“I’ll take it from here,” Mari said, gesturing for Emle to follow. Emle hesitated, looking to Eva for confirmation.
Eva raised an eyebrow. “Am I being dismissed?”
“Yes,” Mari said flatly. “We have to get to work.” She started to walk away, as if expecting Emle would be right behind her.
“And what work is that, exactly?” Eva asked, crossing her arms.
Mari paused, looking back and forth between Eva and Emle. “I’m not authorized to discuss that with you,” she said, as if it were obvious. “Dr. Carter will be briefed privately.”
“Yeah, but I’m only getting paid if she can do whatever you wanted Josh for,” Eva said. “So I think I have a right to know a little more about that to be sure I’m not getting screwed.”
“You think we’d lie to you to avoid paying,” Mari said slowly.
Eva widened her eyes and nodded.
Mari sighed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous is me flying all the way out here twice without knowing why.” Eva tried not to glare at Mari, but it was hard.
“And you don’t trust me?” Mari asked.
“Do you seriously want me to answer that?” But they both knew she did, at least this much, because otherwise Eva never would have taken the job in the first place.
Mari sighed again, closing her eyes and no doubt counting in her head before opening them again. “I’ll ask my superiors if I can give you more information. Otherwise, all I can do is promise that we’ll be happy to pay you if you’ve earned it, despite the fact that you technically didn’t do as we asked.”
It was probably the best Eva could hope for at this point, all things considered. She nodded and patted Emle on the shoulder. “Good luck saving the universe,” Eva said.
“Is that really what they’re doing here?” Emle asked, her expression slightly bewildered. “I thought you were exaggerating.”
“Fuck if I know,” Eva said. “It would be nice if somebody was. But I’m not leaving until I get answers.” With a sarcastic salute at her sister, she marched back up the ramp to her ship, ignoring the irritated huff of breath behind her.
Before she’d made it through the cargo bay, a shout from the mess turned her leisurely stroll into a run. Eva skidded into the room to find Sue and Min, arm’s length apart and staring at each other. Min looked furious despite her eyes filling with tears, while Sue’s eyes were wide with shock.
“You’re impossible!” Min shrieked, stomping her foot.
“I don’t—” Sue began, but Min interrupted.
“You should have just gone with him at DS Nor,” Min said, stomping again and then leaving in a huff.
Eva raised her eyebrows at Sue, who was staring at the doorway with a mix of confusion and horror.
“Do I want to know what that was about?” Eva asked.
“I’m not sure,” Sue said. “I was getting food and she came in here and screamed at me. I think I made her mad.”
Eva snorted. “You think?”
Sue furrowed her brow. “DS Nor . . . does she mean Jei? Why would I go anywhere with him?”
“I don’t know,” Eva said slowly. A thought was coalescing in her head, and she started mentally replaying interactions between Min and Sue over the last six months, focusing on the last several weeks.
“Is it because I was asking about his cybernetics?” Sue mused. “But why would that make her mad at me?”
“Madre de dios,” Eva said, smacking herself in the forehead. How had she not noticed before?
“Maybe I should upgrade Goyangi to cheer her up,” Sue continued, starting to walk away. “Some kind of electricity sphere, or maybe miniature bots like mine that can fly and—”
“Sue,” Eva said. “Why did you make a fighting bot for Min?”
Sue paused, her cheeks rapidly turning pink. “Well, um,” she replied.
“Susan,” Eva said sternly.
Sue looked down at her feet, hands grabbing at the pants of her jumpsuit, and mumbled something under her breath.
“Sorry, what was that?” Eva asked.
“Because I like her,” Sue whispered.
“And you were planning to tell her that when, exactly?”
Sue squirmed. “I don’t know. Never? What if I tell her and she doesn’t like me back and then I have to leave because I made things weird?”
Eva understood that logic, certainly. She’d argued with herself over her feelings for Vakar until it was almost too late, and this ship was small enough that hookups were a less viable option. Hard to avoid someone afterward when there was only one head and almost nowhere to hide.
“Do you know what I think?” Eva asked.
“What?” Sue looked up at her now, eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
Eva looked up at the camera in the corner of the ceiling. “I think Min can hear you because she’s the damn ship, and she’s being super mean by not coming in here already to tell you she likes you, too.”
“Cap!” Min shrieked through the speakers. “I’m not being mean, I’m . . . I’m . . .”
Eva laughed, loud and long, then flipped off the camera and went to her bunk. A few moments later, the door to the bridge opened and closed, and Min giggled once through the speakers before Pink shouted at her to turn them off.
Eva had just flopped onto her bed sideways with her legs dangling over the edge when there was a polite knock.
“Come in, Vakar,” she said, and he did, smelling like acrid incense. Before he even opened his mouth, Eva sighed and asked, “Where do they want you to go?”
“The Apus Ignaea System, near Vuthiri,” he said, sitting next to her on the bed. “I’ve been told to leave immediately.”
Eva threw an arm over her face. “Any idea how long this mission will be? What are the parameters?”
“Substantial reconnaissance,” he replied. “A suspected processing facility for a Fridge mining camp has been located.”
“Coño carajo,” Eva said. That could lead to a big bust, but Vakar would have to be careful and quiet, keep track of who was coming and going, and most importantly, stay in the same place for what could be weeks under strict comms silence so as not to tip off his targets.
“Indeed,” he replied, resting a hand on her thigh. They sat for several long moments as the weight of the situation settled on them like a lead blanket.
“We knew this was coming, though,” Eva said. “It’s been a good run.” Don’t cry, fool, she told herself sternly. If you can survive Garilia, you can survive this.
“I will return as soon as I can,” he said, looking down at her with his gray-blue eyes and smelling of licorice.
“I know,” she said quietly. “I’ll be here.” She paused. “Here in the ship, I mean. Dios mío, I hope I won’t still be on this fucking station waiting to get paid.”
Vakar gave the quennian equivalent of a laugh. “I also hope you will be paid before then. Though perhaps continuing to work for The Forge would not be such a terrible thing.”
Eva shrugged. “Who knows? We’ll pass through that Gate when we get to it.” Maybe literally, she thought, given the Gate they were building right outside.
She didn’t get the chance to think about that further, because Vakar had decided it was time to be goal-oriented, and Eva was more than happy to orient herself right back at him.
Mari arrived several hours later, as Eva was watching the last pale glow of Vakar’s thrusters fade into the black of space. Emle wasn’t with her, which Eva took as a good sign, for her own purposes anyway.
“Dr. Carter has done what we needed,” Mari confirmed. “Funds are being transferred to your account immediately.”
“What, you don’t want a separate invoice?” Eva asked, only half-serious. Secret organizations weren’t notoriously finicky about bills and receipts, given the trail they left.
Mari didn’t reply. Instead she joined Eva in staring at the stars, glittering in the distance.
“Do you ever think about
how so many of those stars are already gone?” Mari asked softly. “Their light is still traveling from their graves to our eyes at this distance, but if we stepped through a Gate to see them, we’d find a white dwarf, or a neutron star, or even a black hole.”
Eva pursed her lips. “I try not to think about it, honestly. It’s not my problem. Not like I can do anything for a star.”
Mari laughed ruefully. “No, you certainly can’t, can you?”
The way she said it made Eva’s arm hairs stand up inside her spacesuit. “And you can?” Eva asked.
Mari shrugged. “Depends on what it needs.”
They stood in silence for a few more moments before Eva broke it. “Did you know Mom was handling Garilia’s application to join BOFA?”
“What?” Mari yelped. “No, I didn’t. What do you mean ‘handling’?”
“I mean she showed up to a hidden lab with a strike team and shoved it up their government’s culo like a bad prostate exam. She’s the one who ordered the system quarantine. Probably still there trying to catch all the escaped Ball Buddies.”
It was nice to see Mari surprised for a change. Eva had started to think she and her Forge friends were omniscient. Hell, maybe her bosses had known, but hadn’t told Mari.
“I knew she got promoted,” Mari murmured. “It’s not like her to keep secrets.”
It’s not like you to pretend to be kidnapped and get me hustling to pay your fake ransom, Eva thought, but she had matured over the last year, so she kept her mouth shut.
“Everyone has secrets,” Eva said instead.
“Yes,” Mari agreed. “I suppose I can understand why she wouldn’t tell us. It might have compromised her assignment.”
It still could, honestly. If word got out that Regina Alvarez’s daughter was embroiled in local politics on the planet whose application she was overseeing, well . . . Eva wasn’t sure what would happen. Would her mom get fired? Reassigned?
She thought of Vakar again, a sharp pain spiking through her chest. He’d reach the local Gate in a couple of cycles and then off he’d go on his own mission. She missed him so much already, it was hard to imagine what she’d do to occupy herself until he came back. If he came back at all.
But that kind of worry was as worthless as wondering about dead stars. Either they were or they weren’t, and there was nothing she could do from where she stood.
“I’m going through that Gate, Eva,” Mari said suddenly.
“No me diga,” Eva replied. “You people actually got it to work?”
“Yes.” Mari hesitated. “We needed Josh—Emle, now, I guess—to help with the power supply, and coordinates.”
Eva didn’t ask whether Mari had gotten authorization to spill those beans. Instead, she asked, “Coordinates to where?”
Mari’s expression turned grim. “We’re not sure, but it could be dangerous, so we’re only sending a few ships and probes. And we’re closing the Gate behind us so nothing on the other side can come back through.”
“Qué rayo? What do you think is—” On the other side, Eva was going to ask. Except scattered ideas were starting to come together in her mind, finally. The whole big danger Mari and all her Forge amigos were worried about. The raid on the Fridge facility six months earlier to retrieve the stolen Proarkhe artifact, which turned into a giant robot that opened up its own miniature Gate and disappeared. What the hell was that thing? It had been able to change shape and size just like the Pod Pals. What else could it do? And what if there were more of them, waiting somewhere to be reactivated like that one?
“If I don’t come back, please tell Mami I love her?” Mari asked quietly. “I love you, too, you know, descarada.”
“You’re coming back,” Eva said sharply. “Don’t pull that hero shit on me, comemierda. I’ll drag you back here myself if I have to.”
Mari didn’t say anything, just smiled faintly while continuing to stare into the black.
“I’m serious,” Eva insisted.
“I know,” Mari said. “I’ve seen what you can do. But you have other people to worry about, don’t you? Let me worry about myself.”
“Jódete,” Eva snapped. “You’re not my boss.”
“And you’re not mine. But we both have jobs to do.”
Eva’s commlink pinged to alert her that she’d just gotten paid. Normally that would give her a little tingle of pleasure, but now it felt more like a dismissal. Game over, thanks for playing, shut it down and move along.
“Adiós, Eva-Benita,” Mari said, turning to leave. She’d managed a few brisk steps before Eva caught up to her and grabbed her arm.
“Hasta luego, Marisleysis,” Eva replied, emphasizing the second word.
Mari smiled again, bright as any star, then shook herself free and left. As her sister walked away, Eva wondered whether she was watching a white dwarf or a black hole.
Pink was waiting in the cargo bay when Eva returned, a grin on her face.
“I saw we got paid,” Pink said, doing a little celebratory dance. She sobered when Eva didn’t join her. “Do I want to know?”
“Bunch of cabrón martyrs,” Eva muttered. “I don’t know how some people stay alive when they’re trying so hard to get dead.”
Pink made a tsking sound. “Yeah, not like you don’t throw your own ass in the fire every damn day.” She held up a hand to stop Eva from protesting. “Listen, woman, I’ve been thinking. We got a big paycheck, we got fuel, and we got nothing pressing right now. Why don’t we take a little break?”
“What, some R&R you mean?” Eva asked, scratching the back of her neck.
Pink nodded, gesturing with her head toward the bridge. “Those two could use some down time to go be young and ridiculous together. I can work from anywhere and give myself an hour or so between emergencies. And after what you just went through, you definitely need to chill for a minute.”
Eva’s chest tightened as she thought of Garilia again. She’d been trying not to, but the list of things she was trying not to think about was long enough to wrap around a planet a few times.
“Maybe we can catch up to Vakar if we hurry,” Pink added. “You’ll get a couple more cycles with him before his mission.”
Eva exhaled sharply and plastered on a grin. “Fine, you win. Let’s get the hell out of this resingado system and find something fun to do.”
Pink slapped Eva’s shoulder. “That’s what I’m talking about. I’ll get Min and Sue into the mess and we can start looking at brochures.” She wandered off, whistling to herself, a little more bounce in her step than usual.
This will be good, Eva thought. When was the last time she had taken a vacation? A real one, not just the voids between work that inevitably happened to freelancers. She couldn’t remember.
Outside, someone began making an announcement over the station speakers. Eva trotted back down the cargo bay ramp to listen.
“—will commence in T-minus sixty seconds,” the voice was saying. “Please do not leave your designated stations until authorization is granted. All ships not participating in the experiment are grounded until further notice. Estimated experiment duration is one-quarter cycle. Further instructions will be provided as they become necessary. I repeat, the experiment will commence in T-minus forty-three seconds. Please do not leave your designated stations—”
Eva groaned and returned to the cargo bay. A quarter cycle before they had any hope of leaving. Well, maybe she could get ahold of Vakar and see if there was a chance he could fly a little more slowly so she could catch up later.
She hunkered down to pet Mala, who had sauntered up with her tail raised.
“Miau,” Mala said, her hazel eyes half-closed.
“Yeah, here’s hoping they don’t blow us all up,” Eva said. “That would definitely ruin my day.”
“Miau.”
“Not like we can do anything about it now, huh?” Eva scratched Mala’s chin and the cat purred. “We’re stuck here until they let us go.”
“Miau.”
“You’re right, I’m not sure why I keep talking to you like we actually understand each other. I guess it’s marginally less weird than talking to myself.”
Eva continued to scratch the cat’s head for a bit longer. She thought about going back outside the ship to find a way of seeing what was happening with the Gate, but she had no idea where to look, and the countdown had to be over already. All she could do now was wait, and pray, and hope her comemierda sister came back soon.
Mala’s eyes suddenly widened, her pupils dilating, and all her fur stood on end. She hissed and raced toward the bridge; at the same time, all the cats who weren’t already in their container started pouring into the cargo bay and climbing inside like their asses were on fire.
“Qué coño?” Eva muttered. “Min, is everything okay?”
For a moment, silence replied, then Min shouted through the speakers, “The station is under attack!”
Alarms sounded outside, echoing in the huge docking bay, followed by the sounds of dozens of people rushing to their ships. Guess that lockdown was over. How had anyone gotten close enough to engage without station surveillance noticing? Eva ran for the bridge, cursing herself for not following Mala in the first place.
“Who’s attacking?” Eva asked Min when she got there, staring at the various camera displays. Nothing but empty space outside the docking bay from their vantage point, but their instruments were detecting at least two dozen ships within engagement range, from single-seat fighters to giant battle cruisers.
“I’m not sure yet, Cap,” Min replied, still talking through the speakers. “Station comms are giving orders, but they haven’t—” Min paused, as if listening. Her mouth formed a silent O and all the bridge instruments lit up as she prepped for a quick launch.
“What?” Eva asked.
“It’s The Fridge,” Min replied. “They’ve found us.”
Chapter 23
Three Two One Let’s Jam
As badly as Eva wanted to get out of the station, there was already the equivalent of a line and their ship was at the back. Presumably there were exterior defenses in addition to the fighters being scrambled, so it wasn’t as if the whole place was going to explode any moment. That said, the longer they waited, the more they would have to hustle to avoid the number of enemy ships growing steadily by the moment. Eva was confident in Min’s flying skills, but she also didn’t want to have the odds stacked against them from the start.
Prime Deceptions Page 36
