing just behind Maícon Prime and Hernan, approaching the base of the elevator. Sōsh and Harold, now at the upper concourse, were keeping eyes on what little foot traffic there was going down to the city. Transom was out on the airfield, making his way toward Hernan’s ship. Fieldstone, for fear of being recognized by Kuartice’s people, was holding in the Yankee-Chaos’s rear airlock. Carolina had the feeling the op was coming unglued.
The Maícon clone could see the nervous energy in her face.
“Captain, rest assured. Remember that I control the key element to this scenario—the elevators. And, be advised, Myles Kuartice and his people are now on the airfield deck.”
Sōsh relayed the same information from his position, observing sixteen plain-clothes operatives, about as conspicuous as they could be, rushing their protectee into an awaiting deck vehicle. The rest of them filed into two trailing airfield carts, and the small convoy began to rush off toward Myles Kuartice’s two ships.
Maícon announced that Hernan’s team was arriving at the base of the elevator. The Maícon clone had taken care to manipulate the elevator traffic so that there was an empty car waiting for them.
“Draya?” Fields asked.
“I promise you she will exit those elevators before Hernan does,” the Maícon clone responded.
“Hernan’s top guy is looking awful jumpy out here,” Sōsh relayed. “Anybody else think we should get our engines warm?”
“In due time,” Maícon responded. “Relax and execute on my cues. Standby, please.”
It seemed like minutes passed, but it was only twenty seconds later when Maícon gave word that Draya had boarded the passenger elevator at the base of the crater.
“Sōsh, be advised, Hernan’s man may get suspicious when Draya’s elevator opens and his people aren’t on it. If you must take him early, take him early.”
“Roger that, Ship.”
Fieldstone arrived behind Sōsh at the top of the elevators, announcing that he was in position as well.
“Myles Kuartice’s ships are taking off,” Maícon announced. “We’re a go.”
Carolina took a deep breath, looking over at Ren beside her on the flight deck. Ren did her best to return a reassuring look.
“There’s an additional contingency we hadn’t figured in our scenarios,” Maícon informed Carolina. “If any of the Etterans in Hernan’s team are able to signal to Kuartice’s ships that we’ve abducted Akop Hernan, the Yankee-Chaos would be vulnerable and outmatched for several minutes of airtime. That’s if they prioritize Hernan over fleeing.”
“What do you recommend, Maícon?”
“I suggest our people be certain about incapacitating Hernan’s security detail.”
“How certain do we have to be?”
“It’s likely we will be dead in the air if the Etterans turn on us in those two vessels. The call is yours.”
“Relay as much to our people,” Carolina said. “Kill or incapacitate. Their discretion.”
“Understood, Captain Dreeson,” Maícon stated.
True to his word, Maícon made certain Draya’s elevator reached the top before Hernan’s. Fieldstone rushed toward the elevator. As soon as the doors opened, Fields escorted Draya directly to the vehicle Hernan’s man was holding for the former war chief at the edge of the airfield. And, as he’d correctly guessed, that instigated a scuffle between the two men, ostensibly over the vehicle. And while the two Etterans were squaring off, Sōsh ended the fight before it even started, calmly stepping behind Hernan’s man, completely unnoticed, and delivering a vicious thump to the back of the Etteran’s neck with his metal fist.
When Hernan’s elevator finally arrived, all the humans on it had been fully incapacitated by Maícon Prime, including Hernan himself. Maícon, still in the guise of Akop Hernan’s security chief, calmly carried him across the concourse on his shoulder to the waiting vehicle.
By the time they arrived back at the Yankee-Chaos, Transom was outside, waiting to flag them in, watching the group’s six for any unexpected activity.
“Any problems?” Sōsh asked him as he ushered Draya into the airlock.
Transom shook his head. “No problems.”
Fieldstone shot a harsh look over at Transom. “No problems,” he repeated. “Let’s get off this rock before whatever’s coming gets here.”
Hernan was still unconscious, and Ren was there to meet him just inside the rear airlock. She had Prime take the old Etteran chief directly to her table in the med bay and secure him for takeoff.
“Well done, everybody,” Carolina said as cooly as she could manage. “As soon as everyone’s secure, we’re off the deck.”
By the time they cleared Petros’s thin atmosphere, Commodore Myles Kuartice’s ships had already jumped away. They’d been replaced on Maícon’s flight matrix with dozens of incoming ships approaching Petros in formation from four different vectors.
Nothing could be done. Nothing to say. Petros was defenseless. The hundreds of thousands of people who remained beneath them in those delicate habitable bubbles were at the mercy of the merciless.
Maícon jumped the ship out with no particular destination—another hop to another Letter. In the moment, it was unknowable, but for the rest of their lives, none of them would ever forget Alpha-Petros.
The Letters Offensive had begun.