Molly sat motionless in her seat, watching him review the report.
Eventually he sat back in his console chair, and scratched the side of his head, and then his nose. “You won’t have heard yet, but we just got word that the responsible parties were dealt with. The Justicar called me this morning, and explained the situation. It seems their armed forces commander was going off-book without the Emperor’s knowledge or consent.”
Molly’s eye twitched a little. As the General paused to take a breath, she jumped in. “Sir, I understand this question may be beyond my remit, but… do we believe that?
The General started, and removed the cigar from his mouth.
Molly continued with her concern. “I mean, are we to believe that story, or do we have reason to be suspicious? They have a lot to gain by using this commander as a scapegoat, and then just rebuilding, unsupervised.”
Reynolds took a breath and placed the tobacco stick down on the console in front of him.
“Hmmm…” he said thoughtfully. “I took him at his word. He’s always proven to be an honorable man in all my dealings with him in the Federation.”
He paused, thinking for a moment. “But it’s a fair question. Tell you what, Bates,” he said, leaning forward again and poking at his screen. “How about I send my reports for you and your team to look over? Then you can share your thoughts with me, and include your… intuition.”
Molly’s gut tightened. She had the strange sense that she was being tested. “Of course, sir.” She hesitated, not quite knowing how to ask her follow-up question.
The General recognized her facial cues of concern, and paused, giving her space to speak.
Molly took a second and then frowned. “Am I to assume that you’re wanting something more than just a standard tactical analysis?”
The General’s face broke into a bemused smile. “Why, yes, Molly. I’m asking for your personal opinion… Based on data, but, also, I must admit, including any hunches and feelings you might get.”
He paused, considering what to tell her. “Arlene has informed me of your progress. It seems that even though your Vision Quest was cut short, you still proved to be quite the student.”
Molly felt her cheeks flushing and hoped the General didn’t notice. She couldn’t tell if she was feeling put on the spot to perform, or whether she felt proud of her new abilities. It was all just a little overwhelming. “Erm. Thank you, sir,” she said tentatively.
“I think,” she added quietly.
Lance chuckled and picked up his cigar, before poking the screen again. “Okay, those files should be with you now,” he told her. “I’d also like you to continue working with Arlene for the foreseeable future. She assures me you have talent, and that her methods are helping…” He flicked at his screen, “And that you’re still having some difficulties.”
His eyes scanned from side to side, reading other pieces of Oz’s report. “Looks like you got yourself into a hairy situation on the surface.” His forehead broke into a slight frown. “Good thing Royale was there with you.”
Molly felt instantly embarrassed. She lowered her head. “Yes, sir. I got lucky. It won’t happen again.”
Lance was looking at her again. “Yes, hence my request for you to keep on with Arlene. I’ve known the woman for years. She is the best at this realm stuff…” His voice trailed off as he contemplated the direction of the meeting.
He seemed to get another thought, and so did Molly. They both started to speak at the same time, and then stopped.
“Sorry, sir. Please…” Molly gestured with her hand, allowing him to speak first. She placed her hand back in her lap, hiding it under the table, as she also tried to hide the storm of emotions that she’d been awash with since the meeting started.
The General sat forward. “I was just going to suggest that it might be worth you and your team coming over to the ArchAngel for a visit—given that you’re now part of the larger team.”
Molly’s face lit up. “Seriously?”
Lance was smiling the grin of a twenty-something who had just scored a hat trick. “Yes, of course. Besides,” he told her, “there is still much you need to learn to be effective out in the field. Plus, I have some people I want you to meet.”
Molly nodded enthusiastically. “I think we’d enjoy that. Very much.”
“Good,” the General said firmly. “I’ll have ADAM set up the details, but let’s make it sooner rather than later. I have one particular team member who doesn’t tend to stay put for long periods of time. I’d hate for you to miss him.”
“Of course, sir,” Molly replied. “We’ll make it happen.”
There was a slight pause in the conversation.
The General tilted his head. “So, what were you going to say?”
Molly remembered her trail of thought. “Ah. Yes. I was… er… I was going to ask about the letter. From Bethany Anne.”
Lance grinned a Cheshire cat grin again, clearly enjoying the situation. “Right. Yes. You’ve completed the mission. How about you have a look at it when you get here? Then you’ve got something to look forward to.”
Son of a bi-
That’s your commanding officer!
Bite me, Oz. Besides, when did you go all company-boy on me?
Oz’s chuckles reverberated in the lower edge of her skull.
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Oz, not wanting the General to misinterpret the move and think she was reacting to him.
“Very good, sir,” she conceded politely. “As you wish.”
The General placed his arms on the console, looking satisfied. “Good. Right, I’ll see you soon then, Bates. And see if you can’t persuade Arlene to take the trip with you. I’m sure there are folks here that she’d like the opportunity to catch up with.”
He nodded his goodbye, and then clicked off the call.
Molly could have sworn he had a twinkle in his eye when he made the suggestion about Arlene. In fact, she could almost feel his amusement, despite the vast space between them. Molly filed it away for later.
Extraneous data points. This was just one more layer to manage since she had started experiencing other peoples’ worlds.
She hit the button to close the holos, and watched the conference room holo pretend to fold itself neatly away in the center of the table, as if it wasn’t just made up of light projections.
Then she got up and headed up to the safe house to rejoin the team.
Chapter 2
Gaitune-67, Hangar deck
Less than twenty four hours later, the team was loaded up and ready to depart from Gaitune-67. Arlene had even been persuaded to come along — despite initially resisting, saying she had things to attend to on the sparsely populated lump of asteroid that had been her home for the last several decades.
Now, with final checks completed, Brock and Crash flicked various switches, powering up The Empress.
Crash gave the order in his usual unemotional tone. “Okay, Emma, I think we’re ready to rock.”
Emma’s voice came over the intercom, filling the cockpit with her dulcet tones. “I believe we are. And congratulations on attempting this without Sean.”
Brock immediately reacted, and looked intently in Crash’s direction, his mouth open and smiling. “Buurn!” He exclaimed. Laughing, he continued, “She did not just — ”
Crash’s lips twitched into a smile. “She did,” he confirmed, rolling his head against his headrest to glance at his friend. “But Emma and I have an understanding,” he explained.
Brock dropped one shoulder and waved his hand around, signaling at her video image. “And what might that be?” he asked, playing the role of the ally in support of his friend.
Crash was still smiling, but Emma responded. “I get to pull his leg on the condition that I rescue his rookie ass every time he steps wrong.”
Brock looked confused. “Dude, why would you agree to this shit?”
Crash’s smile had disappeared. “Keeps Royale off my ass,” he said simply.
Brock chuckled quietly. “Ohhhhh. Now I get it. And that’s why he’s out there, and we have the cockpit to ourselves without him breathing down our necks!” He put his fist out for Crash to bump, who returned the gesture before flipping one more switch to ignite the final engines for takeoff.
“Time to let them know,” Crash called across to Brock.
Brock frowned. “What, me?” he asked.
Crash nodded.
Brock sat back in his console chair. “Oh, no,” he said, shaking his head definitively. “This is your rodeo, cowboy. You make the announcement.”
Crash shrugged without attachment. “Okay. But you know they won’t get a serious safety briefing out of me. Ever.”
Brock nodded. “Uh huh. I think they appreciate that.” He smiled, rocking back and forth in his chair, as Crash connected with the ship-wide intercom.
“Ladies and Gentlefolk,” he started. “We will now demonstrate the safety features on this spacecraft, and your attention is essential – as these may differ from any other spacecraft you have flown in before.”
Brock waited, watching out the front window while listening intently, holding his breath for what was to come.
Crash continued with the announcement. “Take care that your baggage does not block the aisles or exit. It must be put under the seat in front of you or in an overhead locker. Place items in the locker carefully, as they may fall out and injure someone. And we don’t recommend the use of pod docs at any point, due to them turning you into a realm-jumping mess if you have just the wrong type of neurons.”
Crash paused, allowing Brock to hear the titters coming from the cabin.
“In the event of an emergency evacuation, please move quickly to the closest available exit; remember not to hold your breath when you’re exposed to space, as – without a pressurized suit – your lungs will explode within ten seconds. Unless you’re insured with Azsurtec, in which case you get ten and a half.”
Brock chortled to himself, clamping his hands over his mouth so as not to distract Crash.
“Bathrooms are available downstairs, and high heels are not recommended on the steps. Crash Airways appreciates that you have a choice of space travel, and thanks you for flying with us today. Have a great flight.”
The intercom clicked off.
Brock released his hands. His laughter could be heard reverberating around the cockpit and just through the passageway to the adjoining lounge.
Molly shook her head, quietly amused by the boys’ antics.
Joel tapped on her shoulder from a couple of seats back. “Hey. You wanna play cards? Sean has a pool going that says he can beat you at any game that doesn’t involve calculating probabilities.” Joel was grinning, amused by the concept.
Molly turned in her seat to face him. Further back, she could see Sean, using a crate for a table, which was already blocking the aisle, and looking at her competitively. “Why do I get the sense that he’s still trying to reclaim something since he got his ass whooped by you in that training session weeks ago?”
Joel shrugged. “Maybe because he is,” he offered.
Molly smiled. “Okay. Let’s play. But as soon as I’m bored, I’m done.”
“Okay,” Joel agreed. “No problem.”
Jack had seated herself, ready to play, and Sean was already shuffling a deck of cards.
“You know,” Jack said, “I never quite understood the appeal of this kind of game until I joined the service.”
Joel swiveled a chair around for Molly, who started to sit down. Then he turned and grabbed one for himself. “Why is that?” he asked.
Jack shrugged. “I never had anyone to play with… and the computer simulations just weren’t a big thing in my day.”
Sean chuffed. “In your day. You make it sound like you’re super old.”
Jack eyed him carefully, before raising an eyebrow. “Well, I don’t know how old you are, and I’m certainly not telling you how old I am… However, from the movement of some of your enhancements, I can have a guess at your age.”
Sean avoided eye contact, and started dealing cards. “Well, no need to get into that,” he said quietly. Jack’s lips spread into a smile as she realized she had hit a sensitive subject with the Federation cyborg.
She winked casually, and looked down at her cards.
Molly organized her hand. “So… what are we playing?”
“Gun ho,” Sean told her. He explained the game and the highlights of the set of rules they were going to abide by, and the game commenced.
Meanwhile, from across the far side of the lounge area, Arlene watched the group’s interactions.
Maya interrupted her thoughts. “You’re amused by my teammates?” she asked, sparking up the conversation.
Arlene nodded and smiled to herself, her eyes fixed on Molly. “Yes. A little. Molly particularly,” she explained. “I used to be her. With a Joel hanging by my side all the time. The great protector…” Arlene’s voice was tinted with nostalgia.
Maya smiled. “What happened?”
Arlene brought her attention back to their side of the cabin. “Oh, you know,” she explained vaguely. “Life, I guess. We lived in different worlds…”
Maya smiled, interested in the conversation, but not wanting to pry. “So, did you always live on Gaitune?” she ventured, her inner journalist deciding that was an innocuous line of questioning for a new acquaintance.
Arlene nodded. “Yes, pretty much. My father brought us here from Estaria. He was in the Federation, which was actually just called ‘the Empire’ at the time. He was an advisor to the new settlers, and when the opportunity arose to come and live a simpler life, he jumped at the chance.”
Maya bobbed her head, casually watching the four warriors gibing each other over their game. “And you work for the Federation, too?”
Arlene nodded. “Yes. General Reynolds offered me the position when I decided I was ready to leave the Merideth Reynolds. I lived there for a little while in my early decades.”
Maya couldn’t help herself. “They say that you’re ninety something years old…” she commented, leaning in and lowering her voice.
Arlene smiled her knowing smile. “You’re Estarian. You know what’s possible, no?”
Maya shrugged and leaned up in her seat again. “Well, I know what they told us at school; but it’s not like anyone I knew could do what you do… with your appearance, and all.”
Arlene maintained an air of sageness about her. “It’s all in the practice,” she said simply, referring back to the years of arduous meditation she’d pressed Paige about in their first meeting.
Maya bobbed her head, fully aware of the conversations as a result of Paige’s excited rantings. “I heard,” she said.
Arlene took a deep breath and looked directly at Maya. “So what’s your story?” she asked, changing the subject.
Maya shrugged. “I dunno, really. I was a journalist, then I stumbled on some of Molly’s activities, and before I knew it, Sean Royale was on my doorstep inviting me into the inner circle.” She paused, contemplating the incident. “Probably just to stop me from poking around… and a marginally better alternative to killing me!” she added jokingly.
Laughter erupted from the games table. Joel had stood up and thrown his cards down dramatically in front of Molly, who just held his gaze defiantly. Even Jack was laughing at the drama.
Arlene pulled her attention back to the conversation. “I suspect they also had a respect for your investigative abilities,” she told her. “I know how the Federation works. When they find talent, they grab it.” She paused, her eyes glazing over as if she were tuning into something not of this world. “You made a good choice, joining this team,” she concluded.
Maya smiled. “Yeah, I think so.”
Meanwhile, Paige and Pieter sat engrossed in the holo screens projecting from Piet
er’s wrist bank.
“You see… this is the structure. You don’t need to understand all the details of the code at once; you just need to see the pattern, and understand what it’s doing on a top level.”
Paige’s eyebrows were crinkled up as she squinted at the lines and lines of code. “So what is this doing?” she asked.
Pieter pointed at a few lines, seemingly at random. “Well these commands are basically telling us where the packets of data are being sent. See this string here?”
“Mmhm,” Paige mumbled.
“Well this is one of the buffers on The Empress’s syste- Oooo — ” Pieter interrupted himself, his voice clearly more excited. “And this is Emma getting pinged. She knows we’re looking, now.”
Paige couldn’t help but smile to herself, impressed.
New code appeared suddenly on the screen, pushing what they had been looking at up out of view.
“What’s happening now?” Paige asked, noticing the change.
Pieter frowned and flicked down a bit to see the new code better. “Ha!” he hooted, poking at the screen and typing something back. “She’s redirecting our pings to a sandbox! Look at the comments.”
// Grownups are working to keep this ship in the air now. Go play somewhere else!
Paige chuckled quietly. “She told you, eh?”
Pieter flushed a little. “Yeah. I’ll say,” he said, finishing his response and hitting return.
Paige couldn’t quite see what he had done. “What did you say to her?”
Pieter sniggered. “Ah, nothing. Just poking the bear,” he told her.
Aboard ArchAngel
Within an hour, the team had not only arrived at the ArchAngel, but had also disembarked from The Empress and been taken to their quarters.
Minutes after throwing her pack down on the bed and grabbing a cold drink, Molly heard shrieks of excitement and chatter out in the corridor. Water bottle in hand, about to break the seal, she paused, listening intently – hoping to hell it wasn’t her team, embarrassing her.
She heard Brock’s voice ringing out above the kerfuffle, and then other doors swooshing open.
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 110
