Transformation Protocol

by David M. Kelly

  McDole showed no signs of embarrassment. "Painted on the inside of the glass. Undetectable."

  "Mine too?"

  She shook her head. "No. Don't worry, it's harmless. In about an hour, he'll be his usual self and won't remember much of this. I wanted him placid for a while, so I could talk to you privately. And I knew you wouldn't be allowed to come here without an escort."

  "This is a lot of intrigue if all you want to do is hand over a lost tourist."

  McDole's smile faltered. "I told you once before. Sometimes I have orders I don't necessarily like. And now my position is... less certain than it was before."

  Hernandez had been wandering around the room like a lost puppy, and now he slumped in a corner. He wasn't unconscious but looked dazed.

  "Okay. Make it quick."

  McDole nodded. "There are many in our community who feel I was too lenient with you. I was supposed to get the Ananta's secrets and destroy your ship, not make a deal to share everything. I also pushed to have Paek handed over for trial at a USP court, so that counted against me too. Now I'm in charge of Atoll Expansion Projects, taking Atoller culture to other solar systems, but the truth is my star is no longer ascending. Most of the senior military would prefer it if I vanished into the depths of space."

  "Nobody asked you to do that."

  "I'm not looking for sympathy. I did what I thought was right and still believe we should work closer with Earthers." She broke off to sip her wine again. "You heard about Wright Atoll?"

  "The rumors that it's been destroyed—yes." I wondered again if my glass had been laced with the psychoactive drug, but I wasn't about to test it. "I hope it's not true. I understand there weren't only Atollers onboard."

  "The station was lost, along with all the personnel. We've tried to limit who has the details, but the news slipped out."

  "Doesn't sound like the usual Atoll efficiency. Aren't you the space experts?"

  "Sniping isn't worthy of you, Joe. The reports show that the Atoll research facility suffered a catastrophic failure. Cause unknown. Apparently no warning."

  There were any number of reasons I could think of for a failure in space, but given the Atolls' experience, none of them seemed likely. "So what do you want from me? Something tells me you're not interested in my engineering skills, and I turned in my hero outfit at the end of the last Shokasta mission."

  "I can't tell you everything. But our government has issued orders to inspect all our facilities as soon as possible." McDole stood and moved closer. "We have ships checking on our other stations, but we haven't got a Jump-capable ship available for the Geller Gateway Station at Sirius."

  Geller was possibly the smallest of the Atoll research stations. They were studying the binary star and its chaotic system.

  "Sirius is our first Jump. If you want us to check in on them, I'll be happy to suggest that."

  She hesitated long enough for me to realize she was struggling with what to say next.

  "Does it strike you as odd that one of the USP's newest JumpShips has gone missing at almost exactly the same time we lose a station?"

  "Possibly." I glanced across at Hernandez, who was busy drooling into his paper coverall. "But they were in vastly different regions of space."

  "What if I told you that Wright Atoll is our first such loss"—she raised her glass to her lips—"in the hundred or so years since the first Atoll was established."

  That did seem odd. "The only coincidence an engineer believes in is when two points have the same coordinates."

  Her smile was weak. "I'd like to go with you. To verify that our station is okay."

  I'd have been less surprised if she'd unzipped her skin and turned into a lizard creature. "We could be gone several months."

  "I'm not expecting a chauffeur service."

  "You alone?"

  "If I requested passage for more people, you'd see that as a threat."

  I wasn't sure Logan would go for it. "It's not my call. I'm only the pilot on this mission."

  "I doubt that but—" She put her glass down and looked at Hernandez in the corner. "Him?"

  I shook my head. "I'm sure you remember Logan Twofeathers."

  "The rather annoying man from 548-Kressida... interesting."

  "I'll need to speak to him. Privately."

  McDole nodded. "I'll arrange for the detainee to be brought in while you call."

  "You seem confident he'll agree."

  "You're very persuasive when you try to be." She paused. "Also, if something is working against the USP and the Atolls, doesn't it make sense to have representatives from both onboard?"

  She turned and headed toward the door at the far end of the room. "Say what you want, Joe, and it will be made available."

  I waited until she was gone and then spoke out loud, feeling a little stupid. "I'd like a comm channel to my ship."

  A soft tone sounded, then a hidden display screen lit up on the wall as though a section of the bulkhead had simply dissolved.

  "Joe?" Logan's face appeared on screen. "You okay?"

  "I haven't got the prisoner yet, but something else has come up."

  The view tracked with his face as he sat down. "That doesn't sound promising."

  "They want something in exchange." I couldn't think of any way of dressing it up. "Passage for one of their people."

  Logan rubbed his jaw. "Why would we go along with that?"

  "It's a pre-requisite for getting the prisoner back. And McDole thinks we might be better working together on this one."

  "McDole from the Goeppert?" Logan pulled back from the camera pick-up. "That's hard to believe."

  "She's running their deep space operations. The loss of Wright Station has got the Atolls spooked, it seems."

  "What does the sergeant think about it?"

  I looked over. Hernandez was playing with his lips and making burbling sounds. "He thinks Atoll wine is excellent."

  Logan's eyes widened. "I'm sure you'll explain that to me later. Presumably you think this is a good idea or you wouldn't be asking."

  "I think we might need all the allies we can find on this one. And if nothing else, it would be a good move politically."

  He snorted. "You don't give a damn about politics."

  "I know."

  Logan looked away. I could see he was talking to someone off-screen, and I guessed it was Aurore. He must have muted his transmission, as whatever he was saying, I couldn't hear any of it. Then he turned back.

  "Okay. Let's do this." He said. "But McDole only, no one else."

  "I told her that." I wondered what might be behind all of this and remembered Gabriella's cryptic warning—was there some connection here? What the hell had she meant? From past experience, the only transformation she was expert in was turning live people into dead ones. "We'll be heading back shortly."

  "Okay." Logan reached for the disconnect button but hesitated. "And don't forget that prisoner."

  The screen went dark, and several minutes later, McDole returned carrying a large tote bag in one hand and a backpack over her shoulder.

  "You really were confident."

  "I believe in being prepared." Her smile was less forced than earlier. "It should be quite an adventure."

  "I hope you don't have any weapons."

  "Want to frisk me?" She laughed. "I'm not stupid."

  "And the prisoner?"

  "Bring the detainee in," she said, raising her voice a little.

  Two Atoll soldiers entered, leading a man between them. He was bald with a thick gray beard, but I couldn't see his face because his head was tipped down. It wasn't Paek, though. When the trio stopped, the prisoner looked up, his dark eyes full of confusion, which turned to hatred when he saw me.

  "Joe Ballen?" he snarled. "I should kill you."

  I'd heard that voice over many years when I'd been driving cabs. But it was impossible.

  It was Charlie.

  *

  His escort stayed close to him, hopefully read
y for any hostile moves. The last time I'd seen him was over three years ago, but I recognized him even through the mop of beard. He was wearing the same disposable clothing we were, but his onesie was grimier, as though he'd had it on for quite a while.

  "What the hell is this?" I said to McDole then looked back to him. "Charlie's dead."

  Charlie lunged forward, and the guards grabbed him none too gently. "You're right, you bastard. And you got him killed."

  My mind was tying itself in knots trying to understand what was going on. I'd start a train of thought, but as soon as I came back to Charlie, it would screech to a halt and begin again. He'd been killed by Gabriella's men on Long Island when we'd discovered Harmon's secret hideout. After about the twentieth time of chasing this thought around, it hit me.

  "You're Dan?"

  Dan was Charlie's twin, which didn't make much sense either. Dan had been killed the same day, when the Atolls attacked the original Deimos base.

  "Got it in one, you necker. Nobody cared whether old Dan was still alive, did they? Just another forgotten casualty like my brother."

  I stepped closer. "But he wasn't forgotten. By me or any of his friends."

  "Yeah, right." Dan tensed up, and I thought he was going to try jump me, but he backed off when the guards moved closer.

  "What the hell...?" Hernandez was coming out of his daze, struggling to his feet. "Is this... the prisoner?"

  McDole nodded. "Daniel Anderson, sole survivor of the Deimos Base incident."

  "Incident?" My shoulders tightened. I suppose that was one way of putting it—another way would be the mass slaughter of civilians.

  "He's a USP citizen." Henderson was unsteady and wobbled a little as he stood there.

  I whispered to McDole, "Did you know about him?"

  "Only when I arrived on Fardosh-Baird. The information wasn't widely distributed."

  "Grab your gear, citizen. We're leaving." Hernandez's voice was loud enough to echo.

  I didn't think it was smart to take along someone as openly hostile as Dan, but I felt guilty about him. Partly because he'd been locked up for so long, but mostly because Charlie had been killed helping me, so Dan's accusation wasn't far from the mark. What had they been doing to him all this time? Maybe that was why he was so angry. Or perhaps all I was doing was justifying his attitude because he looked like his brother.

  "You can leave him here if you like." McDole gestured at Dan. "He'll be quite safe until we return."

  I was tempted but didn't know what I'd say to Logan.

  "Hey, no." Dan seemed to shrink in size. "You can't leave me with the 'Tollers. They ain't—"

  "He's a USP citizen," Hernandez repeated. "Of course he's coming with us."

  Dan seemed surprised by this unexpected support. "Yeah, sure. I'm a citizen. I have my rights."

  I was less happy with the idea of having Dan onboard than I was with taking along McDole. At least with her, I wouldn't be worrying I'd wake up with a knife in my chest. I couldn't say the same for Dan. Despite that, I realized I couldn't abandon him.

  "What's it to be? Come with us and you might not get back to Earth for a year—or not at all, depending what we find. You might live longer if you stay."

  Dan glanced at the guards. "Anything's better than being here. Besides, I've lived long enough."

  I nodded. "Got any gear?"

  Dan snorted. "What you see is what you get."

  "What about the resupply?" I asked McDole.

  "I ordered it when I left to bring the pris— I mean, Dan. It should be in-progress right now."

  "Okay. Let's move."

  We entered the transit car. McDole sat on the same bench seat as me, closer than she needed to. Dan was on the opposite side with the somewhat doped-out Hernandez. Dan's eyes never left me, even when the car moved.

  Fifteen minutes later, we crossed through the docking tube to the Shokasta. As we swung across, McDole moved closer and spoke to me in a low voice.

  "Thank you, Joe."

  "For what? I told you—Logan is in charge."

  "I'm sure he wouldn't have allowed it if you'd been against it."

  "Your thanks might be premature. Like I said to Cha—I mean Dan—you might live longer if you stay here."

  "Possibly. Perhaps you could make it up to me personally."

  I snatched a glance at her over my shoulder and banged my head into the airlock door. "What do you mean?"

  The door opened and she slid past me, brushing her hand across my arm. "Oh, nothing too unpleasant... Dinner, perhaps?"

  She obviously had no idea about the disgusting state of our rations. I wondered briefly about warning her, then a cruel streak in me surfaced—she'd find out soon enough. "Welcome to the Shokasta."

  Chapter Eleven

  The inner door opened, and I showed Dan and McDole to empty quarters. We had plenty of room, though I was concerned about the state of our supplies. More people meant more mouths to feed, and with two new additions, we'd be stretching our resources close to the limit. While we might be able to supplement our stores at the few stations on our planned route, those facilities and options rapidly diminished the farther out we went.

  When I let Dan into a cabin, he looked around, as if measuring every millimeter. He didn't say a word, so I couldn't tell whether this was an improvement on his situation on the Atolls or not.

  "There are a few ship suits in the supplies. Take a look below bulkhead thirty." I tugged at the paper clothing I was wearing. "Not much, but better than these things."

  He nodded, looking like a hamster that had been given a new cage. "The Shokasta, huh? Read about her. Hardly seems possible Earth has JumpShips now."

  "Ask if you need anything. It's share and share alike here."

  McDole followed me along the corridor, handling the ZeeGee with ease. The next couple of rooms were BRUCE's quarters, and I moved by, assuming she'd be happier with a buffer between her and Dan anyway.

  "Okay, you can take this one." I slid open the door.

  "Thank you." She wedged her bags under the small computer console. "This will be fine."

  "I'd better check in with Logan. As I said to Dan, shout if you need anything."

  "You have more unused cabins?"

  Did she want more space for herself? We'd done it for the exercise room, but I couldn't see us providing her with a luxury suite. "The rest of the rooms up to bulkhead eight are unoccupied. What's on your mind?"

  "I'd like to make use of several of them. Is that okay?"

  "This isn't a space cruise."

  McDole smiled. "I thought it might be prudent to have some supplies delivered. I doubt you're provisioned for extra people. If there's a better place to store them, let me know."

  "Make whatever arrangements you need. I have some piloting to do." I moved along the corridor. What she said made perfect sense, but why didn't she say that instead of making me second guess her motives?

  After taking the supplies onboard, we headed toward open space. Atoll traffic control managed our departure until we were a thousand kilometers away, but once they released us, I programmed a course at full acceleration. Even at our best speed, it would take a couple of days of cruising until we were one A.U. clear of the planet and at the cautionary safe distance.

  On the way, I worked on the documentation for Project RoboPony, so I could send it to Earth before the first Jump. As soon as I finished, I went to set up the transmission.

  "You going to share your mystery project or leave us in suspense?" Logan stood next to Aurore while she double-checked the Jump I'd plotted. "Don't you trust your friends?"

  I laughed. "I have been a little close-mouthed."

  "Exactly, and your bluster is almost legendary," Aurore said. "You've had Logan so wound up, I wondered if he was more interested in you than me."

  "Right... and on that day, they'll declare world peace." I opened my files on the large display volume.

  "Is this a private party?" McDole climbed up from the corr
idor to the lower decks. "I came to discuss strategy, but I'll leave if you want."

  There wasn't much point. What I was doing wasn't meant to be secret, and Fardosh-Baird would pick up and undoubtedly decrypt my transmission before it reached Earth. "Stay. This will affect the Atolls too."

  Logan came over. "Interesting. And even more intriguing. What have you got, my friend?"

  I opened the first 3-D schematic from my submission. It showed a sphere three meters across, unimpressive at first glance.

  Logan laughed. "You're bringing disco lighting to space?"

  "Have faith." I hit the controls to show an animation of the sphere opening and each of its components moving away from the main structure, while displaying the subsystem notes. One by one, the simulated parts moved off screen as the layers were peeled back.

  "That's a fast pulse communication block," Logan said, as a component drifted away.

  "There's a high-precision positioning array there," Aurore said. "Some type of navigation buoy?"

  "An adaptive frequency laser generator?" McDole read off another of the components. "I hope you're not going into the weapons design business, Joe."

  "We already have more than enough of those," I said.

  The last layers peeled away, leaving a smaller sphere and a squared off box wrapped around one side of it.

  "That's a Casimir generator." Aurore pointed to the display. "What is this thing?"

  "What's the biggest challenge facing us out there at the moment?"

  "Ships?" McDole said.

  "We can build more," I said. "Try again."

  "Searching for habitable planets." Logan looked expectant.

  I shook my head. "We'll find them in time."

  "Oh, jeez..." Aurore's eyes were wide. "This thing is a communications relay!"

  I gave her a round of applause. "We have a winner."

  "Excellent. What's my prize?" Aurore said.

  I moved closer to the display screen. "How about a deep-space cruise to the stars?"

  Aurore laughed. "I don't think my husband would approve."

  "I won't tell him if you don't." I opened another file showing a simulation of the expected use. "We program the relays to Jump back and forth between two systems. Each one has a built-in communications array triggered by a general code. When it detects a suitably tagged transmission, it records it, then after Jumping to its target system it re-transmits it using the same code."