Fran crossed her legs and sniffed. “First of all, your honor, I'm no killer. That fetus was already dead before I knew it existed.”
“What does that mean?” Lara asked meekly.
“Simple, Lara. When Sue came to me, she was already about six weeks along – and three days from returning to hibersleep. She knew what that meant for the fetus, and so did I.”
“So why didn't you demand she remain awake for another rotation? She could have brought the baby to term, and then it would have been safe.”
Fran snapped back at Lara. “Have the baby? Not a chance Sue would have done that. She already had her mind made up. She had planned this out.”
“So naturally you gave her the clearance?” Olivia retorted with heavy sarcasm.
“Once I had all the details, you better damn well believe I did. I stand by my decision.”
“Then why don't you give us those details? They are most conveniently absent from your logs.”
Fran shrugged. “It's damn uncomplicated, really. Nat raped the woman, and the woman wanted to put an awful kind of hurt into him.”
“Rape?” The interrogators responded simultaneously.
“Kind of surprised you didn't figure that one out sooner, Liv. What the hell else do you think would make a woman that kind of hateful?”
“What specifically did Susan tell you?” The doctor asked.
“Apparently, it all started off like most any other rotation fling. They'd get on top of each other from time to time, just to give a charge to the monotony. After a couple months, it got to where the sex was more than physical. Sue said that's about when the ol' heart got involved. Hell of a mistake, letting that kind of business happen. But they apparently were in awful deep by the middle of the rotation. Then Sue decides she's going to cross the line, ask for a commitment, get 'em married on Earth. But she said ol' Nat wasn't going for that. Said it was too early to look ahead.”
“And for that, he raped her?” Lara asked, and Fran groaned.
“Oh, please, Lara. Can I get through this?”
“Sorry. Go on.”
“Sue said that was the beginning of the end. She said Nat was actually kind of apologetic about turning her down. But the next few weeks, the sex started to decrease. Finally, it wasn't there anymore – for about a month, anyway. Then one day she wakes up in her quarters, and the bastard is on top of her! Holding her down, doing as he damn well pleased! Sue's a powerful woman, but she was only half-awake, and Nat ain't exactly a small man. When he finally got off her, he just turned and walked out her quarters. Not a damn word.”
Fran trailed off for a moment. “A woman doesn't deserve that. Especially Sue. Loved that man hard. Real hard.”
Olivia jumped out of her swivel, turned her back to Fran and paced. “You're right! A woman doesn't deserve that. But there's a problem already with this story. I reviewed Susan's logs for the final three months of her rotation, and there was no mention of a rape. In fact, her logs were quite matter-of-fact, boring actually. Why would she omit something like that? There are laws about this sort of thing.”
“Laws? Out here? We were light years from Earth at the time. She knew that keeping all the proper records wouldn't make a difference.”
“And why not?” The doctor asked. “I could easily have been revived to perform a full analysis of her body and record the physical evidence. Charges could have been brought against Anatoly on Earth.”
Fran laughed, shook her head wildly, but Lara intervened. “Liv is right. I'm not an expert on colonial law, but I do know that any crime committed on the Andorran is punishable on Earth since this ship is the property of ASTROcom.”
Fran only laughed louder. “I'm sorry, Lara, don't take offense to this. But do you really believe ASTROcom would risk the publicity of allowing one of its ‘heroes’ to go on trial for rape? Good gods! I could just imagine the marketing division trying to work around that one. Although it might do wonders for the lunar penal colony lobbyists.”
“Fine,” Olivia said sharply. “Assuming that that was her rationale, there is still another inconsistency. Based on the timetable you have given me, I don't think Susan could have conceived at the time of the rape. It had to have been weeks later. So if Anatoly had raped her, why would she go back to him?”
“Easy! That's how Sue decided to get her revenge. She didn't renew her triscophan, and she pretended as if the rape never happened. Told Nat about a ‘nightmare’ she had. She stayed around Nat until they were close enough to get the urge again, and she took him to bed. Sue was at the peak of her cycle, and she wanted to make damn sure she conceived, so she rode him a couple dozen times over about a week. And what you saw today was what she had in mind all along. Make the man realize that he was going to be a father, but she'd taken it away.”
“And strangulation was part of the plan?”
“No. I guess the satisfaction of seeing the pain in his eyes wasn't enough for her. Damn, but the woman went through hell. I don't know if I could have blamed her if she'd killed Nat right there on the command deck.”
Lara buried her head in her hands and said through clenched fingers: “I know you don't mean that, Fran, and it's probably not a good idea for you to be saying things like that anyway.”
“You listen to me, Lara – both of you! I might have thrown some of my ethics away when I let Sue go into hibersleep. But I committed no damn crimes, and if there's to be any kind of retribution on Earth, you had better believe that Anatoly Tryvinski will be the only defendant. He crossed the line of human decency, and he'll have to pay up for that. Enough said!”
“No, it's not ...” Olivia started, but Lara waved her off.
“Yes, Liv. I think maybe it is. We have an idea why this happened.”
“Possibly,” Olivia said with a suspicious brow.
“But maybe this is enough for now. We've got so much else to deal with.”
Olivia clinched her teeth, and Lara could tell the doctor was not ready to back off.
“Please, Liv. Let's go,” she whispered, and the doctor departed.
Lara could not walk away just yet. She stopped at the door panel and faced Fran, still seated with her legs crossed. In the years Lara knew Fran Conner, she saw to a woman who was, if nothing else, a bottom-line pragmatist, caring little for idle speculation or, most significantly, emotions.
That’s why Fran's own words finally betrayed her. Lara was uncertain what was driving this anger in the biologist until Fran's admission that she might not have blamed Susan for killing Anatoly.
“It happened to you. Didn't it?” Lara asked softly.
“What are you talking about, Lara?”
“Rape. It happened to you also. Not on this mission, but before. On Earth. You once told me you gave up the notion of a relationship a long time ago. That's what changed everything for you, wasn't it?”
Fran uncrossed her legs, stood up and scratched a brow.
“As you noted, Captain, there's still much to deal with. I have duties on deck, as I'm sure you do.”
Lara swallowed hard, opened her mouth, but nothing was there. She could sense the wall that was rising up around Fran, and she knew this was going nowhere.
Lara ran into Miguel Navarro just outside the habitation sector.
“As you might expect, Anatoly has a very different story,” Navarro told her.
“You asked him if he raped her?”
They walked briskly toward the closest SlipTube.
“Boris did. Yes. Quite frankly, we couldn't understand Susan's possible motivation otherwise.”
“He denied it, I assume.”
“Completely. In fact, he went so far as to say that Susan's mental state had gradually declined over the final weeks of their rotation, and he had been unable to get through to her at times. Said she would explode into fits of rage without warning or provocation. And then, other days, she would try to be very, well ... seductive.”
“Do
you believe him?”
“To be honest, Lara, it is very hard. Although we don't have physical evidence, I find it astounding that Susan would be driven to such extremes unless she had been the victim of something quite awful.”
“And Boris?”
“Boris is Anatoly's best friend. Until someone confesses to the truth, I believe he feels obligated to stand with Anatoly.”
Lara yawned. “I understand. One of them is lying, and we don't have the proof to condemn either. What do you suggest we do?”
Lara found it both reassuring and strange she was again asking Miguel for his advice. He seemed to be exactly the man of self-assuredness she knew until their final day on Centauri III. And even though her pragmatic side continued to warn her that this sudden and complete recovery did not make sense, Lara chose to accept this as an unexplained miracle of the universe.
They stood before a SlipTube. “For now, we should ensure they don't see each other,” Miguel said. “Anatoly has made that easier on us. He realizes his presence on the command deck could be uncomfortable for everyone, so he volunteered to station himself in the exo-lab and begin prelims for the Lock-Transfer procedure.”
“But there will be crews from ASTROcom to handle that. It won't be necessary for days, maybe weeks.”
“True, but it will keep him busy.”
As they stepped into the SlipTube, Miguel continued. “There is another matter we need to discuss.” He spoke to the computer: “COMMAND DECK.”
As the Tube accelerated, he began. “While Boris and I waited for Olivia to finish her examination of Anatoly, Boris briefed me on the debate over the use of Napier. He and Peter believe the hours to refit Napier, plus the potential risks it may face upon re-entry, would make such an endeavor futile. I understand that Daniel disagrees.” He turned to Lara. “So do I.”
“You think it's possible Earth isn't going to come to us.”
“We have no answers for the lack of response.”
Lara sighed. “I was going to wait until Mifuro confirmed his findings before saying anything. But he thinks he's found proof that our signals are being jammed from the surface. What did he call it? A Grayson-Ridder signature, I think. Miguel, if we're going ...”
When Lara turned to the Brazilian, she blinked twice, felt cold for a split second and was certain she was looking at a paralyzed man. Miguel was perfectly erect, head cocked slightly toward her, eyes open but glassy, and his lips were pursed.
Not paralyzed, she thought. Frozen.
She blinked again, and Miguel smiled. “We have no answers for the lack of ... excuse me? What?”
“Strong possibility we're being jammed?” She said hesitantly.
“Jammed? You believe our signals are being jammed?”
“No, Mifuro found the evidence that ...”
Suddenly, her words were stifled. A violent jerk threatened to rip them from their G-stamps, but legs remained firm as torsos swayed.
“Mother of ...” Miguel shouted as a low rumble followed the jerk, and the Tube vibrated after it came to a shocking and premature halt.
The graphic outline of the SlipTube network had vanished from the overhead schematic, replaced by flashing red words: “EMERGENCY FULL STOP. SAFETY PROGRAM ENGAGED.”
Lara was panicking, and she struggled against hyperventilation. She was certain the echo she heard after the initial jerk was an explosion.
Miguel reacted, punched into the Tube's comm-link.
“Computer! What just happened?”
“MAJOR MALFUNCTION IN STASIS SYSTEMS HAS OCCURRED,” a pleasant mechanical voice responded. “HULL INTEGRITY HAS BEEN COMPROMISED. EMERGENCY COMPRESSION PROCEDURES HAVE BEEN ENGAGED.”
“Compression?” Lara heard the panic in her own voice. The panel lighting in the Tube flickered. “There's been an explosion, right? It's penetrated the hull!”
“Not necessarily,” Miguel said as he bypassed the computer link. “Command deck! Command deck! Anyone respond! This is Navarro.”
The wait was an interminable few seconds, and then a stressed but familiar Japanese voice responded.
“Where are you?” Mifuro asked. “Are you with the captain?”
“Yes. We're both here.” Lara shouted into the link. “We're in a Tube. It shut down. Mifuro, what happened to the ship?”
“There was an explosion. Peter is on his way down there now. We don't know the extent of the damage, but it appears from first readings that the effect was contained within the stasis chamber.” For the first time Lara could recall, Mifuro's voice broke. “There was no warning, and we have no idea why it happened,” he said. “We're going to inspect it if we ... I’ll contact Boris and Olivia. We may need all hands.”
And then she triggered her brain to replay the last several seconds. Specifically, the words.
Stasis chamber.
Stasis chamber.
Stasis chamber.
She couldn’t breathe.
20
T
he clock was ticking much too rapidly at Second Sunrise, less than 40 minutes before the Sprints would launch, and there was only one issue left to be resolved. It was the only one where Adam Smith and Rand McNichols parted views.
“I strongly advise we break from the protocol of silent running, just for the duration of the attack,” Rand insisted as they neared conclusion of the war room briefing.
“The risk is too great,” Adam attempted to close the subject there, knowing full well Rand would pursue this.
“It’s very likely, Adam, we will be able to provide Janise's unit with vital information as they enter the fray, perhaps information to save their lives. We will be monitoring all PAC communications channels, and it is probable that if there are unexpected twists, we'll learn of them before her unit will. If we do not handcuff ourselves and relay that data, we could prevent many casualties. I believe we need to keep an open channel.”
Adam paused, turned to Janise. Her eyes were soft, and he could sense that she stood by Adam on this issue.
“I'm sorry, Rand. My position on silent running has not changed. For 19 years, we have remained essentially invisible to the PAC because of this policy. We have monitored MassGrid without any aggressive interaction; all outbound transmissions to our operatives have been on time-delay bounces so nothing could be traced back to us; and we have jammed all incoming signals originating from outside the wv.scan shield. To change this protocol, even for less than an hour, could be a deathblow for everything we have strived to achieve. I simply can't agree to this.”
Rand was adamant. “At the very least, we can allow for an isolated stream link-up between our best comm officer and Janise. I think Michael Straczynski would be perfect. He knows all the safeguards and can maneuver through the long-range links better than anyone.” He turned to Janise. “You may not be aware that we’ve been experimenting with isolation links over the past couple of months.”
“I didn’t,” she said. “How it would work?”
“Basically, the stream chip functions as a multipurpose oscillator with our neural net, allowing us to carry out a variety of tasks simultaneously – interacting with Subgroup claim sites, shopping WorldMarket, conducting interspeaks, and so forth. But the reason we’ve been running silent all these years is because those actions are under the public domain of MassGrid. If anyone – or any government – wanted to tap in, it wouldn’t be very difficult. Would violate every law in every EC charter but …”
“I understand that, Rand. The isolation link is?”
“A segmented transmission between two chips that piggybacks the Grid’s primary delivery protocol. The source chip would only need to be programmed with the other chip’s transponder bank.”
“My address, you mean. Have you had success? What are the risks?”
Rand paused, and Adam crossed his arms in irritation. “So far, about 40 percent success,” Rand said. “But programming a new transponder bank for reception requires t
he source user to undergo laser knotting surgery. A quick process, to be sure, but we haven’t determined the long-term effects on the synaptic interface with the chip.”
“Then I have to agree with Adam,” she replied. “We’ll go silent. I won’t risk the health of anyone here for a process that might not even work. And as for a standard stream link, I realize the potential for it to be monitored would be remote, not to mention illegal. But we're dealing with the PAC, and we don't know all of its capabilities. If the Senior Council would violate the charters it created by executing this plan against Andorran, then who’s to say what else those people are capable of? I appreciate you want to do everything possible to protect us, Rand. But if we do anything to compromise the safety of this base, any success we have in Barbados wouldn't mean much in the long run.”
“I believe the minimal risk is worth taking,” Rand continued, and Adam placed a firm hand upon his old friend's shoulder.
“Those are familiar words,” he said. “They are words of confidence in one context, but of arrogance in another. They're the words my wife used before she went to Denver. Despite ‘minimal risk,’ as she called it, the PAC somehow got to her. Gave Arvas to her. No! We will be exposed enough simply by sending Sprints to Barbados and our shuttle to Andorran. But even if either of those missions fails, there will be no chance of a link to this base. In the greater scheme, that factor must weigh over all else.”
Everyone in the war room knew exactly to what Adam was referring. All Second Sunrise craft were long ago sensory programmed – in essence, operated by genetic imprint, much in the way any BluCard was validated by a genetic scan. If unauthorized users attempted to engage any system – even a printlock on the ship's hull – self-destruction would be triggered. The one certainty in this fateful day: The PAC would not be able to learn anything about its underground enemy by commandeering its technology.
Rand nodded emphatically, and he smiled with reservation when Janise reassured him again that this was, after all, the most practical approach. And then she hugged him.
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