by M. D. Cooper
The bike’s headlights started to blink, its horn sounded loudly, and the seat vibrated, trying to toss him off.
A motorbike with a snooty AI. What could be worse than that?
A softer touch?
Guards suddenly entered the garage, and Grayson dropped down beside the bike, using it for cover.
He glanced behind him. Maybe a car would be better—and in a better mood.
He climbed on the bike once more and slipped the helmet mounted on the back of his seat over his head. The engine purred, and the motorcycle came to life, hovering just above the ground. Then it took off, heading straight for the guards, who scattered as the machine roared toward them.
The bike screamed out of the garage, and Grayson leant to the side to take a hard right onto the straight strip. He zigzagged to avoid the guard’s fire, and stayed low on the bike as shots ricocheted off the vehicle’s body.
Grayson nodded to himself and watched the shuttle lift off. He pushed the motorbike harder and adjusted the hover height. It might give him just enough altitude….
The shuttle was gaining speed. If Grayson didn’t jump now, he’d miss his chance.
Grayson acknowledged the message and magnetized his weapon to his hip before balancing himself atop the bike.
The ramp started its descent and stopped just before the halfway mark. Grayson jumped and hooked his hands on the inside of the door, his legs swinging out to the side as he pulled himself up.
As the ramp started to close, Grayson pulled his knees up to the top and rolled over the lip to get inside. Keeping his eyes fixed on the two female assailants now in front of him, both wearing body armor and helmets, he flew down the closing ramp and launched into a full-frontal assault, kicking them backward and landing on his own back.
He quickly hopped up onto his feet.
Their response was fast and unrelenting, fists and boots flying. An unaugmented human would have been crushed by the armored attack, but Grayson had been modded by the Silstrand military, and later by the ISF. He could take a pounding and still return the favor.
Even so, he didn’t have time to go for his weapon, or to sweep for Kylie and see if she was all right.
Good, Grayson thought. They needed to move quick.
He met the two women’s blows, ducking and coming out high. He finally got his weapon free and fired a pulse blast at one woman, while landing a solid kick to the other. The latter was driven back while the former collapsed in a heap.
Grayson and the second woman went at it again. A boot met his face, and he spun around, crashing into the bulkhead, his right leg getting stuck behind a crate.
Well, that was less than graceful.
“Grayson?” Kylie whispered, sounding confused as she rolled her head to the side. Her eyes widened. “Grayson!” She scampered up to her feet and groaned as she jumped into the fray.
She got lucky with a blow that caught one of the women unawares, and Kylie managed to draw the enemy’s sidearm and aim it at her head.
“Stay right where you are,” she ordered.
The assailant raised her hands.
“Are you all right?” Grayson asked.
“I’ll live. I’m just embarrassed they got the jump on me like that. It won’t happen again.”
“Don’t push yourself too hard,” he muttered. “You just came to.”
“I’ve got this. Don’t worry.”
Kylie and Grayson had their weapons trained on both of the kidnappers.
“Who do you work for?” Kylie demanded. “Mulke?”
“This has nothing to do with him,” one of the women said.
Grayson doubted that.
Normally, Grayson would do the honorable thing, but if Mulke figured out they were on to him, he’d move his operation. The AoS team could apologize and update the authorities at a later time.
Kylie looked at Grayson and nodded, then refocused on the women facing her weapon, arms raised. She adjusted her gun to stun. “We’ll have to say goodbye now, but take off your helmet.”
“You really don’t want me to do that.”
“Do it,” Kylie ordered a bit more forcefully.
The woman slowly removed the armor from her head.
The first thing Grayson saw was long, black hair with a blue streak running down the side. The next thing he saw was Kylie’s face light up with surprise—and then horror.
“Nadine?” she whispered.
“I can explain. It’s not what you think.”
Kylie’s eyes flashed with anger and she leveled her weapon at Nadine. “That’s what you always say.”
Grayson nudged her arm and whispered, “We need to go.”
“Don’t,” Nadine begged. “Don’t do it.”
Kylie fired a pulse into her former lover’s face and watched Nadine fall to the deck, unconscious. Then she crouched and stroked her ex’s hair, slipping a tracker onto her scalp, hoping the other woman wouldn’t notice.
She stood and took his hand.
Below him, Kylie landed on the former starliner, grabbing onto a ridge in the ship’s ablative plating, then looked up as he streaked toward the hull.
His shoes slammed into the ship, knees groaning from the strain.
Kylie shook her head.
Kylie nodded.
CHAPTER 23 - KRAI
GALACTIC DATE: 412.12.152
LOCATION: Far Patrol Shell, XI Phrysi
REGION: Void, Mass Conformity Qa
-Loar
A one’s view of this is not good.
The fluid orb’s storms had required Krai to shift Phrysi’s orbit, moving it out of the darker belt and into the lighter band. It was temporary, but it had happened just as the orbit had brought the shell in direct line of sight with the strangers’ patrol vessel.
And now they’d launched two of their own probes.
If je had not already moved kes own eyes closer to the enemy, je would not have seen the deployment—so at least some of the eternal lights were watching over kes.
Even so, the strangers were curious about something, and given that the fluid orb was decidedly uninteresting, je was certain that they’d caught sight of Phrysi.
Krai’s limb-slap reaction was to dive into the clouds, but the storms beneath the travelshell were one je preferred not to brave. Je calculated the trajectory of the strangers’ probes against kes own orbital velocity, and determined that there would be a brief opening where it would be possible to shift back into the darker belt before the probes drew closer.
While the cycle took its time getting to the point of temporary occlusion, je reviewed everything Phrysi’s eyes had been able to see on the strangers’ ship.
There were clearly weapons present on the hull, and based on how it moved through the fluid orb’s gravity field, it was safe to assume that engines and fuel made up half of the shell’s mass. The vessel was clearly made to engage in combat…and win.
However, Phrysi was also made to survive in the void for many long cycles, so its weapons were not inconsiderable. Given that the two shells were not much different in size, Krai suspected that je could come out victorious, should they find themselves in a fight.
So long as they do not have some weapon no X’Liy has ever seen.
Memories of the long-past wars with the artificial minds came to mind. Je recalled tales of devastating attacks made by the machines, and the destruction they’d wrought. Je hoped these strangers did not possess similar weapons.
But that is why a one must remain hidden and bring news of these strangers to the Far Patrol Central Inclusion—so that a proper response can be planned.
What that would be, Krai had no idea. It could be that the Far Patrol would wish to make contact with the strangers, but just as likely, they may choose to remain undetected, to watch and learn.
Je knew that was not a long-term solution. The fact that the strangers were in Qa-Loar meant that they were expanding and would likely continue to do so.
Thoughts of what might come to pass consumed kes until the time finally came to execute the burn that would slide Phrysi into the darker belt. Je hoped that would be enough to hide kes travelshell from the other shell’s probes, though je had no way to be sure.
These beings were, after all, alien.
There was nothing for it but to wait and see what the future held.
CHAPTER 24 - KYLIE
STELLAR DATE: 01.06.8960 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: The Barbaric Queen, Scorpii Minor
REGION: Pi Scorpii Beta, Independent Systems of the Lupus Cloud
Nadine.
A name Kylie never expected to roll off her tongue again, let alone to have the actual woman standing right in front of her. Or rather, laying on the deck….
Once upon a time, Kylie had considered Nadine her princess, but their castle had been built on a hill of lies and codependence. It had never been real, so Kylie ran from it as fast as she could.
That had been a lifetime ago. Kylie was happy with the life she’d built with Grayson and little Marie, she had no interest in going back.
Yet, the look in Grayson’s eye said he wasn’t sure where her loyalties lie, and that doubt boggled her mind.
“I chose a life with you, Gray,” Kylie reminded him as they entered the galley. She sat on the kitchen island while he got their coffees ready.
“I know, intellectually, that everything you’ve said is true, Kylie. But when I saw her, I was shocked.”
“So was I,” she laughed. “But I didn’t just time travel twelve years into the past. So much has happened. You’ve always been my future.”
“And you mine.” Grayson handed over her mug of coffee.
“Then why are we even having this conversation?”
Grayson glanced into his mug. “Because I’m a fool. A by-the-book, follow the rules, do what is right, fool.”
“You’re plenty exciting.” Kylie hooked her boot around his waist and pulled him in close. “And I like all those things. You keep me grounded, and I make you soar. We work well together.”
Grayson smiled. “All of that is true, but it doesn’t mean we can forget that Nadine is part of something…something working against the AoS. Last I knew, she had disappeared, gone off to help her sister on Valkris. If she’s been brought back into the fold, we can’t know what side she’s playing on.”
Kylie had heard the same thing, and tried not to think about how much Nadine hated her family or the obligations they shoved on her.
Of course, after the truth had come out that Nadine was a spy, Kylie didn’t know how to trust her anymore. It was impossible to tell between the truths and the lies used to manipulate her.
Irony of irony, Kylie now worked for the same people Nadine had when she’d been sent to be her lover.
She furrowed her brow. “Are we sure it’s not with our side?”
Grayson shook his head. “I feel like Seraphina would have told us. And her home system of Valkris isn’t with the Transcend anymore….”
“So you think she could be a double agent? Maybe working on our side?” Kylie asked.
“Or their side.”
“Or working for Seraphina, and she just didn’t bother to tell us—she’s played things close to the chest before.” Kylie sighed and slurped her coffee. “I guess we know we need to be on guard, which is more than we knew before.”
Grayson nodded. “Ricket might know additional details. And she’d be more forthcoming, possibly, than Seraphina.”
Kylie entertained the idea. “I’ll send her a message. I’m sure Rogers would like to hear how she’s doing anyway.”
Grayson nodded. “Sounds like a plan. You know, Kylie, Nadine or not, the mission is the same.”
“Time to get my head in the game, huh?” She smirked. “You’re right. I have everything I want right here, so let’s go out there and stop these assholes from stealing stasis shield tech.”
* * * * *
“Welcome, lady and gent,” Rogers said as he fired up the holo console at his station. “Nice of you to join us.”
Kylie felt a ribbing coming on. She took the comms seat. “What do you have?”
“The tracker you put on Mulke is working,” Rogers said and pulled up the world view map.
It showed a blinking red dot moving ever so slowly across the holo display. He zoomed in to the city map.
“He’s on the other side of the flipping planet,” Winter said with a shake of his head.
“The Santa Barbara district?” Grayson leaned over Rogers’s shoulder.
Rogers reared back and gently pushed back with his shoulder. “Nobody likes a backseat driver, Colonel. But yes.”
Grayson crossed his arms and gave Rogers a cool look. “That’s a rather remote area—not a lot of legal oversight. A good place for Mulke and his illegal research.”
“And it’ll only take a few hours to get there,” Winter added. “Just about the perfect mission for us.”
“Except Pi Scorpii Beta’s government is going to need warning before we go in there weapons blazing,” Grayson pointed out.
Kylie sighed. “Really?”
He nodded. “The relationship between the Alliance and Pi Scorpii Beta is brand new. No one trusts each other quite yet. I’m not saying we ask permission…I’m saying that we alert them on good faith and in full disclosure. The fact that illegal, treaty-violating tech is on their soil will be a good motivator.”
“And if Mulke has someone on the inside?”
Winter shook his head. “You’re smarter than this, Gray.”
“Unfortunately, I have to think like a diplomat. It’s why I’m here, in part.”
“I thought you were here because you and Kylie are….” Rogers took a look at their faces. “Nevermind.”
Kylie cleared her throat. “Anyway…I’ll alert the PSB government and meet with whoever they want to handle this. Daylight’s burning.”
“Cap,” Rogers said, sounding uncomfortable. “It’s almost two in the morning….”
Kylie raised her eyebrows and glanced down at her mug. “Then what am I doing drinking coffee?”
She shrugged and took a nice, long sip.
Rogers stroked his chin and leaned back in his chair. “I’m not inviting trouble or anything, but…since we rescued you, has anyone seen MFP?”
Winter coughed and Grayson went as pale as the albino’s complexion.
Kylie would’ve sat down if she hadn’t already been sitting. “Oh…shit.”
“Bubbs is going to kill us,” Rogers whispered. “And when I say kill us, I mean mostly him.” He pointed at Winter.
Winter’s lips twisted. “I’m not afraid of Bubbs. I’m not! I mean, not much.”
Kylie shook her head.
She sighed.
Kylie waited for a response. There wasn’t one.
Rogers’ eyes widened. “What if he was catnapped? What if he’s being tortured?”
“What if he’s dead?” Winter snorted, then frowned. “What if he’s dead?” His lips suddenly flipped into a smile. “What if he’s dead!”
The growing excitement would’ve been funny if it wasn’t appalling.
Grayson snickered and stroked his chin.
He doesn’t look particularly beat-up about this either. Kylie stretched her leg and stomped on his foot.
