by T. Y. Carew
Working with Cardew was a gamble. He’d heard some of the stories, of course, but she needed him. Without funding, her research was finished. That was a leash no scientist could escape from. As for Simon's side of things, her experiments in Adamanta could be the key to mass production, the kind his company needed to bring the metal to all of humankind and not just the military. Plus, dangerous or not, Evelyn's ideas were truly extraordinary. The sensory equipment they’d be using was a brilliant take on the Adamanta camera eyes Mattie and the military preferred. With near three-hundred-sixty-degree depth of sight, crystal clear audio feeds in atmosphere, and a sensor array that could gauge everything from radiation levels to the scents of objects around it, they alone practically made the alliance with Cardew worth it. The problem was that they were quite finicky, and not all the features were Adamanta-controlled, meaning there had to be at least two operators, one trained in the special metal and the other at a workstation. But for a first-generation design, it was brilliant work. And that was just the beginning. He’d seen a dazzling number of her design plans, and while quite a few were either ludicrously pointless or far too prohibitively expensive, many held a promise of making his investment back tenfold. No, for Simon, the gamble was definitely worth it.
As he neared the lift, he noticed the door to the soldiers’ barracks was half open. He caught just a glance inside. Dr. Cardew was gesturing at a pair of lockers next to the bunks while a burly woman in the black fatigues of the private security team nodded. She saw Simon and jerked her thumb at the door. Dr. Cardew fell silent and poked her head out.
“Just discussing the security team not touching some of the more fragile equipment when they’re doing their sweeps,” she said, that toothy smile back in place.
“Ah. Yeah, don’t do that,” Simon said cheerfully. “Hey, Doctor, do you know—” The soft chirp of his personal comm chirped. “Excuse me.”
Dr. Cardew smiled and nodded, and shut the door behind Simon as he turned away to answer. The friendly, soothing voice on the other end belonged to the ship’s comms officer, Avery Lawrence.
“Mr. Dantos, when we slowed out of FTL, we received a hailing data package sent hours ago. From, ah, Colonel Xander Finlay.”
Simon raised an eyebrow. It was no surprise really that the military would have found out about this operation. The Agathen captain who provided his company with the video would have been a fool to not keep copies. It was probable she’d sold them to the military too. Still, Xander’s speedy response rankled Simon. He’d expected to be ahead of them by days, not hours. Quickly, the nameless crew member faded from his memory as Simon turned and started for the lift that would take him to the bridge.
Chapter 3
Simon’s face on the screen was just as well put together as it had been during the press conference. Matt felt the urge to stab the monitor repeatedly with her Adamanta needles, despite the fact that they would probably puncture the Contessa’s hull. Might be worth it. Behind him was the vast bridge of the Exemplar. Several crew members in jumpsuits and a tall, barrel-chested man sat in chairs in the background, watching the screen or their employer.
“Xander!” Simon said, grinning widely. “Good to see you. You too, Drew. And you…. Lentarin… twin… individuals. Look, I’m not great with names today. I’d apologize, but I’m not going to.” His smile lessened, and he added more somberly, “Matt.”
“Simon,” she said, cordially and without a trace of the irritation he brought about in her.
“Just Simon? Not going to go off on me, oh delicate object of my heart?”
Matt settled her hands in her lap and reminded herself mentally not to give him the pleasure of riling her up. “This conversation’s being recorded for the military’s sake, so no, I’ll avoid the name-calling for the moment.”
“Ah, such a shame.”
“I will definitely not call you a petty, insufferable, imbecilic man-child who has practically become a traitor out of nothing so stupid as spite.”
From behind her, Drew tried to mask a laugh with a cough, and even Xander couldn’t help raising a hand to his face to hide his own smile. Cooler heads had to prevail, though, so he jumped in before the conversation devolved into squabbling.
“Simon, we’re acting under orders here to destroy that Beltine base of operations.”
“Are we being ordered to stand down?” Simon asked, almost hopefully.
“And give you the fuel you’d need to act as a martyr for your potential customers? Not likely,” Matt said. Under the edge of what the camera would pick up, Xander snaked a hand out to brush hers. Message received. She squeezed his fingers and fell silent as his hand drifted away.
“We have a unique opportunity to study the Beltine in a situation that’s never been documented at length before, and you and your people want to just throw explosives at it. That’s typical of the way things work under Xander Finlay, isn’t it?” Simon’s lip drew up in contempt.
“You have entered into a partnership with a woman who has cornered the market in extreme tactics. The Anathema bombs violated a number of conventions. She’s assisted a known murderer to advance her cause, and she’s put us in dire straits simply to prove her weaponry and technology work.” Xander said. How he could remain so calm, so focused, Matt didn’t know. Then again, he hadn’t slept with the playboy like her, so there was that.
“Dr. Cardew’s methods are unusual, and she’s admitted very publicly that she’s made some terrible miscalculations. But the fact is that she is quite brilliant, and her ideas may save billions at the hands of a very few. And with my guidance and close, careful watch, those very few will become none at all. Besides, this is all moot anyway. It’s a simple observation run, nothing further. We’re watching the Beltine movement, then we’ll lance apart the weak points of their operations with our newest crop of weaponry. If you’d like some of the credit, you’re more than welcome to join in at that point.”
“This isn’t about the credit,” Xander said. “Neither you nor my people need it. We all know what we’re capable of and so does the public. But the Agathen got lucky. You know this. The chances of observing the Beltine long enough to gather any meaningful data are infinitely small. This may even be a trap. Losing a ship as clearly well-made as the Exemplar would be a setback to all of humanity, not just your company.” Xander leaned forward, his gray eyes softening. “Think this through, Simon. Please. This isn’t about our history. It’s about us, all of us, doing our jobs quickly and efficiently and protecting lives.”
It was a good speech and on anyone else, it might have worked. But Mattie knew instinctively that it was just the sort of thing that would make Simon feel smug and secure in his position. Egomaniacs weren’t convinced by pleas to watch out for the people around them. They had to be manipulated with strokes to their own sense of worth. Nothing and no one else mattered to them, and inwardly she groaned.
“Well, Xander, we’ll have to discuss this further when you’ve caught up to us. By then, we’ll have plenty of video footage. We’ll even share some with the military as a sign of thanks for escorting us out here to the edge of nowhere.”
“Simon—” Xander snapped, but the other man ordered the feed to be cut, and the screen went blank. The colonel rubbed his cheeks, and finally leaned forward to open the comms to their two escorting fighters. “Hayward, Everett, did you get all that?”
“Yes, sir,” the captains of both ships said smartly. It was their first mission back together since the nearly disastrous defense against a trio of Beltine hive ships that had ended in the loss of one of the military’s finest captains, Carla Pegg. Both the Hayward and Everett had nearly been destroyed in that fight, along with the Contessa. But now, newly repaired, with an even wider array of weaponry, they looked practically brand-new in the Contessa’s digitally enhanced viewscreens.
“Your orders?” the captain of the Hayward asked.
“As we discussed. The Contessa’s first priority is the safety of the people ab
oard the Exemplar. This doesn’t change that. Maintain a low profile, but if you spot any hostile activity threatening either of our ships, fire at will.”
“Yes, sir!” the captains responded, and signed off.
As Xander signed off, Matt slipped out of her harness and rose, grumbling to herself about her ex. “Anybody want to spar?” she snarled.
“I could use a workout,” Trey said. He glanced at Xander for approval, since he was supposed to take a shift at the helm, and the colonel flapped his hand in a go-on gesture.
Tyra shifted seats and strapped herself in. Drew fidgeted in his as Xander prepared a message to send back to Kelton. “So…” Drew said. “Ah.”
“What?” Xander asked, annoyed.
“Boss… ah… the hand-holding.”
Xander went stiff and Tyra stared very hard at the data running down her screen. “I needed her calm. That was all.”
“Ah,” Drew said. “Yeah. Well, if you ever need me to calm down, maybe just stick to calling me by my rank. We’ll skip the hand-holding.”
***
The message came for them on the last leg of the journey. The Lentarin twins had a Smash board between the two of them, focused on the twenty or so magnetic pieces left in the expanse. Xander was ostensibly doing pull-ups, though really he had stopped a few minutes ago to admire Mattie’s form as she approached her hundredth crunch – with two Adamanta daggers twirling in midair above her.
As she brought her back up off the mat, she asked, “Really? People would all dress up?”
“Well,” Xander said, “keep in mind I was a kid and I think it was pretty much for us little ones. But I definitely remember being with adults dressed up like cavemen. They took us door to door. It was crazy how much candy we got.”
Trey shuffled one of his magnetic towers forward and gobbled up a stack of Tyra’s. “Now that’s a tradition you humans should bring back and introduce to our people.”
“No kidding,” Matt said, the daggers dipping a little before she refocused and brought them back up. “Free candy!”
Xander jumped up and grabbed the lip of the exposed steel beam again. Arms quivering, he grunted, “We’re adults. We can all afford our own candy.” Three sets of stony gazes tracked him. “But then again, yes, free sugar.”
Over the intercom, Drew called back, “Boss, we’ve got an incoming data package from General Kelton.”
Grateful the others wouldn’t have to see him struggle with another fifteen reps, Xander dropped to the ground. “On our way up.”
“Truce?” Trey asked his sister.
She snorted and gestured at the board. At most, she was a half hour away from victory. “Right,” she hissed. “Truce.”
“Can’t blame me for trying.”
The twins set about picking up the board, and Xander offered Matt a hand as she finished up one more crunch, the daggers settling on the table. She took it, her small digits entwining nicely with his, and he pulled her upright. Whether Matt meant to or not, her momentum kept her going and she bumped right into Xander, their faces just inches away from each other. The little sheen of sweat on her face brought to mind something animalistic in Xander, and he had a hard time looking away.
“Oops,” Matt said, almost whispering. Her grin told him she knew exactly what she was doing, and his throat involuntarily jumped. Every inch of Matilda Adair made him feel like he suffered from a fever Xander couldn’t shake, but it was that grin that maybe made him feel hottest. It had become the highlight of his days. She glanced down, then back up again. “Mind if I have my hand back… Colonel?”
“Um. Yes, Captain.” Xander let go, his fingers involuntarily trailing hers, and turned to face the two watching Lentarin. “Right, let’s go then.”
“Yes… Colonel,” Tyra simpered, and Trey chuffed out a laugh.
The Adamanta daggers rose up from the table and made swishing motions a few feet from them as though Matt meant to stab them. She collected the blades as the twins still fought off fits, and joined Xander as he walked towards the cockpit. He glanced behind them, then ahead to the cockpit, and leaned in.
“Matt, I…”
“If this is going to be some noble thing about how you don’t want to hurt me or how we should both be professionals, Xander,” she murmured quietly, her eyes still dancing with good humor, “stow it. We’re both adults here and we know the cost of what we do. We enjoy… whatever this is while we can. If… this is a thing.”
It might have just been him, but Xander thought maybe her certainty broke for just a moment near the end. He opened his mouth to reassure her, but Drew swore up in the cockpit and both of them darted for him.
The monitors showed a single image paused from a recording – a human corpse, cheeks and stomach bloated, skin blotched in a grotesque patchwork. Her blouse looked like sloughed skin, and her face was unrecognizable. Chewed by something in the water, Xander realized. Matt sucked in a lungful of air. He couldn’t blame her. The picture was a shock to his system.
“What the…?” he breathed, taking the copilot’s chair next to Drew.
“That,” Drew said very quietly, looking more than a little green, “is apparently Sally—”
“Horn,” Matt said.
Drew twisted in his seat. “How’d you know that?”
“The pin on her blouse. I recognize it. It has a transmitter, a security thing, part of a three-tiered system. Thumbprint, voice scan, and the pin, and you get access to Simon’s office.” She visibly swallowed hard. “I knew Sally. She was… she was…” Matt took a breath and visibly seemed to focus herself. “Rewind it. Show us everything.”
Trey and Tyra caught the image, and Trey echoed Drew’s earlier swearing. The tech brought the video back to its start. The feed was brief, just a few minutes long, taken from the perspective of the detective called to the scene after the body was found floating down the Toledo River in Netera, one of the planet’s biggest waterways. Marks on what remained of Sally’s ankle showed that she’d been tied to something heavy, but she’d been nibbled on by the river’s native pinch-hook fish and the foot was now just gone and she'd floated to the top. That was the only reason her body had been discovered. Otherwise she might have just been left on the bottom for weeks, maybe months or years.
“I’m never eating fish again,” Drew muttered.
The feed switched to General Kelton and the investigator who had previously been recording the footage. The investigator rattled off the pertinent information about who Sally was and who she worked for, confirming Matt’s fears. Cause of death was strangulation and she’d been reported missing by Simon Dantos shortly before the Exemplar left on its maiden mission. Then Kelton took back over the feed after the investigator excused himself and left the shot.
“Colonel, this perhaps won’t come as a shock, but Ms. Horn was my mole in Simon’s organization. That cannot be a coincidence, especially given the timing of the murder. Why this has happened, we’re not sure. Retribution for the leaks, most likely, and for a moment, I thought it might be Mr. Dantos himself—”
“It wasn’t Simon, he’s not a killer,” Matt said, shaking her head. “A weapons-grade bastard, but not that.”
“—with the calls to the police a clever ruse to cover his tracks, but frankly, I don’t believe it. We’ve sent this same data package to the captain of the Exemplar, but they’ve been ignoring our attempts at communication. That makes me even more uneasy. Something is very wrong here, Colonel. If you can get on board, investigate with caution.”
The video ended, and Drew closed it out. Xander wanted to believe it could be Simon, mostly so that Matt could finally get a measure of peace from the scumbag, but it felt wrong. “Do we know if the Exemplar has exited FTL?”
“If they haven’t, they’ll be close,” the tech replied.
“Try hailing them. If that fails, see if you can bring up Simon’s personal comm device. We need to inform him.”
While Drew worked on that, Xander turned to his crew. �
�I don’t know what it is we’re walking into, but I think we have to assume Ms. Horn’s death ties in somehow with the Exemplar and this mission. Once we’ve knocked out the Beltine base, Trey and I will board the Exemplar to ask some questions.”
“They may be targeting Simon,” Matt said, grimacing. “If that’s the case… Xander, we may need to bring him on board the Contessa for his own protection.”
“Unfortunately agreed,” Xander said.
“Um, speaking of the devil’s favorite CEO, we’re picking up a distress message from the Exemplar.” Drew pulled up the newest message on the screen. “And completely fitting, it’s an SOS.”
***
Usually pulling out of FTL came with the extraordinarily unpleasant feeling of having one’s guts shoved through the back of a chair, but Simon’s people had tinkered with staged slowdowns so incremental that it wound up now feeling more like a gentle shove. He mentally made a note for himself to give the ship’s engineers a big, fat bonus that fiscal year.
At a distance, the asteroid belt was wholly unremarkable. Gray and massive, it looked like a thousand others, but it was what the asteroids were comprised of that must have drawn both the Agathen and the Beltine. Rich veins of metals glinted out of featureless stone. Great gobs of frozen liquids held any number of gases, but the jackpot for the Agathen were the swaths of ice nearly made of the same molecule composition as the liquids consumed by humans or the Lentarin. Either race could break down the ice and process it for their ever-thirsty citizens. Even with the vast reach of the allied worlds, good water sources were relatively scarce and large hauls could form the groundwork for a highly successful mining operation. This belt, thick and virtually untapped, was an Agathen nomad ship’s dream, if they were willing to explore its depths.
The Exemplar came out of orbit at a point their nav officer predicted would be invisible to the Beltine. Most times, asteroids in belts similar to this one were incredibly far and wide, and only looked dense at a vast distance, but this belt was quite the opposite. The nav officer had to work in tandem with the pilot and captain to find a suitable asteroid to hide among for the initial stage of their operation until they could find a more permanent solution for their temporary home over the next few days.
