Stealing Endeavour: Book 1 of the Forever Endeavour, Amen Trilogy

by Martin Tays

  ☼

  Mattie was concerned. She was fairly certain that Cath and Sandar were supposed to meet them on the ship, and they hadn’t been there in the docking module when she and No had locked through.

  She gestured to No to follow and pushed off toward the engineering module. Mattie hoped there was no problem with getting the drive in place. It had been there on the outside of the ship when they’d arrived with the medical module, but no one had answered her hail.

  When she pushed herself into the main engineering module, she found out why. There was another long, timeless moment. Finally, she found her voice. “Wow. Oops. My. I am so very sorry.”

  “What is that funky smell?” No complained, entering behind her. Only after he was fully in did he notice the other two people in the compartment. He was so startled he missed the grab bar and sailed across the compartment. “And me without my OUCH!” He rebounded, rubbed his head and continued, never taking his eyes off the scene before him. “Camera.”

  “Excuse me, ladies.” Mattie pushed herself over and grabbed No, then braced herself and forcefully threw him toward the hatch they’d entered through. Her aim was spot on.

  He still never took his eyes off the duo, so the clang from the next compartment and his startled “Oww?!” came as no surprise.

  She turned back toward the two naked and entwined figures. “Again, sorry, really. He doesn’t get out, much. We’ll just go… um, with the thing. And the stuff. Bye!” Mattie pushed off and shut the hatch loudly behind her.

  And there was another long, timeless moment.

  Then Cath and Sandar, still blushing madly, looked at each other and broke up laughing.

  ☼

  Moses looked into the vid window suspiciously. “So there were no problems with getting the medical module in place?”

  In the floating window Mattie shook her head, her ponytail twisting behind her in the zero gravity of the ship. “Not a bit. Why?”

  “Because when I asked No that, he just snickered.” Moses replied, in a confused tone of voice. “You can’t imagine how bizarre it was to hear No snickering.”

  “Yes, I can. And No…” She looked off camera, “… will pay for that snickering. Yes, indeedy.”

  “I don’t want to know, do I?”

  Mattie shook her head again. “Oh, believe me, no.”

  “Gotcha. Tell No it’s been nice knowing him.”

  “I will pass along the word. Anything else?”

  Moses leaned back. “I think we’re good. That’s about it. We’re done.” He paused, then continued. “We’re done. Wow. I honestly wasn’t sure we could pull this off.”

  She leaned into the pickup. “It’s all you, Moses. Couldn’t have happened without you. Rafe’s an idiot.”

  “Yeah, well…” Moses looked away, uncomfortable. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. Boss.”

  He finally smiled. “Okay. Enough. And speaking of Rafe, I need to call that weasel fucking son of a bitch and tell him he’s got a ship.”

  In the vid window, Mattie grimaced and looked around her. “Yeah. I suppose you should.” She reached out and patted the console fondly. “I’ll miss her.”

  “Me too, Mattie. Me too.” Moses visibly shook himself, rubbing his hands together as he continued. “Okay. You two… no, you four, stay put. I’m going to contact Rafe, then get Ami and the rest of the crew. We are by God going to be there for power up. They deserve it. We deserve it.”

  “You got that right, mister.” Mattie smiled. “I’ll get Cath to start bringing up the power plant.”

  “Outstanding.” He reached out to kill the connection, paused, then looked at the girl once more. “Mattie?”

  She gestured angrily, cutting him off. “Don’t say it, Moses. Get everyone together. We’ll talk when you get up here.”

  “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. See you soon.”

  “You too. Out.”

  The vid window vanished as Mattie disconnected. Moses leaned back and rubbed his eyes. After all this work, after all this hope, it was going to hurt to watch Rafe and his hand picked gang fly off into the unknown without him.

  He sighed and leaned back, shutting his eyes. After a moment, there was a soft touch on his forehead. Moses opened his eyes and looked up into Ami’s upside down face. He smiled. “What did I tell you about eavesdropping?”

  She leaned down and kissed the end of his nose. “Not to. Sorry. I couldn’t help it. Are you all right?”

  “Yeah. Or I will be. Thanks.” He reached up and patted her hand, then leaned forward and spoke to the comm unit. “Call 'weasel fucking son of a bitch'. Priority one.”

  Despite the circumstances, Ami had to laugh. “When’d you set that up?”

  “While back.” He shrugged. “Seemed appropriate.”

  “It is.”

  In front of Moses a vid window opened, displaying the Haven Aerospace Group’s logo. After a moment it cleared as Rafe’s face appeared. He regarded Moses warily. “Well?”

  “’Push the button, Max’.”

  Rafe shut his eyes. “Yes!” Opening his eyes, he smiled widely. “Everything’s in place. All I’ve got to do is give the word. Moses?”

  “I don’t want to hear it, Rafe.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Get bent.”

  Rafe sighed. “Moses, it’s got to be this way. You know that, right?”

  “Just give the word and let’s get this show on the road. Time and tides wait for no man. Neither does Uncle Vanya.”

  “Right. Okay. You’re right. You’re going up, right?”

  Moses reached out and pulled Ami closer as he replied. “I… we… wouldn’t miss this for the world, Rafe. Be careful. We’ll see you on the ship.”

  “Yeah. We’ll see you on the ship.”

  Moses killed the connection. Ami reached out, uncertainly, to touch his shoulder.

  “Are you… ?”

  “Fine. I’m fine. Is everyone together?”

  She nodded. “Everyone who’s not already on board, yeah.”

  Moses stood abruptly. “Great. Let’s go, then. We’ve a ship to catch.”

  ☼

  Rafe stared at his blank desktop, then spoke to the empty room tiredly. “If wishes were fishes…” He shook his head, pulled up his comm list, and keyed the first name on the list.

  After a moment, Madeline’s face appeared. She stared out of the window with a strange look on her face. “Rafe.”

  “Mad. It’s a go.”

  Madeline’s face collapsed as she started crying. “No.” She finally managed to get out. “No, it’s not.”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  Before she could reply the window was pulled over to the side. Rafe found himself looking into the face of one of Celestine Grace’s personal guards. “I’m sorry, sir.” The guard said evenly. “I’m going to have to terminate this call. Please remain where you are. Thank you for your cooperation.” The window vanished as the guard killed the connection.

  Rafe stared, slack jawed, at the open air where the window had been. He jumped to his feet, but the door opened before he could move. Another security person stood in the opening, looking at the front of his door strangely. Finally, she looked over at him and asked in a perplexed tone of voice “Excuse me… are you Raphael Deppner?”

  “What? Yes, of course I am.” He pointed angrily. “You’re staring at my door, you twit.”

  “Oh. Sorry. It’s just that…” She turned back to the door. “Well, the sign here just says ‘Weasel Fucking Son Of A Bitch’.”

  Rafe fell backward heavily into his chair. He shook his head. “How did he even do that?”

  The girl stared back at the door. Finally, she smiled slightly and turned ba
ck to Rafe. “Ah. This would be Mister Dunn’s work, I take it?”

  “Probably. Definitely. It doesn’t matter.” He looked at her sharply. “Who the hell are you and why are you in my office?”

  “Oh, sorry, sir.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out an ID. “My name is Samantha Dharmadkikari. I’m here to arrest you.”

  “I see. You’re one of Grace’s goons, aren’t you?”

  “I prefer the term ‘operative’, actually.”

  “I really, honestly, don’t care that much, Ms. Dharmadkikari.”

  Sam’s eyes widened a bit. “Hey. That was pretty good.”

  Rafe looked up, distracted. “What was?”

  “Your pronunciation.”

  “Um. Thanks. I guess.”

  Sam stared at the man behind the desk for a long while as he slumped over staring at nothing. Finally, she stepped inside and swung the door closed.

  Rafe looked up in surprise as she stepped close to his desk, leaned over, and turned on the privacy field. She regarded him intently for a moment, and then spoke in a low intense tone of voice. “Look. I can’t let you go. You know that, right?”

  “Oh, yeah? Why not?”

  “Because there’s a couple of dozen other operatives… ‘goons’, if you prefer… between you and the front door of the building. None of them as understanding as me.”

  Rafe closed his eyes, a broken look on his face. “Ah. Yes. That would be a good reason, I suppose.” He stood up and walked over to the window. Finally, he turned. There were tears in his eyes. “You understand what we’re trying to do, don’t you?”

  She nodded. “And do you understand that our operatives have now captured all of the people who were involved in this scheme who are currently on the planet?”

  Rafe leaned his head against the cool glass of the window. Suddenly, he leaned back and looked over at her sharply. “Wait a minute. Run that one by me again? Slowly?”

  “I said, sir…” Sam repeated, slowly and distinctly, “… that all of the people who were in on this who are on the planet at this time are now in custody.”

  “And the others are not?”

  She looked him carefully in the eyes. “No sir. The others are not. Yet. Celestine Grace…” She spat the name, just a little, “… has decided to handle that portion of the operation personally. He is at this moment on board a shuttle that is taking him to the Endeavour. I anticipate another fifteen minutes or so before he will arrive.”

  Rafe was studying her intently. “Really?”

  “Really. Mister Grace has a security doctor with him, and a warrant to execute a neural shutdown on everyone on board that ship.”

  “Oh. Oh, Christ.”

  “Grace will be able to almost effortlessly obtain complete control of the ship, but only if he has the element of surprise on his side.” Sam crossed her arms. “If he does not have the element of surprise on his side, he will find it much more difficult.”

  “If he does not…”

  “No, sir.” She stepped back, stared pointedly at the communications console, then turned to look him dead in the eye. She counted silently to herself. One. Two…

  Oh ‘three’ Rafe’s eyes widened. He jumped over to the desk, threw himself into the chair, and shouted “Call! Moses Dunn! Priority one!” A cheery Please Hold appeared in a vid window over the desk as muted music began to play. Rafe drummed his fingers. “Jesus. What the hell is this?”

  “I think it’s ‘The Girl From Ipanema’.”

  “I can’t believe I just gave you that opening.”

  “Honestly, neither can I. Thank you.”

  “My pleasure.” The window finally cleared and the face of Moses appeared. He looked distracted.

  “Rafe? Can this wait? I’m trying to dock, here.”

  “No, it can’t. Turn it over to the dork kid. We’ve got problems.”

  Leo leaned into the pickup, pointing down toward his crotch. “Hey, butthole. Dork this.”

  Rafe ignored him. “Moses?”

  “Right, right. Leo?” Moses unfastened his lap belt and pushed himself out of the pilot’s chair to make way for Leo to sit. Leo glared at Rafe as the window rose to follow Moses, then stuck his hand up into the frame after he’d vanished below the edge of it to make a rude gesture.

  “What the hell’s going on, Rafe?”

  “Shut up and listen. We’re porked. Well and truly. This…” Rafe swung the vid window around toward the officer, “… is Samantha Dharmadkikari. Samantha is here to arrest me. Samantha’s friends are currently arresting all of our friends.”

  “Everyone?!?” Moses asked, shocked. Behind him, Ami gasped.

  “Everyone.” Rafe continued. “And that’s a bad thing. wouldn’t you agree?”

  “Oh, Christ. Okay. Stay put. Hang on, Rafe. Stay put. We’re going to turn around and… and…”

  “And what? There’s not a goddamn ― that’s four ― thing you can do down here. And you’ve got problems enough of your own.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that Celestine Grace and a hand picked squad of his goons…” Samantha cleared her throat. “… sorry, operatives, are about ten minutes behind you.”

  “Oh, great. Company. And the place is such a mess.”

  “Moses… Grace has a warrant.”

  Moses looked confused. “Yeah? So?”

  Rafe was shaking his head. “He has a doctor. The warrant gives him the okay to do a full neural shutdown.”

  “Holy sweet Jesus. Isn’t that illegal?”

  “Nothing’s illegal if you’re the government. You’ve now got about twelve minutes. What are you going to do?”

  “I guess I’m going to have to whup the bad guys, kiss a pretty girl, and ride off into the sunset.”

  “Damn it five, you stupid son of a bitch six, this is not a joke.”

  “I’m not laughing. I’ll call you when… I’ll call you when we get done with this.”

  Rafe looked at Sam, then turned back to the vid window. “Moses… you be careful.”

  “I will, Rafe. You know what a cautious fellow I am.” He started to speak again, but there was nothing else he could say.

  He broke the connection.

  “There’s an old urban myth about boiling a frog.

  You put a pot of water on the fire, and you crank up the heat, and you boil the water, and you put a frog in it. He’ll panic, and desperately try to get out of the pot. Understandable ― you’d do the same thing, yourself.

  However, if you start with a pot of cold water, put the frog in, and then slowly start to turn the heat up, the frog stays put. Even as the temperature rises, even as the water starts to boil. Even as he’s dying. The frog stays put.”

  Simon Jester, from “Frog Soup”

  “Every step of the way made sense. As lifespans increased, as the prospect for immortality sank in ― I mean really sank in ― it all made perfect, perfect sense. And there was always this reasonable statement from the reasonable government that if they took reasonable control of this, and began regulating that, then we’d all be safe.

  Oh, it wasn’t Big Brother. It was never Big Brother. It was seemingly innocuous step after seemingly innocuous step ― each as reasonable as the last.

  We cheerfully handed control over every aspect of our lives that made that life meaningful to the largest, most powerful, most intrusive, most protective government that has ever existed.

  We have no one else to blame. We did this to ourselves.”

  Sara Vinton, from “Big Mother”

  “Passengers are reminded that by federal regulation DNA samples are required on boarding and again on exiting the shuttle. Thank you for choosing AmericAir, and we hope you have an enjoyable and above all safe flight!”<
br />
  From preflight boarding video, “Welcome to AmericAir!”

  Chapter 16

  “It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.”

  e e cummings

  “Bridge!!”

  “Moses? What…”

  “Bridge now! GO!” Moses cut Leo off roughly, giving him a shove that sent him sailing toward the hatch that led to the forward part of the ship. Leo looked at him once, then grabbed Sher and towed her behind as he pushed off down the corridor. Doug and Fiona followed, but Moses grabbed Ami as she went by and spoke fiercely. “You’re in charge. Get everyone strapped down securely.”

  “What? Are we about to boost?”

  “No. I just don’t want someone drifting into any of controls while they’re unconscious.”

  “We’re going to be unconscious?!”

  “In about four minutes or so.” As they spoke Moses had been guiding them over toward the forward accessway. “Grace has a med unit and permission to do a neural shutdown. They’re going to put out a blanket signal that overrides your nannies and sends you to slumberland. Shuts you off like a fucking switch.” He snapped his fingers to demonstrate.

  Her eyes widened. “They can do that?”

  “Yep.” Moses put his finger to his mouth in mock alarm. “Shhhh… don’t tell anyone. It’s supposed to be a secret.”

  “Those bastards.” She looked at him. “Wait a minute… won’t you get knocked out, too?”

  Moses smiled ferally. “Not if I can help it. I’ve been a bad, bad boy. Now, go!”

  Ami reached out and touched the side of his face. She then kissed him quickly but passionately and fled the room.

  “Oh, yeah.” Moses watched her leave, then spoke very quietly and softly to the empty room. “And I love you.”