by M. D. Cooper
Sabrina sighed.
“Then no over-long goodbyes,” Sera said and walked to the bridge’s exit. “Good hunting. And good luck.”
“We’ll see you soon,” Tanis added. “We’ll save the best pickings for you.”
“You better,” Jessica replied. “You guys are going to party for weeks when you make landfall, and I’m going to miss it.”
“Don’t worry; we’ll leave the beacon with New Canaan’s location where we said. One light year coreward of Ascella,” Tanis replied. “Just don’t be too late.”
Everyone gave their final farewells, and before long Tanis and Sera were back on the Intrepid’s deck. Sabrina lifted off its cradle and floated down its departure lane to the starboard side of the dock, where a small bay door opened to let the ship out.
As the starfreighter slipped through the ES shield and into the blackness of space, Sera’s hand found Tanis’s and gripped it tightly.
“Go safely into that long, dark night,” she said quietly.
“Don’t worry, we’ll see them again,” Tanis affirmed. “I can feel it.”
Sera smiled at Tanis. “I could really use a drink. Care to join me?”
Tanis touched her abdomen and nodded. “Yeah, but mine will have to be less exciting than yours. Cary’s not old enough to drink yet.”
Sera laughed. “Don’t worry, still four months till we get to Ascella. Plenty of time to join me in my cups before we get there.”
ASCELLA
STELLAR DATE: 12.15.8929 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid
REGION: Edge of the Ascella System, Galactic North of the Corona Australis star forming region
Nine months after Sabrina departed for the Virginis system.
Tanis examined the main holotank on the Intrepid’s bridge. They still had weeks of travel through the Ascella system before arriving at the rendezvous, so Tanis tried to put her worries about meeting with the Transcend—and about Sera confronting her old agency—aside.
Though many of the people who colonized and ruled Transcend space were, in fact, the original Future Generation Terraforms and their descendants, only people who worked the FGT’s great Worldships continued to go by that name. Tanis wondered if that was an indication of how the terraformers had drifted from their original purpose.
Moreover, Sera told Tanis that their meeting with the Transcend Diplomatic Corps would, in fact, be with selected agents of The Hand—the Transcend government’s covert operations group, which guided the course of humanity within the Inner Stars.
So instead, she reviewed the fleet’s deployment as it drifted through space around the Intrepid as the fleet drifted into the Ascella system at a sedate 0.05c.
The ship’s trajectory would bring it close to the secondary star in the system, which they would use for a gravity breaking maneuver. When it was complete, the Intrepid would have slowed to a mere one percent the speed of light, coasting toward their designated rendezvous with the FGT.
Sera had assured her that the Ascella system was uninhabited, but Tanis wasn’t going to take any chances. They’d been caught with their pants down too many times before to simply float through an unknown system without their fleet deployed and ready for combat.
The Intrepid Space Force’s two heavy cruisers, the Dresden and Orkney, were nearby—each only a thousand kilometers off the colony ship’s port and starboard sides. The rest of the fleet spread out in a wide sphere, no ship closer than a thousand kilometers, while the Andromeda scouted nearly a million kilometers ahead of the fleet.
For once, Joe was not on the warship. Rather, he was down in their cabin in Old Sam—one of the Intrepid’s two habitation cylinders—tending to their three-month-old daughter, Cary.
Tanis’s hand reached down to her abdomen at the thought of her daughter. The unconscious action still dogged her, even this long after her Cary’s birth. She spared a glance at herself, still surprised to see her trim form looking exactly as it had before her pregnancy.
Angela snorted a laugh in her mind.
Tanis replied.
In her mind, Tanis cast a glare at Angela, then directed her thoughts to Corsia on the Andromeda.
It took a few minutes for the response to come back from the distant ship.
Tanis nodded in satisfaction. There was no doubt in her mind that Corsia would locate the watchpoint—the word Sera had used for the Transcend base—in the system. It was just a matter of time.
Her thoughts turned to where Sera’s loyalties would lie in the coming weeks. Her ship was gone, with it, her anchor to her life outside of the Transcend. Other than her friendship with Tanis, her ties to the Intrepid were weak. It was likely that the Hand would send people to whom she had close ties. Former friends, perhaps even family.
It would confuse Sera’s loyalties—maybe. Sera reminded Tanis a lot of herself when she was younger. Well, a much more sexually charged version of herself. But, the sense of duty, of doing what was right? That was very familiar.
If only knowing what was right were an easy thing. When millions of lives hung in the balance, and valuable assets were at play, the right decision often became hidden beyond a cloud of doubt.
Tanis glanced at the former secret agent and now former freighter captain. Sera was very conspicuous in her artificial burgundy skin against the backdrop of uniformed bridge officers. She was speaking with Captain Andrews and Admiral Sanderson, likely speculating about their upcoming rendezvous.
Sera had taken a particular liking to Captain Andrews, one that had been apparent very early on. Tanis could tell that Andrews felt the same way, but was far too professional to pursue a relationship—at least that she knew of.
Still, he seemed to gravitate toward Sera and the pair could often be found together in the officer’s mess or on the bridge.
Tanis took one last look at the holotank’s display of her fleet, then walked over to the trio, accepting welcome smiles as she joined their conversation.
“What’s the word?” Sera asked.
“Nothing yet, but if it’s out there, Corsia will find it.”
“Oh, it’s out there,” Sera replied. “I never came through Ascella myself, but I know the system—it’s one of a dozen that are used to move people out to the Transcend. A station here is SOP.”
“They’re going to be in for a surprise when the Andromeda appears on their doorstep,” Captain Andrews chuckled before realizing everyone was giving him appra
ising stares. “What? Do I always have to be stoic? I can take a certain amount of pleasure in bearding the dragon in its lair.”
“Dragon is right,” Sera nodded. “They’ll have a lot of ships here. Maybe not enough to pose a serious threat to you, but enough to manage most other situations.”
“Have you given any thought to what we talked about?” Captain Andrews asked Tanis.
“What? About the governorship?” Tanis asked.
Andrews nodded, and she saw Sanderson and Sera looking at her with great interest.
“I don’t see why you can’t take it,” Tanis said. “You were the governor at The Kap. Everyone would follow you.”
The captain shook his head. “I’m not on the colony roster, I’m crew—which makes me ineligible. You, on the other hand, are colony; you can be named the governor pro-tem for the colony setup phase before elections are held.”
“Andrews, really, you’re splitting hairs here,” Tanis sighed. “That charter is from five-thousand years ago. The crew’s not going back to Earth. We’re all colony now.”
“Well then,” Andrews replied quietly. “It makes no matter. I really don’t want to be the governor. This trip was supposed to be my last. Sure, it was never going to be a milk run, but that’s why I was up for it in the first place. One last adventure.”
His eyes swept across their faces as he paused. “But that’s just it. I’ve had my one last adventure. I’m ready to retire, maybe take up fishing. I hear that’s what you do when you retire. Lots of fishing.”
“Now that you’re done evading the real discussion, Tanis,” Sanderson said with a small smirk. “What about you? Everyone would follow you.”
Tanis held up a hand. “That’s not really my game. I’m good in a fight, in preparing for battle, but settling down? Starting a colony? I don’t know about that.”
“I’ll second that,” Sanderson said. “You ran the Victoria colony for nearly a century as lieutenant governor. And you were damn good at it, too.”
“We had Markus and Katrina then,” Tanis said. “They were the ones who drove that colony. I was just there to make sure that things ran smoothly.”
“What do you think a governor does?” the captain asked. “We have millions of brilliant people; they all know what they need to do to pull this off. What they need is someone they trust at the top, to make sure everything goes according to plan, and that all the pieces fit together.”
They walked to the holotank as the data from the Andromeda flowed in and updated their view of the Ascella system.
The locations lit up on the holodisplay. One was on the planet closest to the Ascella System’s primary star. The small world was a Mercury analog, which raced around the star, making it a great location for high-v launches toward anyone approaching from the Inner Stars.
The other two were further out, located in the ring of icy asteroids, which lay just over an AU from the star—good positions for fast interceptors and larger fleet sorties.
She caught Andrews and Sanderson sharing a look and a small smile.
MACHINATIONS
STELLAR DATE: 12.29.8929 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid
REGION: Ascella System, Galactic North of the Corona Australis star forming region
“Look, Andrea, I know what Tomlinson said, but you need me in there,” Mark spoke with his arms spread wide for emphasis. “I know Sera better than anyone—how she thinks, what makes her tick.”
“Better than me?” Serge asked. “I only grew up with her, spent thirty-five years of my life with her.”
Mark turned to face Serge at his console on the ship’s small bridge. “No offense, Serge, but you know her like a brother. I have other…knowledge—she and I were almost married for fuck’s sake. There are secrets you only tell your lover, not your brother.”
“And there are things you tell your brother and not your lover,” Serge replied, his brow furrowed deeply. “My father—you know, the president—said you were not to be at the meeting.”
“Yeah, and before that, he said that I shouldn’t be here at all. Situations like this are fluid; we need to adapt to things in the field,” Mark spoke slowly, careful to keep the edge from his voice. It was imperative that he get on the mission. He needed to get Sera under his control and find out if she really did have the CriEn module.
If she had it, and if the logs were intact, then he would have to do something definitive.
“We may need a stronger presence,” Andrea spoke slowly. “They have their fleet deployed—not the most trusting of gestures.”
“Are you suggesting that we muster the watchpoint?” Serge asked. “We could pull an escort.”
Andrea shook her head and Mark wondered what her secret orders contained. There’s no way she’d be sent on a mission like this without an additional objective.
“No,” Andrea said. “We need to earn their trust, to be completely unassuming. These people are not to be trifled with—we can’t make any aggressive moves.”
“Aggressive moves or no, I’m going to go ensure that we’re ready if we need to get out of here fast,” Serge said and rose from his console.
After Serge left the bridge, Mark listened—waiting to hear him descend the ladder—before he turned to Andrea.
“So, what’s your secret plan?”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Mark, there’s no subterfuge here. There’s just one plan. Trade tech for a world.”
“My ass, there’s no subterfuge. With you and Justin, there’s always subterfuge. You’re practically constructed from it,” Mark scowled. “If had to guess, I’d say someone isn’t coming out of this meet alive.”
Andrea didn’t reply, but her cold stare told him he’d hit upon it, not that it was difficult. The Hand’s currency was control, and the easiest way to get control was to take out those who currently held it.
“It’s their general, right? That Tanis Richards woman?” Mark asked with a sly grin creeping across his face. “She’s demonstrated a bit too much moxie for Justin and your ol’ dad, hasn’t she?”
Andrea still didn’t respond, and Mark shrugged. “Fine, don’t tell me. But I can be a lot more help than Serge. I know how to do the sort of thing that has to be done, and I have an idea about how to take out Richards with no guilt falling on you.”
His words finally drew a reaction out of Andrea. She raised an eyebrow and asked, “Oh yeah? What’s your plan?”
“Simple,” Mark replied. “We have Sera do it.”
Andrea chuckled. “You have a pretty high opinion of yourself. There’s no way either of us can convince Sera to do anything she doesn’t want to do.”
Mark shook his head. “We don’t have to convince her; we just have to tell her. Way back, I planted a hack inside her mind that will let me suppress her and make her compliant. I just have to pass the activation token.”
Andrea laughed. “Of course you did—I bet you never managed to pass that token back when you had your little falling out, or she wouldn’t even be alive right now, would she?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mark said with a neutral expression and a shrug. “But I just have to touch her in the right spot, and she’ll be ours in seconds. It’ll also lock down that pain-in-the-ass AI of hers.”
Andrea nodded, apparently already in agreement with his plan. “And what a
bout Serge? He’s not likely to go along with this. Unlike you and I, he likes Sera.”
“Already taken care of. Serge is about to get very sick.”
ERRANT AGENT
STELLAR DATE: 12.29.8929 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid
REGION: Ascella System, Galactic North of the Corona Australis star forming region
Elena sighed and looked around the small cockpit before focusing on the console before her. Sure enough, no data showed on any band. It was as though Ascella were truly devoid of any stations or outposts of any kind.
“No kidding…if I didn’t know better, I’d think they’d yanked the watchpoint,” she muttered.
Jutio flashed a marker on the nav holo and Elena focused the holo on that location.
“Well, at least the colony ship is here,” she said. “Same one as in Bollam’s—seems a lot bigger than the vids made it look appear back on Jornel.”
Elena replied.
Elena let out a long sigh and spoke aloud. “Great. I bet Sera let them know about the watchpoint.”
