Shadow Agents The Benevolency Universe

by David Alastair Hayden

  Kyralla nodded as she stood.

  “I heard your AI talking about the debris field. You asked a question. I made a guess.”

  “That’s all?”

  "It is," he replied. "I would run the simulation at fifty…maybe fifty-three percent…to account for debris getting caught up in the rings. We were closer to them at the time, but the explosion kicked us outward."

  Kyralla kept the blaster trained on him. “Tell me everything.”

  He nodded, glanced at Oona in the command chair, made eye contact with her, and then took a half-step away. Luckily, Kyralla saw what he was going to do a split-second early. Otherwise, she might have shot him.

  Tekeru’s eyes turned to Kyralla, darted back to Oona again, then returned to her. “I’ll tell you everything I know. I can even give you the footage from my chippy. He recorded the entire encounter. Just keep in mind, I’m not a pilot or a captain. I’m just a researcher, out on my first expedition. I had only traveled in space once before.”

  “Beam your chippy’s data over to me.”

  While Rosie went over the footage, Kyralla listened intently. Nothing in his story sounded fishy. And amidst the confusion and destruction, it seemed reasonable that a researcher would think that both enemy vessels had blown up.

  He finished his tale. “And…and that’s all I know.”

  “The footage is chaotic, madam, but it confirms his story.”

  “We have completed an analysis,” Artemisia said. “Even with sixty percent loss of debris, we cannot account for the destruction of two complete light cruisers.”

  “Do you have two different AI’s onboard?” Tekeru asked.

  "Our chippies." Kyralla looked at Oona. "Well?"

  “He’s telling the truth,” she replied.

  Kyralla lowered her gun. “His story sounds legit to me, and his identity did check out.”

  Tekeru lowered his hands and turned to Oona. “You’re a hyperphasic messiah.”

  Kyralla aimed her gun at him again. “Talk.”

  He raised his hands. “Sorry, but it’s obvious. You hear tales, of course. But it’s especially clear to me. My grandfather lived in the Empire of a Thousand Worlds. He smuggled out a photo of the Dark Messiah. We turned it over to the Federation but kept copies in our chippies. We didn’t put the photo online because the Feds asked us not to.”

  Oona stood. “Show us.” She gestured. “Put it on the main view screen.”

  Tekeru beamed the photo over to the view screen. Kyralla holstered her plasma pistol and cursed. “‘Nevolence.”

  It was like looking at a middle-aged version of Oona. They were so identical that Kyralla would have sworn that this was nothing more than a doctored image of her sister.

  Oona walked silently toward the image. She stopped a few meters away and stared, wide-eyed. Suddenly, she flinched.

  “Kyra, they’re coming. Battle stations.”

  Kyralla plunged into the piloting station. She pointed at Tekeru Jones then gestured toward the weapons station. “You, sit down and put the circlet on. But unless you know what you’re doing, don’t touch the controls.”

  “We’re not detecting anything yet, madam,” Artemisia said aloud.

  Tekeru took a seat and gripped the circlet. “Our ship only has one of these, in the command station.”

  “Yes, this is a ridiculously advanced ship,” Kyralla snapped. “We can talk about it later. Put the circlet on and quiet your mind.”

  She glanced over at her sister, who was still staring at the image. With a control gesture, Kyralla cleared it away to show a view outside the ship. Oona snapped awake and rushed over to the command chair.

  Shit. In her distraction, Kyralla had forgotten to contact Bishop. She opened the channel. "Oona senses an enemy coming."

  No response came.

  “Bishop?”

  Nothing.

  “Bishop, do you copy?”

  “Rosie, are you reading life signs on the other ship?”

  “Yes, madam. Bishop and the last two crewmen of the Argos Alpha. I’m detecting Octavian’s signal as well.”

  “Try to contact Octavian.”

  "I've already tried, madam. I can't get a signal through. Or it's getting through to them, but their replies aren't reaching us."

  “Keep trying to contact both.”

  “Of course, madam.”

  Kyralla couldn’t worry about them. She had to clear her mind and focus on the current moment.

  “As long as we’re stationary, we’re an easy target,” Tekeru Jones said. “You should withdraw the docking tube.”

  Kyralla ignored him. They had to give Bishop and Octavian a way to—

  “Shields max to starboard!” she yelled.

  “Shields starboard,” the ship responded.

  An elongated cruiser bristling with weapons, its once brightly-painted hull marred by decades of conflict, swept out of wraith space to their right and opened fire.

  32

  Siv Gendin

  The state of the warehouse district in Old Town spoke volumes about Teloso’s crumbling economy. Half of the buildings and factories were shut down, the rest barely operative.

  Silky made an endless series of lame jokes as Siv and Mitsuki camped on the rooftop of an abandoned building across the alley from the Wang Enterprises warehouse. With an antigrav boost, they could easily jump across to the Wang rooftop, if they wanted.

  They had initially gone to the front door of Wang Enterprises but had left in a hurry after Siv’s sensor array picked up seven men with drawn weapons inside the building.

  “Seems to be a standoff, sir,” Silky had said as they entered the abandoned building. “We’ve got one man behind an overturned desk, and six others taking cover just out of sight in the adjacent room.”

  As soon as they reached the rooftop, Siv deployed two Spy-Fly drones. Before the drones entered Wang Enterprises, plasma bursts crackled, their sound no more than a dull buzz from this far away. None of the dots in Siv’s locator had disappeared, but it was only a matter of time.

  Siv cursed, and Mitsuki said, “Well, so much for that.”

  “Wang being attacked is a real kick in the balls,” Silky said. No one laughed. “You do get it, right?”

  “Wang’s the only lead we’ve got,” Siv said, “and I’d rather not start over. That takes time and draws attention.”

  “I do not want to get involved in someone else’s firefight,” Mitsuki said. “That also draws attention. A lot of it. And it could get us killed.”

  “Suggestions?” Siv asked.

  “We cut and run,” Mitsuki said. “Find a new contact.”

  “Problem is, this is the man we want,” Silky said. “I’m sure of it. Video coming up.”

  The tiny, dragonfly-styled drones revealed the scene, showing pretty much what they’d expected from the sensor scans.

  “The man holed up behind the desk is Wang,” Silky said. “The other guys are thugs from a local crime organization. And I do mean thugs—not crooks, not agents, not hitmen. Thugs. Every one of these fellows has served a prison sentence for a violent crime. A couple of them have served more than one if you include theft and minor assaults.”

  “So goons shaking down someone for payment,” Mitsuki said.

  They listened to the audio provided by the drones as the thugs offered Wang the opportunity to surrender. He didn't take that chance.

  “He’s outnumbered and not surrendering,” Siv said. “So he’s in deep. We should cut.”

  “Sir, I think he’s the one we need,” Silky said. “He’s here, and he’s now. We should save him.”

  “Instincts?” Mitsuki asked wryly.

  “What if it is instincts, eh? Got a chippy bias problem, Bats?”

  She shrugged.

  “Well, it’s not. Even if I had instincts, I wouldn’t trust them. Gut or otherwise.”

  “What do you know?” Siv asked.

  “I hacked his network and uncovered security footage of Wang�
�” Silky snickered “…sorting through a packet of forged ID cards and a box of what appeared to be high-end chameleon veils, at least a dozen of them. The footage was from two days ago.”

  Several bursts of plasma sounded, and the dots in the locator shifted as one thug tried to enter Wang’s office. But Wang’s counter-fire forced the thug to retreat.

  “He was trying to find the ones that would best suit his escape plan,” Mitsuki said.

  “I don’t doubt that,” Silky said. “According to the footage, and his system only stores three days worth, which is the real crime here, he’s been planning his getaway for a week, converting assets to hard credits, sorting ID’s and masks.”

  “So he was just waiting for the perfect moment to make a break?” Siv said.

  “Don’t know what his play is exactly,” Silky said, “but I’m betting he’s got a subtle way off this world. And we could use one of those.”

  “He could run to another city,” Siv said.

  “Maybe, but why risk it?” Silky countered. “Local crime lords don’t have resources off-world and are likely to give up looking for him. Unless you owe enough for them to hire a bounty hunter, of course.”

  “But he could be going anywhere,” Siv said.

  “He could be, sir. But he owns a tiny shell company on Titus II. It’s not much of anything, and it wasn’t easy to track down, even for me. So I’m betting no one else knows about it.”

  “Damn it, Silky,” Mitsuki said. “I guess we’ve got to give it a shot.”

  “Can’t refute my logic, Batwings?”

  Mitsuki stretched her wings then snapped them back in. “Don’t push it, chippy.”

  “We could ignore the potential for a lead on a ship off world and just get the masks and ID cards,” Siv said. “Smash and grab while he’s distracted.“

  “They’re in a safe behind his desk, sir.”

  Siv groaned. “Well, shit.”

  “Okay, what’s the play then?” Mitsuki asked. “And if you say guns blazing, Silkster, then I swear I’ll rip you out of Siv’s head and toss you into the street.”

  “I love you too, Mits,” Silky said. “And I’d have thrown you away years ago. If I could throw.”

  Another exchange of plasma buzzed. “Focus, you two. I’d like to get in there while the guy’s still alive, and before the cops get here.”

  Mitsuki shrugged. “If we wait, they may take him out but not have time to crack the safe before the cops arrive. So they’ll have to leave it behind.”

  “They’ll just antigrav it and take it away to open later,” Siv said.

  “First off,” Silky said. “Siv’s right. That skimmer truck across the street is theirs. Second off, the cops have been paid to wait. They will take their time getting here. Think about it. In a halfway decent neighborhood in a halfway decent city, with a standoff lasting this long, the cops—”

  “Would already be on the way,” Mitsuki said. “So we’ve got to take out six bad guys.”

  Siv slipped on his force-knuckles then drew his plasma pistol. Mitsuki quickly reassembled the plasma carbine.

  He took a deep breath and considered the situation. “We’re dealing with thugs, not Reapers or professional hunters or trained guild agents, so I think we just need to give them a good enough scare to send them running.”

  “You want to hit them with a show of force?” Mitsuki asked.

  “Oh, I do love a good show of force!” Silky said. “Sir, I would like to see them run away. Like actually run, not ride off. Permission to launch Spy-Fly 03?”

  “Permission is—” Siv stopped. The drone was already flying and had been launched before he’d even had a chance to answer. He watched as it headed out toward the skimmer-truck. “Doing some skimmer highjacking?”

  “It’s been a while, sir. And I do need to keep my skills primed.”

  Mitsuki rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you just tell us your grand scheme before Wang gets his head blown—”

  Silky guffawed, and Siv couldn’t help but giggle along with him.

  “Shut it!” Mitsuki snapped. “Both of you.”

  “Ahem,” Silky cleared a throat he didn’t have with mock dignity. “The best bet in this instance is to put them in a state of panic. We don’t need to injure or kill them. In fact, we don’t want to. That would just complicate things. We want them running.”

  “How do you propose we do that?” Siv asked. More plasma shots were fired, and they could hear bits of wall splintering. “And tell us quickly.”

  “We just need to add some shots to put pressure on them. Sir, you will drop in alongside Wang and start shooting. Having a second defender will make them start doubting themselves.”

  “What about me?” Mitsuki asked.

  “You’re going to take up position out here and fire your carbine at the building. These exterior walls aren’t going to stop the shots if they’re placed right. I will coordinate with B to get your shots lined up. Once they start taking crossfire—”

  “They’re going to panic,” Siv said.

  “Also,” Silky said. “I’m going to take over their van—they really should have better security on it—honk the horn, spin it around, and then drive it away.”

  “It all seems simple enough,” Mitsuki said.

  Siv had been studying the warehouse schematics. “It looks like I could leap across and make my way in without too much trouble.”

  “Are you sure I shouldn’t turn on the refractor cloak and sneak in?” Mitsuki asked. “I could throw some punches and mix things up. I’ve got the shock-club we got on the station.”

  “I don’t think it’s necessary,” Silky asked. “And I think it would be better to have you at a sniper position out here in case things go bad.”

  “Okay then.” Siv stepped over to the edge of the roof and activated his antigrav. “Let’s do it.”

  33

  Kyralla Vim

  Twelve beams fired from the pirate vessel’s laser battery struck the Outworld Ranger’s shields.

  “Shields down to sixty-two percent,” the ship’s AI announced.

  “Bishop!” Kyralla shouted. “Get out of there now! We’re under attack! Rosie, what’s the recharge rate on their lasers?”

  “Five minutes, madam,” Rosie replied aloud.

  “Can we return fire?” Oona asked.

  Kyralla shook her head. "The plasma cannons have a ninety-degree, forward-firing arc, and the railguns only have a forty-five-degree arc." The Outworld Ranger had a missile bay, but no missiles. “We could fire the flak cannon at them, I guess.”

  “What good will that do?” Oona asked.

  Kyralla shrugged. “Honestly? I have no idea.”

  “That would simply be wasting ammunition,” Rosie said.

  “We can’t just sit here,” Tekeru Jones said again.

  “Shut the hell up!” Kyralla snapped.

  Ripples of bluish energy appeared along the outside of the Outworld Ranger as four railgun shots crashed against their shields.

  “Shields at forty-one percent,” the ship’s AI announced. “Four missiles launched. Flak cannon activated.”

  “Rosie, where’s Bishop?”

  “The main corridor of the Argos Alpha, madam.”

  “Heading this direction?”

  “No, madam, toward the cargo bay.”

  “How do they not know what’s going on?”

  “They cannot hear the battle or our attempts to hail them, madam.”

  “Ship, retract the docking tunnel.”

  “We can’t leave Bishop behind!” Oona said. “Or Octavian.”

  “It’s better than getting all of us killed,” Kyralla said.

  “I suspect,” Artemisia said, “that the pirates would prefer to leave the research vessel alone so that they can salvage it after disabling us.”

  “Docking tube retraction initiated,” the ship said. “Full retraction will take five minutes.”

  “Do it faster!”

  “Three minut
es is the fastest time possible,” the ship responded. “And that carries a significant risk of damaging the—”

  “Just do it!”

  The flak cannon took out two of the plasma missiles, but the other two connected.

  “Shields at thirty percent,” the ship announced.

  “Can’t we fly away as soon as the docking tube disconnects from the Argos Alpha?" Tekeru Jones asked. "It doesn't have to be completely retracted does it?"

  “No, it does not,” Artemisia replied.

  “Maybe you’re not useless after all,” Kyralla told Tekeru.

  “However, the tube could get hit by a stray shot or damaged by debris,” Artemisia added.

  “We’ll risk it.”

  “The docking tube is disconnected,” the ship said.

  “The pirate vessel’s plasma cannons are now online,” Artemisia said.

  “Why now?” Oona asked.

  “They were likely damaged during the explosion or in wraith space,” Artemisia answered.

  “Reroute all non-essential power to the shields,” Kyralla said.

  The lights on the bridge dimmed immediately.

  She slammed the accelerator forward and pulled the control-stick right, pulling them toward the pirate cruiser. If they could pass over or under the enemy ship, that would take away their firing arcs. And she was betting the Outworld Ranger was more maneuverable, allowing her to seize the advantage over them.

  “Shields to forty-two percent,” Rosie said.

  Plasma shots flared white as they hammered at the front of the ship.

  “Shields to twenty-seven,” the ship announced.

  “Coming up on an angle for our plasma cannons…now,” Artemisia said. “Opening fire.”

  The Outworld Ranger was accelerating but slowly. Even as their plasma bolts burst against the enemy shields, they took more plasma fire in return.

  “Shields down to sixteen percent,” the ship said.

  “Enemy shields are at thirty,” Artemisia said. “They must have weakened inside wraith space.”

  “We opened fire on one of their ships when we were attacked,” Tekeru Jones said.

  "I doubt your ship hit them that hard," Rosie said. "Perhaps they took some damage from their sister ship exploding before they fled to wraith space."