by M. D. Cooper
“Of course. I know about it, but I don’t know much, only the same as everyone else—that it helped us win the Battle of Victoria. I should have guessed that’s what I have to do, but if that’s the case, why was I told to leave the field of security? It would have been easier for me to access the technology if I was working within my usual profession.”
“No. You’re mistaken. The cover we have for you is better. You have the perfect excuse to be in odd places at odd times, as you wander Carthage to find your role in life.”
“I understand, but wouldn’t it have been better for me to keep a low profile? Why attract attention by asking for a private consultation?”
“It’s simple. No one would expect a spy to draw attention to themselves. You will be hiding in plain sight. Listen. The picotech is somewhere on this planet, but that’s all I’ve been able to discover, despite my high security clearance. They are keeping it under extremely tight wraps. The technology could be stored anywhere. However, I don’t believe it is currently in use. Too many interested parties are watching the system; it’s safer not to flaunt it. But my guess is that, at some point, the temptation to use picotech will become too great. I will be waiting and watching for the signs. As soon as I have a lead, I’ll be in contact again to tell you where to go and what to do. Do you understand?”
“Yes. Until then…?”
“Until then, you are to continue to be a thorn in the side of Placement Services, and be ready to go wherever I tell you at a moment’s notice.”
“Understood.”
Myrrdan’s agent began to stand.
“Wait—”
“What?” Irritation suffused the figure’s tone.
“After I steal the picotech? What’s next? What can I expect?”
“What do you mean exactly?”
“Am I to remain in New Canaan forever? I was wondering…” Hart swallowed. The features of the agent were creasing into distaste. “Will I ever meet him? I have many ideas to put forward. I want to do everything I can to…to…” He lapsed into silence.
Ambition burned within him. He wanted to be in the agent’s position. He wanted to be important to Myrrdan, valued, not just a tool to be used. Yet he feared that if he spoke his thoughts aloud, they would sound like the pipings of an ignorant child to a warrior.
The agent’s lip lifted in a sneer. “Perhaps the time may come when Myrrdan will want to know you better, if you are successful in this task.” The figure stood and strode from the bar.
As the door closed behind the agent, the barrier separating Hart from the rest of bar lifted. Sound surged in, and people became distinct to him once more.
Hart realized that he couldn’t remember the agent’s face or appearance. He didn’t even know if he’d met a man or a woman. Like the faces of the bar’s patrons while the barrier had been active, the visage of the agent in his memory was blurred.
He lifted his beer, but his hand trembled violently, and the liquid slopped out of the half-full glass. He set it down. Suddenly, the noise in the bar seemed to increase. It blared in his eardrums. The colors were too bright, the smell of his beer too strong. He fought the urge to vomit.
Somewhere in the deepest recesses of his mind, the personality that had been Nathan Hart fought to free itself from Myrrdan’s control.
BLUEPRINTS
STELLAR DATE: 11.24.8935 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Landfall, Knossos Island
REGION: Carthage, 3rd Planet in the New Canaan System
The plans that detailed the building of the infrastructure of Carthage were complex, yet they were also common sense. Originally crafted to be used in New Eden, they had been altered to account for the different topography and climate of Carthage, but the principle was the same. For the colonists to be able to live, work, and play on their new planet, they needed residences, public buildings, shops, roads, maglevs, bridges, air and spaceports, seaports, space stations, and every other construction that supported a functioning society. They also needed, at a bare minimum, clean water and power.
While Erin was on her way to Carthage, she’d surveyed the infrastructure plans, as well as the progress reports from the engineering teams that she’d requested, and had set up a meeting.
As she was waiting for the heads of the major engineering projects to arrive, she looked over the reports again.
Nearly everything and everyone seemed to be a little bit behind, but that wasn’t the only problem. Due to the time pressure, people had been cutting corners. They hadn’t been doing things properly, as was clear from the faults that were coming to light.
Only the other day, a maglev on Naxos had been forced to make an emergency stop due to a problem with the track. Time spent repairing shoddy workmanship delayed the current project even further. If someone didn’t do something soon, Carthage’s infrastructure would turn into a hot mess.
“Thanks, Tanis,” Erin murmured to herself.
She was in a meeting room at Government House on Landfall. She could have held the meeting via Link, but she preferred seeing her colleagues in the flesh. It gave her a better understanding of their personalities.
“Did you say something?” asked Sasha Deavy.
Erin looked up at the young engineer, who was seated beside her. “No. Just thinking aloud. It’s Sasha, right?” She scanned the woman’s details for her area of responsibility. “You’re working on air and spaceports?”
The woman gave an exasperated sigh. “I’m supposed to be constructing air and spaceports. But we’re constantly behind because the roads and maglevs aren’t in place to bring in the construction materials in time.”
“Can’t you—” Erin paused.
She’d been about to ask why they didn’t fly the material in, but of course they couldn’t, if there was nowhere for the shuttles to land. Transport shuttles needed proper landing pads, or they’d sink into the ground and light the surrounding terrain on fire during lift-off.
“I see,” she amended. “Yes, now that I think about it, I remember your report. It was very well-written. Clear and to the point. I hope we can solve some of the problems you’ve experienced today. I want to prioritize certain projects, like yours.”
It wasn’t going to be easy. All the difficulties stemmed from the fact that they had a shortage of trained, experienced professionals. When the Intrepid had set out from Sol, she’d been carrying plenty of engineers, more than enough to build the infrastructure of the two planets at New Eden. But those two planets had now doubled to four—not to mention Tanis’s myriad defense projects—and what had been a superfluity of engineers had become a scarcity.
“If you’re going to prioritize anything,” Sasha said, “make it the planetary space and air traffic control. It’s ridiculous—” She halted and blushed, apparently conscious of speaking too freely in front of one of the colony leaders.
Erin, who had been focused on the reports, lifted her head. “Go on.”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re currently operating under separate systems for domestic and space traffic. They’re Linked through Murry, but by the time the information reaches the controllers, there’s a transfer delay of a couple of seconds. It isn’t long, but….”
“You’re right. A couple of seconds is long enough for a disaster. Thanks. Do you know why that project’s been delayed?” Erin tried to remember what the heads of the teams had written, but they hadn’t made a lot of sense to her.
Sasha leaned in closer. “Bridget set up the domestic air traffic control, and Maurice is responsible for traffic arriving from space. They can’t decide on a site for a combined control center; they’ve been arguing about it for ages. Bridget thinks it should be built on the space station, and Maurice thinks it should be at Landfall.”
Erin’s expression twisted into a mixture of confusion and astonishment. “Those are both terrible ideas.”
Any attacking force would naturally assume an SATC center would be either on a space station or at the plane
t’s capital, so they would be the first places enemies would target.
On the other hand, perhaps she was being too harsh on the team leaders. They were thinking like civilians who had left Sol and woken expecting paradise. The idea that New Canaan was likely to be attacked at some point—possibly in the not-too-distant future—was not ingrained into them.
“I know,” exclaimed Sasha, “but they won’t listen to me.”
The hubbub of the men and women who were settling into their seats abruptly ceased. Sasha blushed again and pursed her lips.
Erin scanned the room. “Everyone here? Great.”
The first thing she did was to ask those present to give a short verbal report. She wanted to match faces to what she’d read. While she knew many from Victoria, there were many more who had not been woken there, or who had, but then opted to return to stasis.
She was going to have to work with whatever she had in terms of personnel, which meant accounting for their personal quirks and foibles. She’d already decided to assign Bridget and Maurice to projects that wouldn’t bring them into contact.
After listening to each engineer speak, she moved the meeting on to what needed to happen to speed up progress without sacrificing the quality of the work. Many suggestions were made, and though some disagreements broke out, the overall effect was positive. Now that the engineers had listened to others’ problems, they began to identify ways that they could work together and help each other.
By the end of the meeting, several difficulties had been ironed out, and the project leaders had clear steps to take that would speed up their work. The infrastructure plans were back on track.
Erin was also left with a list of action points for herself: important projects that she was going to take on personally. By relieving others of the work, she could ensure that the building of crucial facilities was completed quickly and to a high standard. The first of these projects was the SATC.
With the meeting over, the engineers began filing out of the room, Sasha Deavy at the tail. Erin called her back.
“Sasha, take a seat.”
While the others were leaving, Erin quickly checked Sasha’s background. It was no wonder she lacked the self-assurance of the others—the woman was only thirty-one years old.
She hasn’t even undergone a single rejuvenation!
After boarding the Intrepid at Sol, newly qualified in her profession, Sasha hadn’t been brought out of stasis until the ship had arrived in New Canaan. With her lack of experience, if it weren’t for the shortage of engineers, she might not have been brought onto the infrastructure-building program at all.
The woman looked uncomfortable as she sat down. She clasped her hands on her lap. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked. “Sorry if I spoke out of turn earlier.”
“Stars, no,” said Erin. “I’m glad you drew my attention to the problem of the SATC. Among the hundreds of other delays in projects, I might have overlooked it. I agree with you entirely, though. It’s essential that the facility’s construction begin immediately.”
Sasha’s tight expression relaxed.
“And I want to bring you in on it.”
The woman’s face stiffened again. “Me?”
“Yes. You. You don’t mind, do you? You haven’t got a whole lot else to do while those roads to the air and spaceport sites get built.”
“I guess not,” Sasha replied, her tone cautious.
“I need everyone working at full capacity to bring the building of Carthage up to speed. None of us can afford to sit idle.” Erin felt like she was channeling Tanis as she gave the directive.
“Of course. That makes sense.” Sasha looked a tiny bit disappointed at Erin’s prosaic explanation for putting her on the SATC project. “I’m happy to help out.”
Erin smiled. “And I want your eyes on the project. Clearly, nothing much gets past you.”
Sasha grinned. “In that case, can I tell you my suggestion for a site?”
“Go ahead.”
“I thought about it a lot. The SATC needs to be somewhere out of the way. Not an obvious site, yet somewhere that’s easy to defend in case Carthage is ever attacked.”
“I’m listening.”
“Let me show you.” Sasha brought up a holo of Carthage. She spun the image then halted it at Knossos. Spreading her chosen locale larger with her fingertips, she said, “Here.” She was pointing to a promontory at the eastern end of the island, on the far side of a low range of mountains.
“What makes you think that would be a good place?” Erin asked. “It’s a long way from Landfall, there’s nothing there, and the surface is way above sea level. An SATC center mounted on top would be highly visible.”
“Not on the promontory,” Sasha said. “In. This part of Knossos is almost pure granite. If we blast out the center of the tip right there, we can build the SATC inside. With the dense stone, it’ll be visually hidden and virtually undetectable to orbital scan.”
“Blast out the center?” Erin said. “I like it. I’ve been doing a lot of that lately. OK. Let’s go take a look.”
“You want to go there now?” asked Sasha.
“Why not? Did you have something else you need to do?”
“Er, no.”
“Great. Let’s go.”
One of the many advantages of working at Government House was its excellent services and supply network. Tanis had left her private shuttle and pilot on standby for Erin’s use while she was away.
Erin and Sasha went aboard, and less than half an hour later, the shuttle was landing on the bare rock that constituted most of the promontory. Erin had told the pilot to set down near the very end. The pilot extended the exit ramp over the rock, which was hot from the shuttle landing, and the women disembarked.
A strong sea breeze was blowing, threatening to lift them off the tall cliffs and deposit them into the sea that surrounded them on three sides. Erin pointed to a spot where the rock dipped. The hollow would provide them with some shelter from the wind.
When they reached it and crouched inside, Erin said, “That’s a little better. Now we can talk without shouting at each other.”
The blue Mediterranean Ocean stretched out before them to the eastern horizon. In around half an hour, Canaan Prime would set; the mountains behind them had begun to cast long shadows, and the sky was already turning golden.
Roughly a hundred kilometers out, the FGT’s antigravity towers were still hard at work, funneling out the planet’s interior heat, cooling and thickening the crust. Long columns of hot gas poured into space, and sparkled red, orange, and purple in the dusk.
“When I thought of this place for the SATC,” Sasha remarked. “I didn’t know it was so beautiful.
“Sure is,” Erin replied. “Beautiful and defensible. No topographical features for an enemy to hide behind, but the SATC itself will have a solid granite protection. It’s a good choice. We’ll begin work tomorrow.”
“We?” Sasha asked. “Are you going to be involved?”
“Of course. Like you said, it’s an absolute priority. We can’t have the two control systems separate. It’s a safety risk, and it makes no sense. Vessels flying are vessels flying, whether they’re in atmosphere or space. Differentiating between the two was only ever supposed to be a temporary measure. It’s gone on far too long. Sooner or later, we would have a disaster on our hands. So we start tomorrow.”
A gust of wind whipped around the edge of the hollow, blasting at Sasha. “Can we go back to the shuttle now?” she asked through a curtain of hair—something that made Erin glad she kept hers short.
“Let’s take a look around first,” Erin suggested. “We have some time before we lose the light.” She stepped out of the dip and stood upright. Sasha held her hair at the base of her neck, and followed.
Erin wanted to check around at the bottom of the island’s cliffs, along the shoreline. But after searching for a while, she couldn’t find a safe way to get down. She wished they’d brought a-grav pack
s with them. It would have been fun to fly down to the beaches that skirted the cliffs. As it was, she had to make do with peering over the edges, a little worried that an especially hard gust of wind might carry her over. Sasha hung back.
Just as she was about to suggest they return to the shuttle, she saw a building. It was a small structure, but it didn’t look like a dwelling. The construction was spare and utilitarian.
What would a government building be doing all the way out here on Knossos, and alone on a beach?
She was feeling lazy, so rather than look up the information herself, she asked,
The presence of a marine biology station wouldn’t be a problem. The scientist in the building below her would only be concerned with the surrounding sea, while they would be working on Knossos itself. She couldn’t foresee any difficulties.
A SWIM
STELLAR DATE: 11.25.8935 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Landfall, Knossos Island
REGION: Carthage, 3rd Planet in the New Canaan System
When Erin returned with Sasha to Knossos the next day, she brought the a-grav packs. Sasha went to scope out the cliff faces on the north side of the promontory, while Erin checked out the south. They had to decide where they would begin to tunnel in, the site that would probably become the main entrance to the SATC. Erin also wanted to conduct a visual check for areas of obvious weakness.
Her a-grav pack lifted her lightly off her feet. She floated gently out over the edge of the cliff and down its face, alighting on the beach below. Out of the sea breeze, the temperature was warm verging on hot. The rocky cliffs also absorbed the heat of Canaan Prime and reflected it. As she walked along in the sand, Erin soon found that she was sweating.
