They couldn’t see her.
With the door of her room left open, Lana had to make a move. This might be her only chance.
She charged from her cover and it wasn’t until she was right on top of the security guards that they saw her. One screamed and lifted his hands to protect himself as Lana smashed her metal hand into his face. He flew backward and she kept sprinting for the door as the other guard fired his weapon at her.
Lana ducked into a forward roll, escaping into the hall. For the first time, she got a good view of the facility. Metal walls and no windows, with security cameras everywhere.
Anywhere sounded good to Lana. The doors to the elevator wouldn’t open. So, she forced them wide and jumped down into the elevator shaft. She landed with a thud and the shock of the impact reverberated through her.
Damn, that hurt more than she thought it would. Lana couldn’t believe what she was doing. How she moved. She never felt so fast, so powerful, like her lungs could take in more air than ever before. She was going to be unstoppable.
Abby sighed.
Lana wasn’t sure if they had a second. The elevator car they had landed on lurched as it started to descend and Lana splayed her fingers out on the surface. She had to get off it and get moving up. Gazing upward, that was the way she had to go, wasn’t it? Abby said a few levels up.
She jumped over to the wall and grabbed onto a ladder centered on the back wall of the shaft. Lana took a deep breath and started to climb up toward the next level.
There wasn’t time to rest, if that was what Abby was trying to imply. Escape seemed so close, almost something that Lana could touch. She had to keep going.
Lana pulled herself up and through the elevator doors. She crawled into a service hallway, and the landing pad was visible through a window at the far end. From what she could see, it appeared to be a small cargo ship. If she could just get there…. She rose to her feet, broke cover and ran for the end of the hall and the door beside the window.
Lana was going to make it. She really was. She was going to…
Security forces stepped out in front of her, and her over-sensitive hearing picked up footfalls behind her, as well. She was surrounded. Someone stepped through the doorway from the landing pad, and Lana took a tentative step back. It was a rather angry-looking woman…a woman she had seen before. Where had Lana seen her before?
The woman’s lips twisted into an unpleasant smirk. “Take her to the lab. We’re just about ready for her. And from the looks of it,” he glanced down at her hand, “not a moment too soon.”
Lana’s jaw tensed as vice-like hands grabbed her arms. “You’re going to regret this!”
She laughed. “I really doubt it.”
“Wait,” Lana said to the security guards all around her. “I really…. Please. Don’t hurt me.”
Their stone-cold faces didn’t seem to care one way or another. A needle jabbed into her skin, and Lana felt the walls begin to spin. Would no one help her? Would no one truly come?
PERSEVERANCE
STELLAR DATE: 08.46.8947 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Salvage ship Dauntless, In orbit of Perseverance
REGION: Scattered Disk, Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
The planet’s name was Perseverance.
Kylie had spent years in the Gedri system and never heard of it, but that wasn’t too surprising. The dual-star system contained over three hundred dwarf planets, most way out in the scattered disk—out beyond the jump points, and without anything to make a visit worthwhile.
It was a pale gray planet, on the large side for a dwarf world with a diameter of just over four thousand kilometers. It had a dense core, giving it 0.65g on the surface. The wiki for the planet suggested that it was most likely the core of a larger planet that had been ejected in some cataclysmic event early in Gedri’s formation.
The data entries on the planet showed that several new mining rigs had taken up work on its surface, drilling down for the rare elements below the ancient crust, tucked in the deep reaches of its once-molten core.
Supporting those mining rigs were the refineries, service companies, and, naturally, the brothels, drug dens, mod shops, and whatever else showed up to take the miner’s hard-earned cash.
They were, of course, all run by Harken now—perhaps they always had been.
It was time to get down there, scout it out, and hope it was enough to secure Nadine’s release.
At the controls, Rogers’ back was ramrod straight and his shoulders tense. “I don’t know about you, but this whole thing feels pretty ominous.”
Kylie felt the same way, but she didn’t want to say it out loud and jinx the mission. “We tackle this like we always do. A heist. An op. We land, and we do what we have to. Get this job done.”
Winter sat at a console scanning the surface of the planet, getting the lay of the land around their target. “We’re good at that. Even if we’re nothing else, we got that.”
The facility was near one of the massive mining rigs that hunkered down on the planet. Over three kilometers tall, with a base over two across, struts, beams, and cables splayed out from the facility, anchoring it to the planet as it drilled a thousand kilometers into the world in search of precious elements.
“That is one big rig,” Rogers muttered as they began their descent toward the world. “Cool name too; it’s called the Unyielding Lance.”
“I like that,” Winter said.
“That new ident box you picked up from Finn better be clean,” Kylie said. “GFF has a lot of patrol craft around. I guess they want to keep their investment safe.”
“It’s clean. Finn has never done me wrong. I have the old box wrapped in a faraday cage, too; its signal isn’t getting out. As far as anyone looking at scan knows, we’re flying the Splendid Hero here.”
“Now that’s a stupid name,” Winter grunted.
“I don’t care what the name is,” Kylie said, “so long as it doesn’t get us shot down on approach.”
“No sweat, Captain,” Roger gave a brave smile. “I’ll have an approach vector from the planet’s Space Traffic Control in no time—and there it is. We’re cleared for our descent.”
The ship’s documented destination was the planet’s main spaceport, but they would instead touch down outside one of the service towns near the Unyielding Lance. ATC may send them a nastygram, but on a world like this, out in the fringes of the Gedri system, people rarely lande
d where they were supposed to.
The service town Kylie had selected was a dumpy place named Treatise. It was just ten kilometers from the brothel where Harken had her secret lab. Kylie drew her lips into a thin line. “Come in low enough so I can jump off near the facility. You boys have some drinks or something at Treatise, but stay close to the ship. If things go bad, I’m going to need a distraction.”
“We excel at that.” Winter laughed and slid a piece of gum into his mouth.
“That we do, boys. Winter, any last-minute advice?”
“Yeah, don’t get dead.” He stood up and towered over her. “Want me to come with you?”
Kylie shook her head. “No, Grayson’s right. Me going alone makes the most sense. If I don’t come back, you can find a way to rescue Nadine. You can’t do that if we’re all dead.”
Winter rose his eyebrow. “Pull a fast one on this Jason guy that has her? You really think we could run a job like that?”
Kylie laughed and clapped the big man on the shoulder. “I have no doubt.”
Not one for long goodbyes, she hurried out of the bridge and down the corridor to the port airlock. She was already wearing the base layer of her Trylodyne IA99 armor, and she picked up the armor’s snug helmet and the stealth layer.
“Kylie!”
She turned her head to see Grayson dashing toward her. “Rushing to wish me luck?”
“Of course, but I have faith in you. I always have,” Grayson said and she got the feeling he was leading up to say something else.
She kept her eyes on him. “What else is there? Something, I’m guessing.”
He nodded. “If you get in there and you can get close enough to see Lana, to see what condition she’s in, and if you can read the situation right…why not rescue Lana here and now?”
“By myself?” Kylie’s mouth fell open at the level of faith he must have in her. “I appreciate the blind faith you have in me—” It wasn’t as though she hadn’t considered it—stars, she had debated it with Rogers and Winter more than once. None of them thought she could do it, but it seemed Grayson did.
“That’s always been the mission. Rescue Lana and bring her back to General Samuel, so why all the back and forth with this bounty hunter?”
“To rescue Nadine.” Kylie’s cheeks reddened. “I should’ve known you’d try to bypass that little step—because it means nothing to you. She means nothing to you, which is fine, you just met. But she means a lot to me and I can’t…I won’t forget about her, Grayson.”
Grayson held his hands up. “Hear me out. If we bring Lana to General Samuel, you’ll have SSF warships backing you up when you meet this bounty hunter. We’ll get Nadine back and your letter of marquee.” For a moment, Grayson’s eyes shifted. “Just think about it, that’s all I’m asking you. If you think you can get Lana and yourself out alive, just consider it.”
Kylie nodded. “And you can guarantee that the SSF would help me rescue Nadine?” He was right about one thing; if Kylie could get Lana out, she’d have a better bargaining chip to get Nadine back from Jason—except with Grayson onboard, he would insist they immediately turn Lana over to the SA. He may believe that General Samuel would help rescue Nadine, but Kylie wasn’t so ready to stake her lover’s life on it.
“Of course, I can,” he said. “If you do this for General Samuel, you can have pretty much anything you want.”
Kylie thought about that long and hard. Samuel was hiding something, and she wasn’t ready to trust him, but Grayson…maybe. “I’ll keep it in the back of my mind but I won’t put the Dauntless or the crew in more danger than is necessary. Understand?”
Grayson nodded. “Understood. Now you be safe out there. You do what you need to, but get back to the ship in one piece.”
“I—”
Her words were cut off as Grayson took her face in is hands and kissed her. Kylie was taken off-guard. She nearly stumbled backward, surprised to feel his warm lips against hers again. When it was through, their eyes locked on each other and Kylie lived through a lifetime in his. The years of courtship, the wedding, the painful divorce, it all played out in an instant in her mind.
His hands dropped to his side. He turned and walked away. Just like that.
Wasn’t that the truth?
* * * * *
The kiss distracted her. Kylie tried to scrub it from her mind. Why would Grayson pick now, of all times, to do that? Was he trying to throw it off balance? Was it a good luck kiss? Or maybe he thought he might never see her again so why the hell not? Sometimes a kiss was just a kiss, and sometimes love dimmed into nothing but a single spark.
Always there. Always waiting.
Kylie had to push it all away and forget. She was doing this, after all, for Nadine, her lover. She didn’t need feelings for Grayson clouding the issue. Things were good between her and Nadine. They had a wonderful rhythm. Kylie was accepted for who she was. It was a wonderful thing, so she couldn’t let one little kiss cloud her mind.
She shook her head one last time shake the distracting thoughts free, then pulled the armor’s helmet on, grimacing as the rebreather settled in her mouth. At least it would do double duty and give her enough air when in Perseverance’s thin atmosphere.
How comforting, Kylie thought and was pleased when Marge didn’t reply. Maybe she was finally getting the hang of keeping her thoughts to herself.
Kylie slithered into the stealth layer and put the pistols in their holsters, then snapped the rifle into the latches on her back. She added enough ammunition for the trouble certainly awaiting her and stepped into the airlock.
Outside it was dark; a world like Perseverance was always dark. From here, the Big OJ was little brighter than any other star. Ahead, Unyielding Lance’s running lights cast long, eerie shadows across the landscape as tore its way to the center of the planet.
Kylie looked down at the ground rushing by over twenty meters below.
Kylie slipped her feet into a pair of thruster boots that would slow her descent and forward motion. Hopefully, before she smashed into the ground, or one of those rock outcroppings Rogers had mentioned.
On the count of three, Kylie jumped. The boots fired their retro thrusters on cue, and she hit the ground with only a moderately jarring impact.
She unslung her rifle and scanned her surroundings with the armor’s enhanced vision. Nothing stood out other than rocks, and more rocks. Man of them showed signs of recent exposure to extreme heat—likely from when the Unyielding Lance lowered itself onto the world.
On her right, she could see the distant lights of the brothel, and she activated her stealth armor, pleased to see her limbs disappear from view.
From this far out, no guards were visible, but she imagined they would be soon enough.
That a girl, Marge. Kylie hated to admit that so far, having an AI wasn’t exactly the worst thing that had ever happened to her. Was everything that her parents and their group believed a lie? How long had she been hiding from this tech on faulty information? Could everything her parents believed just be simple paranoia?
As she drew closer to the brothel and its hidden lab, the landscape became littered with heavy-grade crates—supply drops that hadn’t been collected yet. Beyond the crates her armor’s sensors picked up movement. Kylie zoomed the optical pickups and saw a pair of all-terrain vehicles on patrol.
Close Proximity - An Aeon14 Space Opera Adventure (Perilous Alliance) Page 21