by M. D. Cooper
“Who we can’t kill,” Rika added. “We gave them our word.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Leslie sighed. “So unless we get Sofia to work with us—and probably even if we do—we can’t be on the ship when it docks.”
Rika sighed and leant against a support column. “OK, we did get kinda carried away there. Blowing it is secondary to surviving and getting the hell out of here. We know where it is; we can always come back later. Even just give the details to Tanis, and let the ISF come in and smoke the joint.”
“Is that a euphemism?” Leslie asked with a lopsided grin.
Niki ignored the woman’s comment.
“Honestly, escape should be pretty easy,” Leslie said as she considered the shipyards and space stations orbiting the planet and its moons. “It’ll depend where they send us, but if we can get to another ship before they realize that we’ve bamboozled them, we might be able to sneak away.”
“That’s a pretty big ‘if’,” Rika replied. “It’s not going to take the Niets long to realize that shit went down here. They’ll lock whatever station we dock on down tight as a…well…something really tight.”
Leslie snorted. “You have such a way with words.”
“Is bacon-drunk a thing? If it is, then it’s happened to you.”
Niki soldiered on.
“Is that believable?” Rika asked. “Even if we could fix it up, the thing’s not interstellar-capable. The Niets hacked up their a-grav DL transition systems pretty bad; I don’t think we could install them on the shuttle.”
Rika grinned at Leslie. “I like where Niki’s head’s at.”
“Don’t dissect my idioms, Niki. They don’t survive close examination.”
Leslie snorted and slid off the console she had been sitting on. “Well, then I should go see if Sofia will cooperate. Not that I’ll trust her even if she agrees, but maybe she’ll give me something we can use.”
A CHAT WITH SOFIA
STELLAR DATE: 10.21.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: NMSS Spine of the Stars approaching Farthing Station
REGION: Epsilon, Old Genevia, Nietzschean Empire
Not for the first time, Leslie found herself surprised that a ship of the Spine’s nature had such a large lockup. It wasn’t uncommon for military vessels to have a small brig—in case someone got unruly between the stars—but this ship had twelve high-security cells in addition to a small brig.
The only thing that made sense to her was that the Nietzscheans expected an evac to involve kidnapping political prisoners.
One thing’s for sure about the Niets, they’ve never been above using people as bargaining chips.
Rika and Leslie had granted Sofia her own cell—largely because Admiral Gideon had been enraged at her betrayal—a luxury that Leslie hoped to use in turning the colonel.
Leslie wore her black, stealth armor, which had been repaired by the ISF’s nanotech over the intervening days, though it was still only able to reach ninety-two percent stealth effectiveness. Her helmet was clipped to her belt, and she carried no weapon—other than her lightwand.
The first cell on the left was Admiral Gideon’s, and he stood at the door with rage in his eyes as he peered through the small window.
Each of the windows could be turned opaque, or one-way, but Rika had insisted the Niets be able to look out. She said there was nothing worse than being in a cell with no windows.
Leslie had experienced that once or twice as well, and hadn’t argued the point.
“We dropped out of FTL,” Gideon said loudly enough for the sound to carry through the door. “I felt it. You have no choice but to go to Epsilon. They’ll capture you, and then all of this will have been for nothing.”
Leslie paused and walked to Gideon’s door. “Oh, so I should just let you out? Give up?”
“I could ensure you were granted leniency,” he said, doing his best to soften his tone—not that it was remotely believable.
“Well, we’re not really the give-up types, especially not to Nietzscheans—you should have been able to tell that by how we’re still fighting you, all these years later.”
“Fat load of good that’s done for you,” Gideon shot back. “You’re pathetic.”
Leslie rolled her eyes and turned away. “Between the two of us, you’re the only one here that looks pathetic.”
She walked two cells down to Sofia’s. Peering in, she saw the colonel laying on the slab, arm over her eyes to block out the light.
“Care to have a chat, Sofia?” she asked.
The colonel didn’t respond for nearly a minute, but eventually she lifted her arm and glared at Leslie. “About what?”
“What we’re going to do when we get to Epsilon.”
Sofia shifted her arm back over her eyes. “That’s going to be a fucking mess. Have fun.”
“Care to go for a walk?” Leslie asked. “I bet the cell’s gotta be getting really old.”
Eyes peered out from under Sofia’s arm once more. “Around the ship?”
Leslie snorted. “Well, we’ll stay inside the hull, but yeah, around the ship.”
A second later, Sofia was standing beside the bunk stretching her arms into the air. “You said the magic words. Let’s have our little talk.”
Leslie palmed open the cell door, and stood aside as Sofia walked out.
From inside his cell, Admiral Gideon began to yell, spittle hitting the small window. “You’d better keep your mouth shut, Colonel,” he screamed. “Or it’ll be your head on a pike! I’ll fucking see you dead, if you help them. You’re already looking at a tribunal as it is!”
Sofia’s jaw tightened as she walked past the admiral’s cell, but she held her tongue, not even turning her head his way.
“Real peach, isn’t he?” Leslie asked, once the doors to the passageway containing the cells closed behind them.
Sofia sighed and turned to Leslie. “He’s a bit trying. Where are we going?”
“Wherever,” she shrugged. “You lead the way.”
“A change of clothes and a shower would be nice.”
“Your quarters it is.”
Sofia began walking down the passage. “You’re just going to let me use the san and change? What if I have weapons in there?”
“Well, I’m not an idiot. I’ll have eyes on you the whole time.”
The Nietzschean colonel glanced over her shoulder. “I could have something hidden, take you out.”
“I’ve already sent a drone to examine your quarters. Our nanotech is a lot better than yours, so it’s doubtful you’ll get one past me.”
A chuckle escaped Sofia’s lips. “We got one past your Colonel Rika.”
It was Leslie’s turn to sigh. “Yeah, she got a bit cocky, there. Still, you know how it is. Send enough electrons through anything, and it goes down.”
“Everything dies to ‘zot’,” Sofia uttered the old adage.
Leslie nodded, but didn’t reply. They turned down a corridor and walked to a ladder leading to the upper decks. Sofia placed one hand on it, and then stopped, looking back at Leslie.
“How is it that a bunch of mercs have better tech than the Nietzschean Empire? Is it true about the Intrepid and the fleet at Albany?”
“Not sure what all you heard, but if it’s that there’s a fleet called the ISF, and a distant nation known as the Transcend running around cleaning up the mess peoples like you Nietzscheans make, then yeah, that’s about right. You work
for the bad guys, by the way. Orion. They’ve got their hand up your emperor’s ass, puppet that he is.”
Sofia turned and began to climb the ladder. “That’s a lot to swallow.”
Leslie flushed a passel of nanoprobes up the ladder shaft to keep an eye on the woman. She didn’t think that the colonel would try to cold-cock her when she followed after, but it didn’t hurt to be safe.
“Move a few meters from the ladder when you get to the top,” Leslie instructed. “As for swallowing the truth, you saw our ships and their shields. You’ve seen our stealth tech in action—or haven’t seen it, I suppose.” She chuckled as she waited at the bottom of the ladder for the colonel to complete her climb and move aside.
Sofia followed Leslie’s instructions without any subterfuge, and a minute later, they were in officer country, just down the hall from the colonel’s quarters.
“So, I know what the Intrepid is,” Sofia said once they resumed their walk. “Who is the Transcend, and this evil Orion group?”
“The FGT,” Leslie replied simply.
Sofia stopped at that and turned to stare at her. “The ancient terraformers?”
“Yup,” she nodded.
“I thought they were all dead and gone.”
“So did a lot of people. Turns out they just ran off to the edges of space, and hung out, building a massive empire. Then they had a schism. Pretty much everything that is going on right now is an outflow of that event. Well, that’s my take, at least. There are a lot of hands at work behind the scenes.”
“Stars,” Sofia muttered. “That’s a lot to take in.”
“I hear you,” Leslie replied knowingly. “The information’s still settling in for me, as well. I only found out a month or so ago. Like I said, you saw how good our ship’s shields are; well, they’re just the tip of the spear. We have tens of thousands of ships like that. It only takes a few to conquer a star system, so guess how long Nietzschea is going to last?”
They’d reached Sofia’s door, and she palmed it open, peering inside. “I thought you said there was a drone?”
“There was. It came by and dropped off a nanocloud. Ship’s too big to manage ourselves, so we’ve outsourced.” Leslie winked, but she could see the confusion on Sofia’s face.
“Nanocloud?”
“Yeah, a cloud…of nano. Some of the tech we picked up from the ISF. It’s gone through the entire cabin now. The rifle in the closet and the two pistols under the pillow are all disabled.”
Sofia’s eyes narrowed. “What about the—”
“The projectile pistol in the nightstand? Yeah, found that too. Just curious if you’d bring it up.”
Wordlessly, the colonel turned and walked into her room. She shook her head before finally muttering, “You’ve got a pair of globes on you.”
Nietzscheans have such stupid sayings. Leslie rolled her eyes as she leant on the doorframe. “Tail, too.”
The colonel undressed and then walked to the san, leaving the door open so Leslie could see her enter the sonic cleanser before running a short water shower.
“Stars…finally feel human again,” Sofia muttered as she walked out of the san, not bothering to hide her nakedness as she moved to the small wardrobe. She selected a fresh uniform and donned it quickly, then cocked her hip and smiled at Leslie. “OK, let’s talk food.”
Leslie signaled the automatons in the galley to prepare some sandwiches, and when they arrived, there was a platter with a variety of offerings on one of the tables.
Sofia grabbed a BLT while Leslie picked up a ham sandwich.
“Can’t believe you’re saying no to bacon,” Sofia said with a wink. “Never seen a cat turn that down before.”
“Funny,” Leslie replied as she sat across from the Nietzschean colonel. “I’ve had way too much of it these past few days. I need a break.”
“Blasphemy.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes, until Sofia had finished her sandwich.
She grabbed a second one, but before biting into it, she asked, “So what’s your plan, and what part of it do you need me for?”
“We’re all done with pleasantries, then, are we?” Leslie asked.
“Seems like it.”
Leslie signaled an automaton to bring her a beer. “Well, our first goal is to not have Epsilon shoot us down before we dock. We’re a good light hour from the normal jump point, so we have some time before their ‘Welcome, now give us your credentials’ message, but not too long. We’d like to give them something that doesn’t get us blown to atoms.”
Sofia snorted, then finished chewing and swallowed. “Well, one option is to say you have Admiral Gideon hostage. Even if they don’t like him much, they won’t blow him out of the black. Looks bad to the troops.”
“Not universally loved?” Leslie asked.
“He’s not the best, not the worst. A better administrator than tactician.”
Leslie nodded. “Gathered that.”
“So you want me to get us into a berth—on vid, too, considering you let me get cleaned up.”
“Well, we can fake you if needs be, but if you do it in person, you’ll be able to give a better show,” Leslie allowed.
“What if I betray you?”
“I’ll kill you first.”
The Nietzschean barked a laugh. “Good to know where I stand. What if…what if I maybe wanted out?”
“Out of what?” Leslie asked.
“The Nietzschean military. You Marauders hiring?”
Leslie examined Sofia’s face, looking for a hint of a lie. She’d watched the woman’s skin temperature, blood pressure, pupil dilation, the direction of her gaze, set of her jaw.
She doesn’t seem to be lying. She needed to make sure. “I’m going to need a bit more than that, Colonel Sofia.”
“I’ll make it simple: Gideon’s an idiot, but I never expected him to starve us all to death just to win a pissing match. Even after the engineers dumped the fuel, and the ship was going to Epsilon no matter what, he wouldn’t give in. I really do think he would have tried to make it all the way—even if we all died. But died for what? Just not to be prisoners? Marauders aren’t known for killing prisoners, and we’d end up at Epsilon. Things were going to be a shit-show no matter what, but his path had us all dead or dying even if our side won. Stupid.”
“It did seem more like bravado than logic to me,” Leslie said with a nod.
“I’ve seen a lot of that in my time in the NMS,” Sofia replied. “And I know one thing for sure. If Gideon is alive when all this is said and done, he’ll put me in front of a firing squad for disobeying his orders and opening the bridge’s door. So I’m between a bit of a rock and a hard place, at the moment.”
Leslie nodded in appreciation of the other woman’s situation. “A damn hard place.”
“Yup.”
“So what are you offering to do?”
Sofia appeared to think about the question for a moment. “Honestly? Whatever keeps me away from a tribunal and a firing squad.”
THE PROBLEM
STELLAR DATE: 10.21.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: NMSS Spine of the Stars approaching Farthing Station
REGION: Epsilon, Old Genevia, Nietzschean Empire
“So here’s your problem,” Sofia explained to Rika and Leslie. “Bonnie, Ched, and Sandra are screwed. Even if Chief Emelia doesn’t turn them over the moment we dock, the NIS will work them over ‘til the whole story comes out. Technically they disobeyed a direct order from an admiral, so they’re screwed—and they know it.”
“I remember hearing that your military isn’t too keen on disobeying an admiral,” Rika commented.
“I don’t know of a military that is,” Sofia shot back, brow lowered and jaw set.
“Fair point.”
“Let’s get something straight,” she said evenly, her gaze darting between Rika and Leslie. “I don’t know about all this Transcend and Orion business, about the right side and the wrong side. I’ve dedicat
ed my life to the NMF, and now that idiot Gideon has screwed it all up. You seem unwilling to kill him, but he’ll see the rest of us killed. You promised to save the engineers’ lives if they let you in, but if you let this ship dock, you’re killing them all.”
Rika drew in a deep breath. “I didn’t promise to watch over them for the rest of their lives. Theoretically, every risk they ever face from here on out will be because of my actions.”
“Let’s not get carried away, Colonel Rika,” Sofia said, her tone cold.
Leslie said privately.
Sofia eyed her for a moment, apparently deciding how far she wanted to push things.
“You’ll need to kill Gideon,” the Nietzschean finally said.
Rika wasn’t surprised to hear the words. It had been obvious what Sofia was leading up to.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ll not kill him for you.”
“He’s half-mad now, anyway,” Sofia said. “I won’t help you if he’s alive.”
A cruel grin split Rika’s lips. “I agree that he needs to die, but if you want him dead, you do it.”
“It’s not like that leaves your hands bloodless,” the woman shot back. “You’ll be giving me the weapon and the means.”
Rika chuckled. “I don’t have hands, but if I did, they’d be soaked in blood. I don’t need your absolution or forgiveness, I’m just not your errand girl. And I want something to hold over you, in case you get any bright ideas.”
“I knew you were a bitch, Rika,” the Nietzschean colonel hissed, though she had an appreciative look in her eyes.
“Right back at ya.”
* * * * *
Rika stood in the Spine of the Stars’s shuttle bay, with her arm folded across her chest, clasping the ammo feeder on her GNR. Admiral Gideon stood to the left of the shuttle—which was nearly ready to go—with Chief Emelia next to him.
