The wrap-around holo-screen hung in the air, half enclosing him. Chim sat in the command chair. Elissa occupied his lap, a weightless density, legs and arms tucked in. Star-fire hair flowed down her back. It was all the covering she wore. She leaned her head against his chest, pretending sleep. He couldn’t help smiling at the all-embracing trust of her posture though it made working a little awkward. “Are you sure you’re quite comfortable?” he asked.
“Oh, yes,” she murmured, eyes staying closed. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”
“I can see that.”
“Oooo! You say the sweetest things.”
“How about calling up some reference data on Ebon for me?”
“For you, anything. Here it is. Ebon, called an aquatic moon, is actually a small planet locked in a mutual orbit with its big brother, Janus. Arm-in-arm, they dance around Sirius, one of the brightest stars in the night.”
“Names usually prove meaningful where planets are concerned. Why those names?”
“Janus has no day and night cycle. Like the Roman god she’s named for, she has two unchanging faces, one dark, one bright, with colonists and military bases located in the twilight zone between. In the shadow of Janus, Ebon is eternally shielded from sunlight, warmed only by intense volcanic activity in her seas. There are clusters of black coral islands and reefs, with a rich abundance of sea life.” Growing bored with the recital, Elissa stretched cat-like, arching her back, extending her arms over her head, bringing her well-formed breasts to his immediate attention.
“I’m tryin’ to work here,” he groused.
Her smile had a wicked edge to it. “So who’s stopping you?”
“It would help me concentrate if you’d put something on,” he suggested.
“Sure.” A sheath of lightest gossamer appeared, clinging faithfully to every curve. It didn’t help.
He sighed. “This system in an anomaly. I’ve never heard of
planetary mechanics this screwy.”
“Ebon does have an aquatic race of high sophistication. There’s a theory going around that they actually re-engineered this system at some point in their ancient past with lost technology.”
“I’ve never heard of so advanced a culture. Has the knowledge been that deeply suppressed?”
“Of course. There are some things even x-class agents don’t need to know. It’s a good thing you got me to find them out for you.”
“Are their human settlements on Ebon along with these water fairies of yours?”
“Not really. Just a few research projects. You know, this is a homecoming for me. I was … born here … on Ebon.”
“Really? You must be excited to be back.”
“Not really. No one on Ebon or Janus will welcome or even remember me.”
“That’s sad. Even an AI should have someone to remember them.” Chim paused a moment in thought. “How long ‘til we reach the two planets?”
“Not long. Torque drive has been shut down. We’re arcing past Sirius, using the sun’s drag to cut our speed. An hour of breaking, with minor adjustments using the secondary drive, and we’ll be there.”
“Good. That gives us time to run a pre-use checklist on support equipment I’m likely to need planet-side. I want to know my equipment will give me optimum performance.”
“My mech-units regularly service everything, Chim. When have you ever been disappointed?”
“Humor me. Also, check supplies. I’ll need fresh water, food concentrates, a med-kit with the latest anti-venom complex, a waterproof force blade, and a compressed air pistol with magnesium and stun grenades loaded into a Deep Sea Transport. And make sure there’s an emergency rebreather onboard in case I have to bail from both the vessel and my armor.”
“Fine. Which DST do you want loaded, the skate or the crab?
“The skate will do. Oh, I want you to break orbit on this one. Artic seas can be especially unforgiving. I’ve a feeling that if I run into trouble, I’ll need help fast. I want the ship planet-side.”
“The coordinates I’ve been given are for the shadow zone, the largest island in the equatorial chain. You might not even get your feet wet, Chim.”
“You might be right, Elissa, but I’ve stayed alive this long by anticipating the improbable. Why stop now?”
“Play it anyway you like, Lover, just so you come back to me.”
“I promise.”
They eased between planets, and rode the secondary drive down. Elissa’s voice reached him over the implant. “This is spooky. I’ve never seen darkness this absolute before; no sun, no stars, no city lights…”
“There should be some sign of life from the base where the research teams are working.”
“Ah. I’ve got the island on sensors. There’s a guidance beacon on its highest ridge.”
“Good. I’m ready to go.” Chim stood within the departure bay, next to the air lock. His jade body sheath was covered with a gray exo-suit, his ghost-white face lost behind the usual black visored helmet. A blood-hued cloak spilled down his back, anchored at his shoulders by crossed metallic bands that identified him as an x-class agent. He sometimes wondered if the external image he presented was more real than the creature in the steel shell.
“Have you turned up any more data on station personnel?” Chim sub-vocalized.
Elissa answered as the hatch cycled open. “The team leader is Lyle Gordon, an expert in xeno-genetics and biochemistry…”
The wind glazed his visor with frozen spray whipped up off the sea, as he slipped out of the ship, dropping several stories to the ice-caked sand and coral. His exo-suit absorbed the impact easily. He straightened, and moved inland.
Elissa’s voice continued to unwind softly in his ear. “Gordon has a hand-picked team, his usual support staff, and his daughter Rachel is current staying with him. Hmmmm. Now she’s interesting … high psi rating, a documented xeno-empath able to emotionally link to other species. Uh-oh. Better not let her get too close.”
“Cause she’s an empath?” Chim approached a patch of light produced by a parked crawler. The waiting crawler was an older, more beat-up model than those stored aboard his own ship.
“Yeah, sure, that’s a good reason,” Elissa said.
“Not jealous, are you?”
“I wouldn’t waste my time.”
He climbed into the crawler’s hatch and took a seat opposite a willowy blond. She was young, barely out of her teens, with tawny hair and awe-struck eyes that reminded Chim of a summer sky on Terra. There was freshness there, a naivety, uncommon and unfeigned. “Rachel Gordon?” Chim said.
“If you say so.”
“She is,” The driver said, starting up the engine and sealing the door. “My name’s Terrence Williams, team gopher. Someone needs something, they say, Terry, go fer this go fer that … and I go. Doc Gordon would have come to meet you personally, but he’s been preoccupied with an unexpected visitor.”
“Terry’s clear as glass,” Rachel said. “His emoting matches his inner resonances. You know how rare that is? Of course you do; you’re Deus Ex Mecha aren’t you, one of the Imperium’s cyber-gods?”
“If you say so.” Materializing just outside his visor, Chim’s trained voice was smooth, passionless, and soft though it filled whatever space he was in. In his youth, he’d trained at the feet of a Japanese master who could kill with a vowel and a consonant or two. The skill was not one he’d ever had to use, but it was there, buried deep within him. That’s what made a professional adventurer; the willingness to spend huge chunks of time and energy mastering obscure skills that might be needed only a few times in the course of a life—when it was on the line. Such sacred devotion to training made the difference between the professional and the amateur.
Chim noticed Rachel leaning forward, staring into his black visor. He knew all she could see was her own image thrown back at here … and yet… Her eyes were focused on a point inside his helmet, as if she truly saw his face. “Be careful,” he said. “When yo
u stare into the abyss, it sometimes stares back.”
“You are a strange one,” Rachel said. “Every time I think I’m getting close to your heart, it slips away—as if your soul were wrapped in folds of tesseracted space. You, my friend, are a mystery deeper than Ebon’s seas.” She leaned back, striking a speculative pose with half-lidded eyes.
“At least I’m not boring,” Chim said.
“Don’t mind her,” Terrence called out. “She’s a true empath; that makes her useful sometimes, but also a little whacky.”
Chim saw the girl’s eyes flash over to the driver. A red blush deepened her color. The guardsman sub-vocalized a message to Elissa. “I guess I’m a little empathic myself. I see which way her heart is beating. I don’t believe I’m the real reason she came along for the ride.”
“Poor thing,” Elissa said. “She’s got a crush on that guy that won’t stop, and he doesn’t even see it.”
Wide and uncertain, Rachel’s eyes turned back to Chim.
“You look like you just saw a chimera,” he observed.
“For a moment, I almost had you in focus. There was an awful light, twin stars burning in a terrible darkness…”
Chim decided to divert the conversation with a question. “So, who is this other visitor that’s taking up your father’s valuable time?”
“Imperial Senator,” Rachel mumbled. “Think his name’s Rumpshaw. He gets us our funding.”
Terrence flashed a grin over his shoulder as the aged crawler pulled into a pre-fab hangar nestled next to a monstrous dome. “All right, we’re
there. All out. The door in that far wall leads into the base.”
Chim stood up. “How many levels are there?” he asked.
“Too many to count,” Rachel answered, “a couple above ground and the rest below.”
Terrence took over the discussion as Rachel fell silent. “This place goes deep. The lower level is a forest of flooded shafts—tanks of all sizes, holding specimens. These tubes are ultra-dense silica extending to the sea floor.
“An amazing feat of engineering,” Elissa’s voice was the lightest whisper in Chim’s helmet. “This place doesn’t register on ship sensors. There’s no heat signature either. The Imperium wasn’t pinching credits when they built this. They must be playing for high stakes.”
The guardsman rose and followed Rachel out of the crawler hatch, with Terrence close behind. Chim’s steps echoed heavily in the near-empty hanger. Soon, they reached a door. Rachel placed her hand against a scanner, staring into a glowing plate that checked her retinal patterns. Terrence followed her example. It became Chim’s turn. He didn’t bother with the usual procedure. His suit transmitted an encoded burst that identified him to the security system. A nearby panel set in the wall flipped around, a revolving door on a center axis. The girl slipped inside and Chim followed. Terrence closed the panel behind them.
They were in a hallway. Blue-white light-bars were spaced out evenly on the glazed walls. The passage led to an open bay filled with exotic machinery. “Ever seen anything like this before?” Chim asked Elissa.
“Nope.”
“Really?”
A shrill siren diverted him from chasing down an unfocused suspicion. Hearing it, Rachel and Terrence ran off excitedly. Abandoned, Chim shrugged and followed. “Seems like we got here just in time for a little excitement,” he said, running. “I wonder what they keep here that needs such precautions.”
“Keep going,” Elissa said. “I have a feeling we’re about to find out.”
At the core of the machinery, they found a command center. Shadow boards floated in the air, displaying multicolored geometric patterns. They changed the views on a bank of holo-screens. Techs in lab coats manned various stations, talking in techno-babble. They manipulated the shadow boards, causing the holo-images on screen to leap from one level of the structure to another.
Chim sub-vocalized. “Impressive. A lot of this is military hardware. One of the techs touched a red square. It went blue, cutting off the siren, leaving a thick silence behind. The man in charge turned dead black eyes toward Chim, saying nothing.
“That’s Lyle Gordon,” Elissa reported, “the project head. The man
with the slicked-back hair and the ridiculously outdated suit is Senator Rumpshaw.
“There you are,” Rumpshaw said. “About time you got here. We have a bothersome set of monsters here that need killing and dissection.”
“Look there!” Gordon pointed at a screen.
Chim saw a large vault filled with slanting tubes—hundreds of glass boles running from floor to ceiling—through many decks, but accessed at the displayed level through pressure seals. The tubes were of many sizes, filled with water and occasional specimens.
Chim deduced that all the tanks were probably in use. Those appearing empty simply had occupants at other levels of the complex. The level on the screen was probably where samples were removed, nutrients were added, and oxidation was adjusted.
In addition to hollow boles containing small life forms, there were tubes large enough to hold a Terrestrial whale. One such tube had an ephemeral occupant, something like a jellyfish with a glowing blue core. It slid down a tube and vanished like an aquatic will-of-the-wisp until a new vid camera caught up to it.
The image of the creature teased an obscure memory. I know I’ve seen something very much like this once before, a long time ago. He withdrew into himself, clearing his head of thought, trying to relax. If he forced the memory, it wouldn’t come…
* * *
The floor spots bathed him in a soft white wash as he stared out through the thick glass tunnel into the surrounding aquarium. He didn’t know why such an exhibit had been erected on Charon, so far below the frozen crust. There were specimens here from countless worlds. Those that could live peacefully together shared the big tanks. Others had their own sealed off sections that weren’t easily accessible to view.
He liked the invertebrates the best. Though weak and fragile in appearance, they had beauty and hidden talents to call upon. A huge jellyfish hovered only a few feet away. It glowed ghostly blue, and used a powerful toxin to sting a small silver fish that had incautiously invaded its tendrils. The strands drew the fish up into the transparent hood for digestion.
It was utterly fascinating. Too fascinating. He’d let down his guard. A hand fell on his shoulder, spinning him around, shoving him back against the wall. “I thought I’d find you here.” It was Tobias, an upper-classman that had been riding him since he started middle school. The boy’s eyes went to the jellyfish, then back to Chim. “Come to visit your
Momma?”
“What do you want?” Chim asked, feeling his face tighten with anger.
“I want to know how you’re doing it.”
“Doing what?”
“Cheating, you’ve been trashing the curve, making it harder on the rest of us. I can’t believe you’re that much smarter. Tell me how you’re doing it and I’ll let you crawl away in one piece.”
“There’s nothing I can tell you.” Chim tried to spin away, but a fist caught him in the face. Other blows followed. Pain inundated his mind, drenching all thought, until he felt himself sliding to the tunnel floor. Unfortunately, complete unconsciousness was slow in coming. Not so, the kicks that caught him in the gut and ribs. He breathed shallowly, keeping little air in his body as he tensed his abdomen against the shocks.
Abuse was nothing new; he’d spent most of his young life on the savage streets of a backwater planet before being brought here. He knew how to survive, and did so on his own terms, when possible. Fighting back directly would have been satisfying, but as a first response, it was frowned on by the white-coats that were always watching—directly or by hidden vid. Tobias’ violent behavior wouldn’t necessarily be counted against him—but its ineffectiveness on Chim would be. Tobias wouldn’t be around much longer. Chim only needed to ride out this particular storm and he’d win.
Tobias grew tired and stopped. “
Well, whatever you’re doing, stop it!”
Chim heard retreating steps. Alone, he let go, sinking into darkness for a while—a deep meditation where he encouraged his body to start rebuilding the damage. Sometime later, his awareness turned outward. He sat up and leaned back against the glass. Various body parts complained. He turned, getting his knees under him, pressing his hands against the transparent wall. Pressing against it, he managed to stand, sliding his hands higher.
On the other side, the jellyfish was still there. Its tendrils danced across the glass over the spots he touched. The creature seemed to be trying to offer comfort. “Don’t worry,” Chim said. “I’m fine.” He made his way carefully back down the tunnel, heading back to the project-x birthing area. The invertebrate followed, pacing him. He’d made a friend.
* * *
Chim shook off the memory, noticing that the creature on-screen was growing brighter. Its core turned white, as jags of raw electricity arced away. Though the charges started strong, they quickly diffused in the water. The jellyfish moved to the inside of the shaft wall, hugging it. The ion charges were inducted into the cylinder wall, hitting it full force. It clouded, cracked, then exploded. Water surged out the hole, washing across the deck, carrying the jellyfish with it.
Formidable.
“We’ve lost that level,” Gordon said. “Isolate it from the rest of the complex. Reroute power. Fortunately, that level’s been evacuated. There’s no loss of life.”
“How long has this been going on?” Chim asked.
“Too long. You can see why we need you.”
“And then there’s the other one,” the senator said.
“What other one?” Chim asked.
“You can see it there.” Gordon pointed out a different screen. It showed the same tube at a lower level. Inside it was a man-like shape, scaled, with a dorsal fin on its back. It dropped down headfirst, strong legs driving it quickly. Its webbed fingers cupped the water, helping to steer it. Stiff fin ridges rippled along the outside of its legs, and stubby tentacle growths sprouted from its chest.
Agent X Page 7
