by M. D. Cooper
Angela shouted across the team’s private network.
“In?” Tanis asked, sitting up straight on the temporary seating they’d installed in the Sig’s gate control room. “Like…in-in?”
“That’s good,” Sera said from where she stood by the thick plas window, watching Saanvi and Jason as they set up scaffolding around the ten-meter jump gate in the other room. “Because I imagine we’re only going to get so far with direct examination.”
“I just wonder if they ever got it to work,” Joe said. “And why the heck does that design look so familiar?”
Tanis rose, walking to the window—from which they’d removed the shutters, giving a fully unobstructed view of the gate. “You know…it does look a little familiar. I mean, it has a normal number of mirrors and emitters for a gate this size. If you took away the Sig writing and the power lines, it could pass as one of ours…but there’s something off about it.”
“Yeah, that, and there’s the angle on the face of the support ring itself,” Joe pointed out. “That’s sharper, too. So why does it look so familiar?”
A moment later, Sera was on her feet. She strode across the room, staring out the window like she’d seen a ghost. “I know where we’ve seen a gate like that before.” She turned to Tanis, her face paling from red to pink. “Xalta, in Scipio.”
“Wait, what?” Tanis asked. “I don’t recall hearing about that.”
Joe nodded. “I remember the report now. I got it at the Palisades. You were taking a jaunt through the ASN at the time. Maybe it just didn’t make it to you. A lot was going on back then.”
“Fair enough,” his wife said, drawing in a deep breath, thankful that they’d decided to air up the room.
Saanvi had objected at first, but after they’d inspected the consoles and found them half corroded from the oxygen-rich period the lower caverns had gone through, she agreed there was no saving them—though they did seal a couple in grav fields for later study.
“So…” Sera mused as she all but glared at the gate. “Do you think it’s just coincidence?”
Tanis glanced at her long-time friend. “What do you think?”
“I think that we’re thirty-nine thousand light years from Scipio, on the far side of the galactic core. There’s literally no way they could have gotten here and back in a reasonable amount of time before ten years ago.”
“But it’s not impossible,” Joe said. “The Transcend got ships to the Large Magellanic Cloud before gate travel.”
Sera nodded. “That’s true, but it’s a lot easier to navigate the intergalactic void than it is to get around the galactic core. And it’s not like they knew where they were going. There are no records of Scipio launching exploratory missions like that.”
“OK.” Tanis nodded as she considered Sera’s argument. “So if the Scipians got their start on gate tech from the Sigs, it would have had to be something they found in their general vicinity—within the Orion Arm, at least.”
Joe gave her a quizzical look. “If the Sigs had spread far enough to make it to the Orion Arm, we absolutely would have found evidence long ago. What angle are you going with here?”
“Well, for starters, maybe we did find it, but the knowledge was lost during the FTL Wars—or tucked under a mountain deep in Scipio….”
“Or maybe the Sigs used jump gates to explore the galaxy a bit, and someone found one, and it—or descriptions of it—ended up in Scipian hands.”
Sera pursed her lips, nodding slowly. “As good as any other explanation.”
“And any data associated with it,” Joe said. “Imagine if someone in ancient Scipio translated Sig well enough to build a gate from their plans. That would jump us light years ahead.”
Tanis turned to Joe. “I guess that’ll be us. We’ve already tarried too long here.”
He sighed and nodded. “Duty calls and all that.”
Angela added her own tired sigh.
CHAPTER 21 - MIRA
STELLAR DATE: 01.05.8960 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: OASS Inquiry, near Trellis
REGION: Khorina System, Outer Alliance
Mira glanced at Aqua, who sat at one of the bridge consoles, watching the scan feeds. “How does that sound to you?”
“Like I expected it to,” the chief engineer said. “Unless we want to go raid that mining site—though I doubt they’re mining what we need for repairs.”
The commander sighed. “Too bad we can’t fab hull. On the Questor, we had that capability, and used it more than once.”
Aqua grunted. “Yeah, I’ve been lobbying for that on corvettes for ages, but no one wants to add the mass of the equipment and supplies. I get that keeping these ships nimble is imperative, but being able to make repairs without having to come back in every time something breaks would be nice, too.”
“Nothing for it, now,” Mira replied. “Getting down into that planet’s—not to mention the star’s—gravity well isn’t my idea of a good time. Not worth the risk, on the off-chance that we could improve our situation with whatever’s at that mine. We’ll just get to Hystera, complete our repairs, and be on our way.”
“Hopefully before those assholes arrive.”
“Even if they do, it’ll take them a few days to get around to the far side of Khorina,” Mira countered. “I really do think we’ll be alright.”
“Well, that’s interesting,” Janice muttered from her station. “I might finally have an idea who we’re up against.”
“Oh?” Mira stepped away from the holotank, walking around to stand behind the lieutenant. “Something about their ships?”
“That captain’s uniform, actually,” the AI replied. “It didn’t match anything on record, and was frankly a little bland. There was, however, a small logo on his lapel—what looked like a planet with three moons in orbit.”
Janice brought up an image of the man’s uniform on her console’s display.
“I can see that,” Mira said. “And no one uses that logo?”
“Not normally, no. But then I dug deeper, looking at unofficial documents—what we have on file, at least—from around the OA.”
“Annnnd?” Aqua prompted as she approached. “Just tell us who it is.”
“Hey, I worked for days on this—you’re going to get a feel for how hard it was.” Janice gave the engineer a cool look. “Got it?”
The chief held up her hands in mock defense. “OK. Sure. Don’t get all worked up.”
“Alright, so I got desperate. Nothing had any record of this logo until I started pori
ng through vids. Eventually, I got to Greg’s vids and found one about time-traveling space zombies.”
“Are you saying whoever is stealing from that artifact are space zombies?” Aqua asked, a smirk on her lips.
Mira shot the engineer quelling glance before nodding to Janice to continue.
“No, most assuredly not zombies. However, parts of the video were filmed on location at a Chalice Neural research facility.”
“They went belly-up a few years back, right?” Mira asked. “How could it be them?”
Janice quirked a smile. “Their consumer arm did, but they sold their commercial line, as well as their R&D, to Bozas Interstellar. Bozas has been expressing a lot of interest in further developing the Regina System of late….”
“That lines up,” Aqua said. “I could see them finding the artifact and then re-tooling Chalice’s R&D to work on unlocking whatever secrets are inside.”
“Plus attack OASF ships,” Mira ground out the words. “If we can prove this is Bozas, the OA can shut them down across the entire Alliance.”
“All the more reason for them to ensure we don’t make it back to Bysmark,” Aqua pointed out.
Mira shook her head. “There’s no way they can think this is contained now. The entire Regina System would have seen our fight—on top of that, they have to know that we would have sent a drone back.”
“You underestimate people’s ability to cover things up,” Janice replied. “They can likely handle Regina—given the size of their operation, they have people bought and paid for there. I suspect it’s only our last-minute course change that had them so unprepared for our visit.”
“There’s still our drone.”
“Which has to make it into Bysmark and then get its message to the right people. It’s unlikely, but it could be intercepted. You can bet that Bozas is going to try—they have a lot at stake.”
Mira stared at the findings displayed on Janice’s screen. “Right now, there are only two copies of this information in existence. Here, and on our drone. That’s not enough. Janice, I want you to prepare datacubes with everything we have, and set them in beacons. We’ll drop them around the Khorina System. Configure them not to squawk for ten days. That should ensure that our Bozan friends don’t realize they’re there if they come looking for us.”
“You got it,” Janice said. “I’ll stagger them. And we can probably drop a few hundred. If we don’t make it back, someone will come looking, and this’ll ensure the info gets out.”
“Good idea.” Mira walked back to her seat. “I’m going to sim combat with more of those Bozan ships. I want to be sure that next time we go head to head, we’re the clear victors.”
She’d just settled into her seat when a message came in from Lorra.
Mira felt the same way.
Mira pressed her lips together.
Mira steepled her fingers while pulling up the scan return Lorra had passed over the Link. It wasn’t much, just a black blob, maybe three hundred meters at the edge of one of Pellick’s lighter bands. It could have been anything—and it was certainly worth noting that the scan nodes were uncalibrated.
Despite her own personal reassurances that it was probably nothing, Mira couldn’t shake the fear that someone was waiting in the gas giant’s clouds, watching for the right moment to strike.
This just gets better and better.
CHAPTER 22 - GRAYSON
STELLAR DATE: 01.05.8960 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: The Barbaric Queen, Scorpii Minor
REGION: Pi Scorpii Beta, Independent Systems of the Lupus Cloud
Grayson rose from his seat in the silent auction and scanned the area, but came up empty.
Out of concern, he made his way toward the exit.
That’s what Grayson was afraid of, it’s what he felt deep down in his bones. Kylie was in trouble…but what kind of trouble could she have gotten into, sneaking around in an office?
It didn’t bode well for any of them.
“Duke Estevan,” General Mulke blocked the exit and offered Grayson his hand. “I hope you enjoyed yourself this afternoon.”
“Absolutely,” Grayson shook his hand. “It was a pleasure. But if you’ll excuse me, the duchess wasn’t feeling well.”
Mulke nodded. “I haven’t seen her in a while. I do hope she’s all right.” He grinned, and Grayson’s inner alarm sounded.
“Thank you.”
Quietly, he sidestepped the general and walked out into the adjoining ballroom. He quickly gave the room a once-over and almost missed the white cat sitting on the railing.
Luckily, the cat was beckoning Grayson with his left front paw.
Grayson suppressed a sigh and walked toward the little beast. He knew that Mr. Fizzle Pop liked Kylie a lot, so if he had seen something, he would likely be willing to help.
Still, talking to the cat wasn’t his favorite thing to do.
“ASSHOLE, HELP.”
“You need help?”
“NO. ASSHOLE NEED HELP. LISTEN.” Mr. Fizzle Pop pointed to his ear.
When a server walked by with a tray of goodies, he scooped a bunch of them up with his paw.
“Kylie?” Grayson whispered. “What happened?”
“LADY HAD WEAPON. ASSHOLE SHOT. ASSHOLE CARRIED OFF. FOLLOWED.”
“You followed? Where?”
Suddenly, Mr. Fizzle Pop made a direct Link connection with Grayson.
The former colonel blinked his eyes and tried to make sense of Mr. Fizzle Pop’s non-human HUD readout, finally realizing that the salient information was a blinking ball moving around the side of the cat’s vision. As best Kylie could tell, her attackers were moving through the rows of shuttles behind the hotel.
“GOT TRACKING SENSOR ON ASSHOLE AS WENT BY.”
The cat had come through again. It was hard to argue with results.
“Good job, MFP. Follow close behind. Don’t get lost.” Grayson moved on.
Mr. Fizzle Pop retorted angrily.
Grayson rolled his eyes and pushed Mr. Fizzle Pop’s HUD to Winter and Rogers, who reacted by screaming different profanities.
Rogers agreed.
Grayson acknowledged.
Grayson rushed down the stairs and headed toward a groundcar waiting to shuttle people into the city. A quick scan proved his assumptio
n was right: the driver was carrying a weapon, and simply put, Grayson needed it.
“Can I help you, sir?” the driver asked.
“Indeed.”
Grayson leveled him with a right hook. Before the driver fell, Grayson grabbed him by the suit jacket and found his weapon right inside the breast pocket. He made sure it was loaded, and then started toward the backside of the building.
He jumped over a garden wall and followed a brick pathway that twisted behind the building. Past that was a lot of green lawn, with guards up on a hill, using trees for cover. Beyond all that lay the rows of shuttles waiting for their VIP owners.
That’s where he needed to be.
He sidestepped the other guests, keeping his hand inside his jacket. He saw a shuttle being prepped for liftoff.
Grayson hoped Mr. Fizzle Pop hadn’t accidentally tagged a servitor.
He stepped out and rushed toward it, but several guards appeared from the mansion, shouting as they took aim at him.
Grayson rolled away to take cover just in the nick of time.
But it was nearly impossible; the guards kept him pinned down.
Grayson returned fire, slowly advancing from tree to tree.
His progress was too slow. The shuttle’s doors were shut, and the lights on the back glowed red. It’d lift off soon.
Grayson spotted a garage door under the mansion that appeared to lead underground. A quick scan showed vehicles inside and even a hover motorbike designed for racing.
With an engine like that, it was his best chance of catching up.
Grayson darted toward the garage and used a wave of nano to open the door. Inside, he found the motorbike in the center of the room, covered in a canvas wrap. He yanked it off, tearing it in places as necessary, and straddled the machine.
