Her eyes dropped to the floor for a moment. “We had a problem a couple of years ago where students were plugging in for days at a time. Missing classes. Missing meals. And then of course when they had to deal with the disconnection.”
Her face turned grim, and she lowered her eyes. “Well, you can imagine…”
Molly nodded her understanding, amazed that such technology was now being used in education.
Von made her way through the door behind the students who were gathering to be a part of the session. She called back to Molly. “You’re welcome to join us. To observe… if you like,” she offered.
Molly beamed. “I’d love to!” she exclaimed, following her new contact into the fray.
Erm. I hope you’re not considering hooking us up to this… thing. Whatever it is.
It had crossed my mind.
That was what I was afraid of.
Come on, Oz. What’s the worst that could happen?
Er… you allow all these students to access your thoughts. And me? You overload the system with the data we manage? You fry their brains. Need I go on?
Molly went quiet.
Okay.
…
…
We’ll just observe.
…
…
For now.
Molly disappeared into the room, and the doors closed behind her.
Gaitune-67, Base conference room
“Why don’t you just take them out? You have the resources. The firepower.”
Molly was nearly an hour into a briefing with the General, and only just starting to understand the deeper problems the Federation was facing.
Lance sighed as he leaned in closer to the holo. “We do. Except we don’t know what else is on there. We don’t know what they’re planning, or who truly is behind it. We have a hint that the Leath are involved, but we haven’t got enough physical proof to go to war.”
Molly’s brow furrowed as she grappled with the problem. “And blowing up the ship would be an act of war?”
Reynolds nodded. “Plus, it gives them the scope to say that there was nothing untoward going on there. We know there tends to be paperwork to support these missions. Papers that say that it was straightforward commercial goods, like farming equipment, or whatever.”
Molly thought for a moment. She cocked her head. “But your sources say it’s equipment for fracking?”
“Yes,” Lance confirmed. “But of course, ADAM can’t be physically on the ship to verify that, which is why we need people with bodies to go and check it out.”
Molly narrowed one eye, still thinking. “But fracking isn’t illegal on an uninhabited planet you have the rights to.”
Lance chewed on his cigar. “This is true. But the shipments have been ending up on Teshov.”
Molly nodded her head slowly in realization, mulling what that meant.
After a moment she had another thought. “I take it you don’t want us to stop them and board them, in an official capacity? You’d have people to do that, if that were the case.”
Reynolds smiled. “You catch on fast. I am suggesting you do this... under cover.”
Molly eyes lit up in secret excitement.
Lance seemed to read her thoughts. “You’d need to stay out of it, of course. Just in case they need your leadership from outside the ship. Or in case they were discovered. You’d need to have a way of getting them out, without bringing the federation into it.”
Molly’s eye crinkled up in concern. “You wouldn’t back us up?”
Lance sat back. “I can’t be seen to. It would drag us into a war. And that’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid. That is why the Sanguine Squadron exists, remember.”
Molly sat back in her seat, subconsciously mirroring his movements, and taking a deep breath.
After a moment she spoke again. “Okay, boss. Let me talk to the team, and see what kind of plan we can come up with. The exit strategy seems like it might be the sticking point here.”
The General nodded. “Okay. Let me know how you get on. The ship leaves in two weeks, and you’ll need time to infiltrate the crew before it leaves from Estaria.”
Molly stood up. “Yes sir,” she confirmed, giving him a salute.
The General returned the salute and ended the call.
“Close holo,” Molly said, giving the instruction to fold the holoscreen away into the table. She rearranged the chair she’d been sitting in, tucking it away under the table, and then wandered out of the open door.
Neechie was standing there, watching her leave.
“Come on Neech,” she chirped, wiggling her fingers to encourage him to follow. The pair wandered down the corridor, Molly deep in thought, and Neechie looking like he was considering his next realm jump with his apprentice.
Chapter 3
Gaitune-67, Molly’s conference room
Sean and Oz had been verbally jousting. Sean’s face firmed in tension as he shifted in his chair. “That’s not what I’m saying, Oz. All I said was that you have an ability to change how you ‘feel’ about things, and so it’s not that important to worry about your feelings being hurt.”
Oz spoke over the room’s comm system. “I don’t see how that follows. If I were an organic entity, would you be saying that?”
Sean’s brow wrinkled in frustration. “Yeah but you’re not, so it’s pointless considering it.”
Jack raised her eyebrows. “Actually…” she started.
Joel was observing from the other end of the room. He folded his arms and leaned against the wall watching with interest.
Jack continued. “I think the point that Oz is trying to make is valid. If you had a human who was adaptable, or just thick skinned, would you be more considerate of their feelings?”
Sean dropped his head into his hands, defeated. Joel continued to watch. He knew Sean was old, but surely not old enough to have been around before EIs were designated Entities with rights and personhood.
Just then, Molly breezed in. “Greetings folks,” she said brightly.
Sean looked up an expression of relief on his face.
Molly plonked herself down in the chair nearest Sean. “Looks like we’ve got a new puzzle to crack,” she told them. “One that includes some undercover work.” She grinned like the cat who had got the cream.
Sean’s eye brightened too. “Do tell, our esteemed leader!” he said, turning to look at her, and then shuffling his chair round.
Joel pushed off the wall and came to sit at the table with the others. Jack swiveled her chair to face Molly, her conflict of opinions with Sean relegated to off-duty kitchen talk for later.
Molly called out to Oz. “Oz, could you bring up the shipping route the General just shared with us please?” She tilted her chin up so that she could hear him through the room’s intercom. She found that she was talking to Oz out loud more and more so she didn’t have to explain herself for the purpose of those who didn’t inhabit her synapses.
“Of course,” Oz responded, activating the holoscreen against the safe house conference room wall.
Molly glanced at each of her team members as she spoke. “This is a shipping route between Estaria and Teshov. It’s mostly used by heavy industry carriers. Equipment, technology and the like. This one here,” she indicated by highlighting a route and a profile picture of a cargo ship, “is a ship that does a run every four months or so. We have no idea what is truly being transported. The ship’s manifest says it’s farming equipment.”
Joel leaned his arms on the table. “And is there a reason we suspect this isn’t the case?” he asked, looking for the reason that this was an assignment.
Molly lowered her head. “A number of reasons. Lemme run you through them.”
She pulled up a screen on her holo. It had a lot of graphs and numbers on it. Sean scratched his head as he studied the hologram.
Molly began her explanation. “This is seismic activit
y that has been occurring on Teshov. What we’re looking at is the base line activity that has been happening naturally for the last few hundred years.”
She opened another screen, pushing it over to sit next to the current one. “This is recent activity, in the last six months. As you can see, it is much more regular, and more destructive. In fact, when ADAM noticed this, he cross-referenced it with known profiles for this kind of planet and found that the activity is consistent with core mining.”
Joel frowned, pulling his eyes from the screen to Molly. “Core mining? But there are people living on Teshov. Surely that’s—”
Jack finished his sentence. “Illegal? Reckless? Immoral?”
Molly nodded. “All of the above,” she agreed, her face looking more serious now. “Which is why we need to find out what’s going on. The Federation suspects this shipment may have something to do with it.”
She flicked some more data up on another screen. Then another two screens, each with profile pictures of people on them. “This is Lana Rey. She’s been support personnel on legal core mining expeditions on various rocks in the asteroid belt.”
She nodded in the direction of the second image. “This is Dr. Ainstel Brahms. He is one of Estaria’s foremost seismologists. He specializes in energy from geological events — earthquakes, glacial movement, magnetic pole drift. The works.”
Jack sat back. “So what? They’re involved?”
Molly shook her head. “They’ve gone missing. Brahms hasn’t shown up for work at his government research project in over eight days now. Rey is also missing from her job in Uptarlung.”
Joel leaned forward, looking concerned. “And how have we linked them to the shipment?”
Molly flicked back to the original screen with the shipping data on it. “ADAM has done some analysis of transportation paths, and looked at what has coincided with the seismic activity. Allowing for two to 21 days to set up equipment and start drilling to place the charges, he’s filtered through the ships arriving at Teshov, and taken into account only those that were large enough to be transporting equipment. He noticed a pattern. And their point of origin was always Estaria. And actually — always one ship — the one we looked at several screens back.”
Sean watched the details on the screen with intense concentration.
Molly waved her arm over at the hologram. “We think that the personnel have been kidnapped to help on this project. ADAM estimates that if they make even the slightest error in their drilling works, the outer core could create enough environmental disturbance that life on the planet could be wiped out in a matter of days after the event.”
Jack’s mouth dropped open, her eyes fixed on the screen trying to make sense of what they were hearing. Joel leaned forward, as if trying to hear better.
Molly continued her discourse. “ADAM has also advised us that the most likely ship for this next trip with the scientists, and probably more equipment for boring deeper, is this one.”
The screen changed, displaying an image of a cargo ship. Molly shifted slightly in her chair, looking over at Jack and Joel. “It’s the only one that is leaving this month. It’s unlikely they would want to hold the hostages for longer than this. Personally, I’m surprised they’re possibly holding them this long. If I were in their shoes, I’d be wanting to do the snatch just ahead of the ship leaving.”
She shrugged, thinking for a moment before continuing. “Unless they’ve already sent them on in a people carrier. ADAM suspects not, simply because of the large distances involved, and these guys don’t have access to our travel tech.”
Joel had put his hand over his mouth as he listened. He removed it to speak. “You mean, our pods?”
Molly closed her eyes and nodded once. “Pods, or whatever. Meaning we have an advantage.” She took a deep breath and leaned back in her seat, dimming the holograms, and raising the lights from her holo. “The thing is if we just blow the ship up, we kill the hostages. If we board, we lose the opportunity to find out what is really going on and who is behind this operation.”
Jack raised her hand at shoulder height, as she leaned on the desk. “But isn’t that preferable to letting them continue on?”
Molly bobbed her head. “Yes, and ADAM is concerned that whoever is behind this might be doing it in other systems too. It’s not just the Teshov population that is at risk. And if one shipment goes missing, the operation will still survive. This makes it more of a weeding exercise.” She looked off to one side, pulling her mouth onto one side of her face, considering her own words.
She didn’t correct herself.
Sean turned to her. “So what you’re suggesting is that we go undercover on this ship, as... crew?”
Molly nodded. “Yes. Oz will create personas for you. He’ll make sure you have proper cover stories and reasons for being there, and then once on board you can dig around and see what’s what.”
It was Joel’s turn to chip in. “You’re using the second person a lot here. Does this mean you’re not coming with us?”
Molly nodded, unaware she was sticking out her bottom lip. “The General has recommended that I stay in a position off the ship, in case you need an extraction.”
She paused and looked at Joel. “In fact, he’s recommended that at least some of the team stay back.”
Sean started to speak, an air of agitation taking over his demeanor. Molly’s look of sadness lifted and was replaced with humor in her eyes. She quickly held her hand up to him. “It’s okay Sean. We’ll make sure you’re in the undercover crew,” she said shaking her head. “But we need a plan, and then we’ll select who else is best placed to follow that plan.”
She looked to Joel. “This is your op, chap. I’ll take your recommendations once you and Oz have had a chance to review the intel from ADAM. It’s unlikely that the crew are going to need military skills, though. Generally. From what Oz has already looked at, the more ‘normal’ these folks are, the more chance they have of going undetected in this cargo shipping scenario.”
Joel nodded, snatching a glance at Sean, before looking back at Molly. “Understood,” he said, quietly pleased he might be able to stay and protect Molly from the outside should she need to get into the fray at some point.
“Great!” Molly said, brighter now that the information dump had been complete. “Let’s meet back here tomorrow with a game plan, and then we can bring the others in on our next move.”
The warriors nodded their agreements and started getting up to leave.
Molly was the first one up and out of the door.
Why are you in such a hurry?
Conference call with Von.
Of course. I’d not put that on your official schedule, since it’s technically an off-book hobby.
Good thing you’re not my PA, eh?
Hmmm. I’m sure your holo has a function for that.
It does. That’s why I remembered! Unbelievable. I have an AI in my head and I’m having to separate which things are projects and which are work.
She tutted to herself as she strode out to the kitchen to grab a protein drink, and then headed back down to the ops room.
Gaitune-67, Ops Room
Molly sat in the ops room on her usual console.
“So what did they say?” she asked, sitting back in the invisible, movement-responsive sofa, her cup of lemon water in hand.
Von responded over the enhanced holo connection. “The board is agreeable. Well, they became agreeable, after they were reminded how it would make the institution look like a trailblazer.” Abigail chuckled to herself, in a way that reminded Molly that beneath her academic seriousness was once a young person like herself.
Molly grinned. “And they agreed to fully acknowledge the course?”
Von nodded. “Yep. Full credits for the discussion work and the examination.”
Molly sat up a little. “This is great news!” she said, her face lighting up even more.
Von nod
ded, her smile showing she was rather pleased with her powers of persuasion. “The only thing that remains,” she added, changing her tone a little, “is how to recruit the students.”
Molly uncrossed her legs and poked at the holo in front of her, sharing her screen. “We almost have that covered as well. My team has worked up a campaign to use through the university Ethertrak. It’s designed to have maximum resonance with our key demographic.”
Von’s eyes scanned the material on the screen.
Molly continued. “What we need to do next is recruit ourselves a spokesperson. Someone who knows the material and understands the power that this insight has in negotiating peace. Someone who is also articulate and can relate to the students who will be taking the course.”
Von stopped reading, and looked off into the distance. “I can probably reach out to a number of people who would be keen to represent this program. Counselors, board members …”
Her voice disappeared into her throat as she realized that Molly was shaking her head. “No, no,” Molly chuckled lightly. “You misunderstand me. We’ve got a short list already.”
Von’s eyes widened, and she began to apologize.
Molly beamed at her again. “A very short shortlist,” she added.
Von looked intrigued.
Molly continued. “Professor Von, I was hoping that you might be agreeable to being our spokesperson.”
Abigail suddenly looked a little taken aback and flustered. “You mean... you want me to talk on recordings and... for the campaign?” she tried to clarify, a little flustered.
Molly nodded. “Yes. Exactly. You’re the person who is the most qualified.”
Von took a deep breath, collecting her thoughts. “I... I don’t know what to say,” she said, her face flushing beet red.
Molly sat back on the couch again. “Well,” she said, her voice giving the sense of being more serious now, “I was hoping you’d say ‘yes.’”
Von’s eyes were alive as she stared into the camera. “Yes! Yes, I would love to. Yes!” she exclaimed, her serious professor-like demeanor abandoned.
Molly smiled, feeling the older woman warm to her the more interaction they shared. “Well, good then,” she said, satisfied. “It’s just as well. My team has already started pulling together some scripts that might work. I’d hate to have to make them rewrite them for some stuffy board member.”
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 133
