Horseplay

by Cam Daly

  #

  A junior A&O technician spotted the photographer first. “Kery, your friend Connor James is at the scene now.” The tech's placeholder was on the Planning Stage with Keryapt, Shadow and some other members of the team. “But I don’t think that DeVries or Senator Ormlan’s son have noticed him yet.” He gave the Fleet equivalent of a frown. “Should we take steps to get him out of there?”

  None of the others responded to him. The two Actives were running at default mental processing speed so that the rest of the team could contribute to the planning session, but at the moment they were deep in consultation with a representative of the Paleon Group.

  They were gathered around a virtual image of Keryapt’s Interloper body, studying the damage it had suffered. As they watched, the Interloper was carefully scraping away the last melted remains of the damaged combat suit where it was fused to Keryapt’s feet. From the knees down, the synthetic skin of her legs was blackened and damaged. In spots the outer cosmetic layer had been completely destroyed, exposing the gray sheen of the sub-dermal armor.

  Shadow was in the best mood of the group, apparently still pleased with her successful maneuvering of Keryapt’s body. “It could be worse. You lost the mobility elements in the combat suit boots, but your feet are just as capable. The shapecloth suit is beyond repair, and there are pieces of it scattered all over the place for the humans to find, but we damaged or destroyed at least a half dozen of the Knight and Dragon mechs.”

  The Active stared at her damaged body. The thermal shutdown she had suffered didn’t cause any lasting damage, just a headache which would last hours. “I lost the autocannon, Striker 4, a handful of camera remotes and used up most of the Wasps, and what did we get for it? A bunch of destroyed human-tech remotes and no answers as to what’s actually going on here.” She smacked her hands down on the display table in frustration. “And our enemy now knows that I’m from Fleet Four.”

  Ruut chose that moment to break in. “Speaking of enemies - you need to see this.” He threw the view from Keryapt’s Dove remote up on a display wall for all of them to see. The pigeon-shaped machine was perched on the construction fence just a little ways behind the VSE guards and Homeland Security agents clustered around DeVries. “Agent Ormlan just got an encrypted call, told DeVries something and now they are looking for someone. Could be Connor.”

  The bald, awkward seeming VSE executive was clearly taking advantage of his height to peer over the heads of the men around him. A shorter man at his side was still talking into his phone while peering in the same direction. “Senator Ormlan’s son, Farley Ormlan. Thirty-five years old, law degree from Stanford, lives alone in Washington DC. Mother died in child birth.” His image and information were on the same wall as DeVries, Maxwell and his father. He resembled the older Ormlan but seemed much more jovial. Social media postings from his college days and later in his data file usually showed him with a crooked smile, laughing at some joke or humorous thought.

  Farley did not seem at all amused as he hauled DeVries down to mutter in his ear. Dove wasn’t at a good angle to try to read his lips, but whatever he told the older man caused him to start looking around in a much wider circle. Farley put his phone away then seemed to almost push DeVries into motion.

  Shadow watched DeVries intently as he walked away from the knot of humans containing Connor. “Where's he going? If the Knights and Dragons are VSE hardware, then he should be inside the fence with the recovery team that's picking up their pieces.”

  Her team had quickly decided that was the real reason the first responders were kept out - a squad of men in protective gear were loading the last few chunks of destroyed mechs into a truck. They had arrived at the scene after the first fire trucks had arrived, but entered through a side gate while the Homeland Security agents stalled the vanguard of the rescue operation. Dove had watched the operation from afar but there was no sign of the Mezerello thing or any exotech in the area.

  Shadow wandered away from the conversation with Kery and the Paleon representative. “Farley and DeVries were talking out loud to each other - that tells us that they aren’t both exotech remotes or transports of some sort.”

  Ruut brought up more information about DeVries. “Hopefully where he’s going will be more interesting than where he’s been. I’ve had the research system working on him all night, and he doesn’t go anywhere or do anything other than work. He doesn’t go out to eat or visit friends. If we want to get more intrusive with our surveillance, the next step will probably be a chemical Snooper.”

  Shadow had issue with that. “We have no valid maps of their sewer system, so Keryapt would need to deploy it in whatever building houses his residence. That’s a risk. How much could we really learn?”

  Ruut expanded the view of the Snooper remote. It looked like a cockroach. “We have two of these ready to go. His waste products will tell us if he’s Meliarch or human, and no waste means a humanoid remote or Molu. Molu familycraft reprocess what little material their passengers generate. In their own way, familycraft are as technologically advanced as our Actives.”

  The A&O technician and Shadow both turned to Keryapt for her input. She had hoped that they would come to a decision without her. She had been fine making decisions during the battle with Mezerello, in the heat of the moment, but the strategic choices were much harder for her. And the expectations higher.

  What would she have done in the past? She almost wished she could review some of the old vids of her past missions. There might be some clue there, but that wasn’t an option now as both of them frowned at her.

  What would Keryapt Zess do? Push forward and clean up the mess later.

  “Let’s send in the Snooper. I like DeVries as a Molu. It would explain his lack of sexual or emotional responses when we met him. An inexperienced familycraft pilot might not have been properly aware of his non-verbal cues.”

  Shadow changed DeVries designation to “possible Molu” and turned back to Ruut. “What about Ormlan?”

  The senior tech ran through what they knew. “Seems most likely to be human. Our first Observatory here was activated in 1975 and we have pretty consistent records on him from that point on. Humanity went from nuclear weapons to anti-hydrogen in 50 years, which is impressively fast, but I don’t think any sane outsider would have risked their own life to come here during that time. Especially Molu, with their short lifespans. They would have gone through several generations by now.”

  Shadow turned away from the timeline of human scientific advancement and paced as she spoke. “I appreciate your thoroughness, but we still have an unusual strategic situation here and shouldn’t rule out any possibilities. Someone at ESWAT is involved in the trap that Mezerello walked into. They know that our new Active is here now and actively searching for them, and they might further assume that Kery Lee was that Active. But it’s important to not forget that they probably don’t know that we don’t know who we’re dealing with.”

  Kery was relieved that everyone else also seemed to need a minute to digest that statement. But Shadow continued. “This morning, we found what might have been their local assembly or staging area for their heavy duty combat units, the Dragons, and damaged or destroyed it. They used antimatter the first time we found it but this time they defended it with Mez, or something that looked and sort of acted like her, and a larger group of locally built units. What’s different now?”

  Keryapt cut in. “That’s another key data point. Who would use AM so close to their own base? Definitely not Craven, unless it was an entirely automated facility.”

  Shadow stopped her pacing for a moment. “Historically the Craven don’t act unless their own survival and victory are guaranteed. If we were actually close to figuring out their operation and having a direct shot at them, I would expect gradient drive signatures heading out-system instead of in.”

  A junior technician looked over from where he was tracking DeVries. “Maybe those are evacuation ships that we saw coming in?”<
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  Keryapt scoffed at that. “Craven are just like us in that regard. Everyone has a berth on a ship, all the time. We don’t even change ships without knowing there is a seat with our name on it, and they are even more cautious than we are. Paranoid, more like.”

  Ruut pointed to the display from Dove. “Can you get in closer to Connor? The SFPD Incident Commander is talking to him.” They all turned to watch as Keryapt had the remote flap closer.

  #

  “You sure about that, Lieutenant?” Connor pulled the police-issue quadcopter from its case. He didn’t normally use it at crime scenes because the wind created by its rotor could move small pieces of evidence, but it was useful in outdoor locations where an aerial view could document positioning of vehicles or victims.

  “Absolutely, Mr. James. VSE reached my Captain and I have clear orders to not enter the area until they have secured any potentially dangerous materials. But the same orders do not specify that we can’t observe the area. I want your flyer in the air five minutes ago.” The gaggle of senior police and firefighters murmured amongst themselves at this point.

  “All set.” His drone had its own tablet control panel and he used it to send the machine up. Once it cleared head level he turned it towards the knot of agents and security guards.

  “This is going to piss them off, big time.” The Lieutenant chuckled under his breath and turned to regard the security fence which surrounded the area. “Let’s go see what they say is too dangerous for us to get close to.”

  Connor guided the drone up and checked that the recording features were working properly. From its elevated vantage point, he noticed that DeVries was walking away from the other Homeland Security and VSE personnel. He was headed towards a dump truck which, judging from the dust around and behind it, had just pulled up near the fence but away from the rescue vehicles.

  Connor turned to ask the Lieutenant a question and realized the man had moved away a short distance. He was apparently discussing something with the other higher-ups. “Lieutenant, do you want to take a look at this with me and give me some guidance?”

  “Hell, no! I’m not going to look at one second of that video until someone orders me to.” He laughed at Connor’s political naiveté. “I want you to look at it and tell me if anything in there looks dangerous. Word is that you’ve already been debriefed by ESWAT about VSE hardware, so that means you shouldn’t get in any trouble if you see something that we shouldn’t…”

  “Wait - that’s the plan? If I see something they don’t want me to see, I get to waste a month in VSE’s lawyer’s office, telling them everything I saw and swearing never to tell anyone?” He felt like a pawn. He was glad that he hadn’t even sent the drone over the fence yet.

  “Something like that. Don’t worry, we keep paying you the entire month. And you don't have to worry about it affecting your pension!” Connor could hear the Lieutenant's smile in his words.

  "Because I don't get a pension. I get it.” He was politically expendable. It dawned on him that the search and rescue teams must have drones like his or better.

  He turned back to the screen. On the one hand, he didn’t have a lot of job prospects. On the other, he was very curious about what VSE was still doing here. After the meteorite impact, what was left?

  He sent the drone over the fence. There were a number of fresh craters around the smoldering wreckage of construction equipment. He held the drone still just past the fence and turned towards a larger pit at the center of the area. In and around it a number of men in protective suits were hurriedly closing up the back of a large truck. The next moment he heard a sudden crack and the camera view went dark.

  Connor’s eyes came up in time to see a few bits of plastic rotor blade starting to flutter down towards his side of the fence. He followed the Lieutenant’s gaze over to the group of Homeland Security agents. “What the hell?”

  Behind the main group of agents, a voice sounded defiantly. “I believe that your drone was potentially about to violate VSE’s trade secrets.” The men parted, revealing a man only a little older than Connor with a crooked grin on his face. Someone nearby mumbled that it was Senator Ormlan’s son, who worked for Homeland Security.

  He bounced a small rock in his palm, probably around the same size as the one he had just used to bring down the drone. “If it wasn’t irreparably broken then it will be returned.” He sounded amused with himself.

  The police Lieutenant was definitely not. “Goddammit! That was police property. You can’t do that!”

  “So sue me.”

  Connor recognized the arrogant bearing of someone who didn’t feel the need to follow the same rules as other men. He also realized Agent Ormlan was looking directly at him, not the other police officers.

  Something about the suited man’s fixed stare unnerved Connor. Agent Farley raised his phone to his ear without averting his gaze but the police higher-ups and Homeland Security agents began arguing again and blocked his view. Connor turned to judge how far away the drone had been. That had been a hell of a throw.

  #

  “Could a human have done that?” Shadow was asking Ruut, but anyone else on the Planning Stage could have answered. The A&O technician was running an analysis on a private screen but from the concerned look on his face, it wasn’t clear if he was going to have a definitive answer.

  Keryapt’s headache felt like it was getting worse by the moment. She knew what the answer would be. “It will be just within the range of possibility. Whoever, whatever, that is, it's assuming that we’re watching.”

  Ruut finished his analysis. “Keryapt was correct, unsurprisingly. A top human baseball player would hit that target at that range around 80% of the time.”

  “I know the answer to this as well, but will ask anyway. Is there anything in Farley’s history that indicates that he’s an expert player of baseball?”

  Before Ruut could respond in the negative, Shadow asked a more pressing question. “Where’s DeVries?”

  Keryapt had Dove gain altitude and look around. “There. Near the dump truck. With…” She zoomed in on the group of men. “Four humans.”

  The tall, angular man was facing four men dressed in work clothes with orange safety vests on. Each of them wore a hard hat and carried a heavy looking equipment case, but didn’t seem to strain under the load. One of them was saying something to DeVries, but the others stood almost motionless at his sides.

  “Get closer.” At Shadow’s urging, Keryapt had Dove land on the fence halfway between Connor’s location and the new group. “Can you get audio from this range?”

  The Active shook her head. One of the construction workers turned his head and stared directly at the remote for a moment, then turned back. “I think this is close enough. Who are you?”

  The four muscular men moved forward. DeVries stumbled back a step but raised his arms out to his sides, blocking their path. They stopped and the lead one said something else to him. Keryapt pointed out to the others that the lead worker had a small device of some sort on the side of his helmet. A camera? Or a weapon?

  The combat control system running through the Interloper tagged all four men yellow. Unknown threat. They all watched as Shadow expanded the threat index on the main display. “Infrared shows they are warm, outside human norms. Feverish. All four of them. Damn…”

  Ruut gave the Fleet equivalent of a sigh of relief. “So we know. I’ll start updating threat assessment and combat control systems.” He left the Stage.

  A junior tech looked to Keryapt in obvious confusion. “What do we know?”

  She turned to Shadow. “Would you care to explain for him? I need to get ready.” She didn’t move to leave the Stage, however.

  Shadow gave the Active a puzzled frown for an instant then had Dove zoom in to maximum magnification. “Elevated body temperatures on all four, from some form of ongoing biomodification. Add in the external sensor package on this one’s helmet, near peak physical characteristics on all four and you get�
��”

  He hesitated, afraid of answering incorrectly. Keryapt hadn’t been entirely sure either until Shadow gave her full explanation. “Those are almost certainly…let’s see if the lexicon has an appropriate human designation for them…it recommends ’Tumorish’. The Craven are on Earth.”

  The tech looked up to her, thankful without realizing that his uncertainty had saved her from having to ask. “The Craven? Here? Didn’t you once…”

  “Yes, I did.” Maybe even more than once. She couldn’t remember. “Time to prepare.”

  As the tech faded from the Stage, Shadow looked at a strategic map which showed how far Keryapt was from the Dogpatch site. “You should tell Connor to get out of there.”

  “Why are you so worried about him?”

  “It is our - your - fault that he’s in harm’s way.”

  “Isn’t everyone on Earth in harm’s way if the Craven are there and actively deploying the Tumorish?”

  “Yes, but…”

  “We tried dealing with Mezerello your way. I just wanted to simplify the situation, but instead-“

  “Your way of ‘simplifying’ things is to just shoot everyone! That doesn’t always work.”

  “Things have gotten more complicated. We’re doing this my way, now. If you want off the team then contact the Admiralty.”

  Keryapt left the Stage and resumed direct control of her body before Shadow could reply. She grabbed a pair of human-made boots which Mezerello had placed in this safe house months ago, grabbed the heel and ripped the soles off of them. She pulled them on and was pleased to discover that they were tight enough to stay in place under normal movement and also cover the burnt patches on her legs. With the bottoms of her feet blackened as they were, a casual observer might not even notice that the soles were missing.