Peacekeeper

by REEVE, LAURA E.

"Yes. She’ll be ready for more soon.”

  "I want the doc to mend the bone and keep her unconscious. We don’t need breakdown.”

  "What?” Nathan looked incredulous, belatedly adding, "SP?”

  "We need Major Kedros to sign leases voluntarily or her signature can be legally contested. Isn’t that right, Maria?”

  "Uh, yes, SP.” Maria was quicker, and more flexible than Nathan. She also had the benefit of having researched Aether Exploration’s leases and knowing what Kedros could sign. "But if you need the leases for G-145 to stand up in CAW courts, the best defense is to keep the signer alive.”

  Nathan struggled to compose himself. "This is about paperwork? Money?”

  "If her business partners contest her signature, she needs to be able to testify that she did indeed sign the leases willingly. I’m not sure you’re going to get that after . . .” Maria glanced at Nathan and her voice trailed away.

  Nathan looked lost and blind, with no target upon which to spend his rage. Sitting down, he curled his trembling fingers into fists, his eyes staring uncomprehendingly down at them. Isrid saw the years of impotent rage settle into Nathan’s face, lining it and making him look older than his years.

  "I’ve got the leverage to get Major Kedros’s signature, as well as her support,” Isrid said. "I’ll deal with her personally.”

  "And then what, SP?” Nathan’s voice was harsh and grating. "Are you telling me that she’ll live, that she’ll go free? After what she did to Ura-Guinn?”

  "I don’t know yet.” Isrid was tired. What did the overlord want? He didn’t have the answer yet. He used somaural signals: Patience, Nathan. Times are changing.

  Isrid realized that he couldn’t have spoken truer words. Somaural communication could have that electric illuminating effect, when the body felt truth that the conscious mind refused to acknowledge. Civilization was changing for the three war veterans in this room; they had to shed their battle-weary grudges and adjust, when required by external forces, to more productive pursuits. Otherwise, Isrid and his staff were doomed to obscurity.

  "I’ve tried to serve the League conscientiously, SP, but I can’t support this approach.” Nathan glowed with his anger, his hands still balled into fists. "I’m going to file a complaint with the overlord.”

  "That’s political suicide.” Isrid allowed his real concern to show in his voice, betraying ambiguous feelings. Nathan and his rages had become a comfortable, well-worn blanket, protection against change. On the other hand, perhaps it was time to get younger blood on his staff.

  "Perhaps, then, it’s time for me to resign.” Nathan stood up stiffly, pride screaming from every tense line in his body.

  "At least wait until we return from this inspection,” Parmet said. "Continue your duties, and when we’re back on Mars, I can see about transferring you to another SP’s staff.”

  Nathan nodded. His face was closed, but his emotions were clear to anyone who had known him as long as Parmet. Besides bewilderment, there was disappointment and sorrow. And of course, anger, which never left Nathan alone for long.

  "Don’t do anything you’ll regret, Nathan.” Maria’s voice was soft.

  Nathan didn’t acknowledge her words as he left the office. Maria lingered. Isrid gave her an opening, cocking an eyebrow at her.

  "Are you sure you’re not being influenced by your personal feelings, SP?” Her voice was hesitant, but then, she’d never trod this territory before. Isrid suspected she had an aversion to emotions, both talking about them and feeling them.

  "How so?”

  "This woman saved your life. Perhaps your false sense of mercy is based in gratitude.”

  "We need to meet our overlord’s objectives before satisfying our personal needs. I’m trying to keep us employed, and Nathan would do well to remember that.” As would you, he added with a flick of his fingers and wrist.

  Maria nodded and left Isrid alone with his thoughts.

  Did he have personal feelings in this case? Hell, yes. His urge to avenge his brother was strong, yet in direct conflict with some strange desire to protect Major Kedros. It wasn’t because she was helpless, or seemed helpless. After subverting the security systems it had taken three of his people to subdue and kidnap her. Major Kedros had the constitution of a bull.

  It was her sense of duty, her insistence that she’d followed orders at Ura-Guinn and would have done so again, if ordered, that spoke to him. Her loyalty. He admired its strength and purity. Her loyalty would be his weapon, his leverage.

  He didn’t address the nagging thought that still slithered about in his brain: Why didn’t he answer Maria’s question?

  At first, Colonel Edones and Sergeant Joyce didn’t want Matt to accompany them onto Karthage Point.

  "You don’t want my leases to be worked by Terran defense contractors, do you?” he’d asked.

  As it was, Edones seemed distracted and he relented. Matt was issued green crew coveralls with no military insignia. Walking behind Edones and Joyce, Matt realized that their black uniforms with the blue trim stuck out far more on Karthage than his operational coveralls. Matt turned down the visitor safety briefing being transmitted to his ear bug, in favor of trying to hear the whispered comments between people who passed Edones and Joyce. He saw sidelong glances but couldn’t quite catch any muttered comments.

  They stopped at Command Post first. Edones said they’d have to handle the inspection mission first, and Ariane’s "situation” second. The CP personnel were duds on both accounts. They didn’t know anything other than the times they transmitted their status reports. Order of reports: the explosion, the damage assessment, the arrival of the Minoan emissary, the inspection results, the departure of VIPs, and finally, the Kedros AWOL notification.

  "I should have been notified immediately that a Minoan emissary arrived to observe a weapons inspection.” Edones’s voice could have frozen the room, but the young lieutenant commanding the CP shift held her ground.

  "Sir, we put together the distribution list according to the regs.” She tapped her slate and a copy of the message, with headers, appeared on the wall. "See, there’s the Directorate of Intelligence XO, XI, and XT offices. They must not have redistributed the message.”

  The message recipient list looked like a snarled network of unreadable acronyms to Matt, but all the military types inside the CP nodded as if they understood. Matt looked around, bored. The Karthage command post could have been on any station, until he noticed the obvious blank spaces on the wall. MilNet monitoring nodes probably told the CP shift that he wasn’t "cleared” for classified—like being unclean.

  "I’ll need to talk to the Naga squadron commander and the facilities commander.” Edones was finished with CP.

  "Sir, the facilities commander—”

  "Of course, I would mean the acting facilities commander.”

  "Yes, sir.”

  Next, they moved to a depressing conference room, where only two news feeds and the CP announcement channel displayed on the walls. Edones made a call, requesting somebody to meet with him. After a few minutes, a tall, slim woman officer with obvious generational background entered the room.

  After observing Lieutenant Colonel Jacinthe Voyage for a few moments, Matt ranged through several opinions about the woman. Initially he thought it refreshing to find a generational orphan so highly placed on Karthage. Then he decided that Jacinthe epitomized everything that v-plays taught him to expect from the military: the arrogance, the rigid adherence to irrelevant regulations, and the lack of empathy. Her military training must have beaten out her generational upbringing.

  She and Edones talked about inspection results that Matt didn’t bother to follow, then moved on to the subject of Ari.

  "Face it, Colonel. You put your faith in an unreliable and unremarkable reservist. Now she’s skipped out on you.” Jacinthe smirked.

  "Perhaps.” Edones seemed preoccupied, interested in the inspection reports that were scrolling in front of him.

&nbs
p; Matt gripped the arms of his chair tightly and it peeped a small alarm of warning. He froze as he saw Joyce glaring at him and he bit back his words. He’d sworn to Joyce and Edones, in the names of Gaia and St. Darius, that he’d remain quiet on Karthage. His movement caught Jacinthe’s attention and she looked at him, her gaze cold and unreadable. Then her eyes flickered away. She hadn’t asked who Matt was or why he was in the room. Perhaps she knew; she could have queried Karthage systems before briefing Colonel Edones.

  Matt looked at Edones. Why didn’t the bastard stick up for Ari? After all, he’d selected her for this mission.

  "You realize that Major Kedros’s missions are special access only,” Edones said casually. "So you shouldn’t take her records quite so literally.”

  Jacinthe’s face went wooden and Matt got the feeling that she was reassessing.

  "I didn’t think the Directorate of Intelligence would use reservists for sensitive missions,” she said.

  "It’s obvious you didn’t think, Colonel Voyage.” Edones’s voice was sharp. "Since Major Kedros’s unofficial performance is exemplary, I can only believe there’s a driving reason she left Karthage. Have you investigated?”

  Jacinthe stiffened. "Since she was attached to my squadron, I directed the SF commander to do the normal investigation. He did so, to my satisfaction.”

  "Then I’d like to speak, face-to-face, with him.” Edones nodded in dismissal.

  After Lieutenant Colonel Jacinthe Voyage left, Matt’s emotions burst out.

  "She obviously doesn’t like Ari—how do you know she doesn’t have something to do with Ari’s disappearance? Why didn’t you ask her more questions?”

  "Because, Mr. Journey, this is the military.” The corner of Edones’s mouth twitched. "You don’t have to like your coworkers, your subordinates, or your superiors, to do your duty. Nobody has to like you either, so personal opinions regarding someone’s personality aren’t supposed to be relevant to an investigation. We’re not into fuzzy feelings like the generational ship crews.”

  Joyce cleared his throat. "Colonel Voyage might not be likeable, but she’s respected. We’ve looked at squadron performance and they’ve done well on evaluations under her leadership. One thing to consider, since Major Kedros came in as intelligence liaison officer, is that it’d be natural for squadron members to distrust her.”

  "Why?” Matt was amused to see Edones and Joyce shift uncomfortably at his question. These military types were shy about examining psychological motives—not that Matt liked the way generational ship lines managed their people. The adage "the ship is your parent and the crew is your family” could be literal depending upon how long the mission took in relative time. Any general unhappiness, malaise, or malcontent was nipped in the bud, or bludgeoned to death, by counseling. Anyone who opted off, like Jacinthe or Matt or Nestor, had to go through torturous touchy-feely seminars to prove that they believed the generational ship life wasn’t for them.

  "Major Kedros was an outsider to the squadron, so many of the squadron members would keep their distance,” Edones said.

  "Because she wore the black and blue,” Joyce added.

  "Yes. The Directorate of Intelligence falls under the Inspector General, and they have a naturally antagonistic relationship with operations,” Edones said. "Ops has to be evaluated and the evaluators aren’t ever going to be loved or appreciated, nor should they be.”

  "So Ari’s true mission required that she be an outsider?” Matt asked.

  "Nice try.” Edones’s face was bland.

  "It’s as obvious as the Great Bull’s balls that Ari was here for more than the treaty.” Matt shrugged. "Maybe Colonel Voyage sensed that.”

  "All gargantuan genitalia aside, Mr. Journey, you’re the last person I’d give clearance to see Major Kedros’s orders.”

  Matt’s attempt to get Edones to admit that Ari had a secondary mission was interrupted by the arrival of the SF commander, Captain Rayiz. Rayiz glanced toward Matt and raised his eyebrows in question to Edones.

  "He’s not cleared for classified, but I doubt your findings on Major Kedros will be a problem,” Edones said.

  "They’re official use only.”

  Edones nodded. "My authorization for release to Mr. Journey is already on file.”

  Rayiz summarized the results of his investigation. The last time Ari was recorded by the Karthage systems had been when she checked in with Senior Technician Stall at sick bay. The tech was called away to a minor medical emergency.

  "Where?” asked Edones.

  "The Thirty-second’s training bay, cab number three. Colonel Voyage had punctured her hand on some equipment and the wound needed to be sterilized and closed.”

  The tech came back to an empty sick bay, but since the scan he’d started had finished correctly, he thought Major Kedros had left for her quarters. He updated her records per her new radiation exposures and went about his work. No one knew she was missing until she didn’t show for the inspection completion briefing at the Ops Squadron.

  "Any sign of a struggle?” asked Edones.

  "In sick bay?” Rayiz’s eyebrows rose. "I didn’t ask the tech. If there was, I’m sure he would have volunteered that information, even called the SF when he came back to check on the scan.”

  "What did MilNet show?”

  "Uh—we don’t have recordings from sick bay for that time.”

  Matt noticed that Edones had gone still. A moment before, Edones’s fingers had been drumming the edge of the desk in front of him and now they lay quiet.

  "What happened to your MilNet coverage?” Edones asked.

  Rayiz’s face blanched. "We had a regularly scheduled test of the MilNet nodes in sections six-Delta through six-Gamma. They somehow got stuck in test loops for half an hour.”

  Edones tapped his slate and a slice of Karthage Point displayed upon the wall. Below the diagram Matt saw the word UNCLASSIFIED printed in bold black letters. He could see those sections included medical facilities and guest quarters. Edones tapped again, and the names GUILLOTTE, KIM, and TRAVIS appeared, displayed in red on three separate guest quarters.

  Another tap. The word KEDROS floated in blue above one of the medical examination rooms.

  "So we can’t track the actions of these four people, which include three TEBI agents and my operative.” Edones’s voice was so soft that Matt had to strain to hear him. "Let me guess: You went back to your published node test schedule before the inspectors left?”

  Matt hadn’t thought Rayiz’s face could get any more ashen, but it did.

  "We thought we could stop randomizing unclassified tests. After all, the inspection was over.”

  Edones poked a little on his slate. Matt suspected that Edones had authorization to Karthage Point’s security records, so he wasn’t surprised to see Edones point the slate at another wall and bring up video displaying a line of people going through an air lock. Their clothing was alien. These were the Terran inspectors and they wore tight, clinging jump-suits that were devoid of interesting decoration and color. Unlike Autonomists, they stuck to the range of natural skin and hair colors. Perhaps because of this limitation, there was a sameness about their features, height, hairstyles, and clothing. Several of the Terrans were women.

  Edones froze the video on a woman wheeling a crate-size piece of luggage. She had straight and smooth medium blond hair, cut bluntly at chin level. Matt thought she was attractive enough, but her generic and regular features seemed to rule out any chance of being beautiful. She’d never stand out in a crowd.

  "Maria Guillotte has Tantor’s Sun disease and required special medical equipment. We examined everything when she boarded.” Rayiz swallowed hard.

  "And now you’re realizing Guillotte’s equipment could easily be dismantled and stuffed into vents—where we’ll probably find it. Do you realize you’ve allowed them to kidnap a CAW intelligence agent? From what we know of TEBI, she’s now being interrogated, perhaps tortured, all because of your sloppy security.”


  Matt’s stomach lurched at Edones’s biting words. Interrogation. Torture. Having been on a generational ship during wartime and always protected by the Phaistos Protocol, he tried to fit those words into his reality. The thought of Ari undergoing torture sickened Matt, and by the stricken look on Rayiz’s face, it affected him. Edones and Joyce remained emotionless.

  "Sir, we didn’t know Major Kedros was at risk from the Terrans. After the explosion, we were distracted. I should have been warned—”

  "I noted that Major Kedros’s request for more frequent deep scans was ignored by your office, Captain. We’ll be performing our own scans to ensure that the Terrans didn’t walk away with other sensitive material,” said Edones.

  So Ari’s only sensitive material to you? Matt thought Rayiz’s protests carried merit. Edones’s proclivity for secrecy was the root of this problem and Matt still preferred to blame him for putting Ari into danger in the first place.

  "We ran periodic scans according to regulations covering visiting heads of state,” Rayiz said.

  "My equipment is different, Captain.” Joyce stood up. "Let me have a look at every part of the station that Major Kedros went through.”

  Rayiz’s eyes widened. "That’s a lot of real estate.”

  "Then we need to start now, Captain.” Joyce motioned Rayiz to exit.

  As he left, Rayiz glanced sideways at Edones, whose face might have been set in stone. After the hatch closed behind them, Edones turned away and Matt thought he saw the facade slip out of place. For a moment, anger slid over the cold politic features before Matt saw the back of Edones’s head.

  "What happens now?” Matt directed the question tentatively toward Edones’s back.

  "We wait.” Edones turned around, again his pleasantly bland self.

  Did Edones have feelings for Ari? Somehow that thought made Matt uncomfortable.

  After he got the medical reports, as well as confirmation that Major Kedros’s bone was healing, Isrid headed to the hold where she was kept. When he climbed down to the lower level, he found Dr. Istaga waiting for him.