by K S Augustin
Phase one, contrive a set of circumstances so she’d collapse. Starving for three days plus natural frantic tension seemed the easiest to engineer, so Moon had done exactly that. Srin said that the next obvious step would be to schedule a short shore leave somewhere and he was right. Tick.
Phase two, plant deep-memory scramble-bombs throughout all her data and its backups. It was a move reminiscent of what Kad had done years before. As far as Moon was concerned, nobody else was going to gain access to her research. Ever.
Phase three involved getting to the planet’s surface together and escaping. It was maddeningly vague, but Srin had been confident something would come up. She admired his optimism, and hoped he was correct. What would happen if they failed didn’t bear thinking about.
By phase four, Moon knew they’d be out of luck. No matter which way she and Srin went through the plan, they would hit the roadblock of his debilitating withdrawal. They had to escape again, but this time Slater’s End itself. It may or may not involve Kad. Or some other cooperative party. Or maybe a theft or hijack.
The more Moon thought on this last part of their plan, the more her head spun. She felt strung out at the end of each day, trying to appear calm while the sentence of Bliss, or execution for treason, hung over their heads.
They continued researching their destination, snatching time during the early morning and late evening hours when they weren’t likely to get many visitors to the lab. She focused on three of the biggest cities as possible landing sites for the ship’s shuttles. And then, because she had the only reliable memory of the two, she concentrated her research efforts on analysing the communications and transport infrastructure around those cities. They needed to get off Slater’s End as soon as they could, but there were few commercial flights offplanet and archived manifests showed that the civilian craft often left half-empty. They couldn’t count on getting lost in a crowd of travellers. But staying on Slater’s End meant going round and round the planet…until they were caught.
When she was too dispirited to continue reading—every escape strategy seemed doomed to failure—Moon designed her scramble-bombs, crafting them with immaculate precision so they wouldn’t be detected by most deep-scan diagnostics. When they were complete, she identified specific installation points throughout her lab and at every console in the cargo bay, glad that there was something over which she had a degree of control.
I’m finally atoning for my sins, Kad.
In the three days it took the Differential to reach Slater’s End, Moon had reconciled herself to a future radically different than the one she had originally envisaged. At the end of each day, she yearned for Srin’s touch. But they reluctantly agreed that there was too much at stake for them to get distracted now.
Moon said a mental good-bye to the glory she thought would be the pinnacle of her career, and to friends and a life that had proved to be so much less. She reconciled herself to an unsteady and possibly terrifying series of events. She forced herself to breathe deeply and steadily whenever she thought of it.
Phase two was her responsibility—Moon was the only one who could prepare data, because she set up the system that way. Phase three involved them both. But they knew she would be alone—more than alone—by phase four, in many ways the most danger-fraught part of their escape. And if Moon couldn’t make it succeed, couldn’t get through everything the Republic was undoubtedly going to throw her way, then they were both going to be very, very dead.
But that was phase four and, for the moment, she was still back at the relatively safe phase two mark, casually moving from console to console, calling out figures in a croaked voice for Srin to ostensibly double-check while she covertly installed her software bombs. Calmly, they bided their time and counted the hours until planetfall.
A few hours away from their arrival at Slater’s End, Moon was contacted by one of the administrative officers to confirm her inclusion in the first shore leave group.
Subject to a few conditions. This, too, was something she and Srin could not predict—exactly what rules Drue would set up for them. To their relief, it was nothing too draconian.
Moon turned up at the purser’s office to hear the constraints in person.
“You are not permitted to remain on the planet overnight,” he told her. “You are to report to the drop-off point and be shuttled back to the ship by midnight, local time. And you are to remain within sight of a member of the Space Fleet at all times.”
Moon nodded briskly, and only let her breath out slowly when she was safely out of earshot.
Back in Srin’s cabin, he nodded when she relayed the conversation. He’d been contacted over the intercom only minutes before and told the same thing. They stared at each other.
“This is it,” she said, and hated how shaky her voice sounded.
“We’ll be fine,” he told her. “We’ll make it.”
She felt wooden and stiff when he pulled her into his arms.
“A kiss for good luck,” he whispered next to her jaw, then his lips captured hers.
She melted in his arms. How she missed the moments of intimacy with him, she thought as she wrapped her arms around his neck, running the fingers of her right hand through his silky brown hair. His kiss was tender, desperate and full of promise. His tongue teased hers gently, strong yet with a hint of humour. There was no other way Moon could describe it. His sense of fun was evident in the way he played with her, running his tongue along her teeth, daring her to catch him. His ardour was evident in the way he held her close, tight and hard up against him. His consideration tempered his embrace, resolute but not suffocating. Everything that he was—his intelligence, his tenderness, his vulnerability—was there in his kiss, and she wanted to cry from the sheer honesty of it.
He felt the small shudder that arrowed through her and reluctantly pulled back, looking with concern into her eyes.
Moon’s nose felt ticklish and stuffy from the tears she was holding back.
“What’s wrong?” he asked with a frown.
She shook her head. “Nothing. I’m just—I just hope this works out for us.”
“Of course it will.” He angled his head and grinned. “Have I ever lied to you?”
Moon didn’t know whether he had truly forgotten his deception regarding the calculations, or whether he was teasing her. She forced a choked laugh from her throat.
“You’re incorrigible,” she scolded, reluctantly easing herself out of his arms.
He let her go. “I’ll see you in the launch bay.”
She nodded quickly, not trusting herself to say another word, and walked away.
In a twist of fate, it was Drue who almost stopped the escape before it could properly begin. Moon hadn’t bargained on him appearing personally to oversee the first shuttle down to Slater’s End and cringed when she caught sight of him, but there was nothing she could do.
She steadied her faltering step and, hitching a thick strap farther up her shoulder, shoved the rest of the small satchel she was carrying behind her back so it looked more inconspicuous. With only one door open on one side of the bulky-looking craft, she knew Drue would see her, especially as he was standing so close to Srin, who looked as unconcerned as ever.
“I don’t know that I like this,” he said, looking from one to the other. “Even with the conditions I specified, it would be a breach of security to let both of you go down to the planet together.”
Why hadn’t she thought of that? Moon almost hit her head in frustration. They should have split up, slowly fading into two shore leave crews and meeting up at some rendezvous point only when they reached the planet surface. But it was too late to implement that plan now. Maybe one of them could go down first and the other try to get on a second shuttle? Or maybe if she didn’t return to the landing point, they might send Srin down to help look for her? No, that was even less likely.
What answer could she give Drue that would satisfy him?
Rosca Moises sidled up at that moment
, like a hawk centering on prey. It was disconcerting the way the woman always seemed to be around. “Is there a problem, Captain?” she asked smoothly.
“Routine security, Consul,” he replied brusquely, not even looking down at her. “None of your concern.”
“Everything on this ship is my concern, Captain,” she cut in. “As I asked before, what appears to be the problem?”
“Dr. Thadin and Mr. Flerovs both want to go down to the planet together. Allowing them both off the ship at the same time, however, is a security breach, especially in view of the strategic importance of this mission. As you tell me repeatedly.”
Moon held her breath. There must have been other disagreements between the captain and consul that she hadn’t been privy to. And they must have been deeply insulting to Drue, especially as she knew how hard he worked to keep his emotions and personal opinions private. She wondered how a feud between two of the Republic’s representatives would translate to whether she and Srin were allowed off the ship.
“How many soldiers will there be on the planet, Captain?” she asked, curling her hand and subjecting her fingernails to a cursory look.
“Thirty at any one time.”
“And will they be close to a commercial spaceport?”
“Slater’s End only has one inter-system spaceport and it’s located on the other side of the planet.”
“And how long will the doctor and her friend be down on the planet?”
“They’ll have a two-man escort at all times and I’ve directed them to return to the ship by midnight at the end of each day,” he replied stiffly.
“In that case, do you really have such little faith in your men, Captain?”
He frowned, a pull down of his brows that would have intimidated any other person. But Consul Moises wasn’t just any other person. She smiled pleasantly at him. “This jaunt was your idea in the first place, wasn’t it? Why not let the two lovebirds have some time together before I put them back to work again.” She shrugged. “With all the restrictions and a constant military escort, what could they possibly get up to, Captain?”
Moon was pulled in two directions. Their escape depended on getting on that shuttle as soon as possible. So she was intensely interested in the dialogue being played out in front of her. At the same time, she was tracking a countdown in her head, trying to ignore the sweat trickling down the back of her neck. If this didn’t work, if somebody entered the lab and noticed the console activity—
Drue jerked his head. “Check them both. If they’re clear, let them get on board.” Then, more softly to the woman beside him as he stepped up close to her, “Consul, if you contradict my orders in front of my men one more time, I promise I’ll send you back to Headquarters in a cargo crate.”
“You forget yourself, Captain Jeen.” Her voice was frigid as she looked up at him. To her credit, she didn’t take a step backwards, regardless of how menacing Drue looked, with his severe expression and held-in emotion.
“No, Consul Moises. In fact, I think I’m beginning to remember myself again.” And he stalked away.
The search was thorough, but Moon knew they would find nothing. She regretted that she couldn’t bring her larger bag along. She had grown quite fond of that soft, shapeless piece of luggage over the past year. But just the size of such a bag, on what was ostensibly a day trip to a planet she had never visited before, would have given too much away. She let herself be patted down by the junior officer in charge of the roster, scanned from hair to ankle, her small satchel containing mostly a cache of money examined. She again held her breath, hoping Savic wouldn’t suddenly appear. Before long, it was all returned to her and she was waved aboard the craft.
It took only another ten minutes for the rest of the group to shuffle in, strap themselves in and get ready for launch, but it felt like a century. Srin was a bit slow boarding, and ended up in the seat directly behind her. At any moment, she expected someone to burst through the door, or shout for the departure to be aborted. Even when a sharp shudder told her they were on their way, she refused to relax. The order to return to the Differential could come at any time. Moon didn’t even begin to relax until she felt the shuttle’s legs touch the paved surface of the spaceport. Even then she forced herself to remain calm until the craft’s metal door finally slid open.
Although it was early evening on the ship, it was mid-afternoon in the city where they landed. And cold. The crew of the Differential had negotiated use of a small private field off a used quarry for their landing point, close to the third largest city on the planet. Drue obviously felt that a smaller population centre offered enough opportunities for his relaxing soldiers, while minimising chances of mishap for his two most precious charges.
As she exited the shuttle, Moon inhaled the sharp tang of burning petrochemicals, confirming that this was not one of the most advanced systems in the Republic. That was unfortunate in a way, but it would have to do.
Across the stony field, a couple of small transports were waiting for them and, through the vehicles’ transparent side-panels, Moon saw the wary looks the local drivers slanted at them. She could understand their apprehension and their questions. Why was the Republic here? What have we done wrong? Not that she had any thoughts of reassuring the planet’s inhabitants about their presence. She wanted them all as keyed up and wary as possible. So she pinned a haughty expression on her face, and gave them the kind of withering look she had often seen on Moises’s face. Then she completely ignored them.
The squad leader broke up the small contingent of soldiers but, as per orders, assigned two of them to follow Moon and Srin around. Moon tried not to notice as she stepped into one of the transports and buckled herself in. Turning around in her seat, the driver told them they would begin with a tour of the city before they were dropped off in the city’s central plaza. The transport would be at their disposal to ferry them back to the shuttle whenever they wished, but what they did otherwise was up to them.
Slater’s End was a mining planet, a dusty place on the fringes of Republic space, and suffering as a result. At normal speed, it was an eight to ten days’ journey from the Suzuki Mass which was, itself, more than a two week journey from the nearest hyperspace exit point. If the transport routes through the Republic resembled the circulatory system of a human being, Slater’s End was a capillary off the smallest toe on one of that being’s feet. And, just as a human rarely took much notice of their toes, so the Republic gave the planet only enough resources to ensure it kept producing ore for use in ships and machinery, and left it alone the rest of the time.
Thinking about it, and the primitive technologies that still dominated the air and ground of the environment Moon was travelling through, it was difficult to imagine escaping from such a place. She already knew that what Drue told the consul was correct—there was only one inter-planetary spaceport on the planet. Even if they managed to evade their escort, all the Space Fleet had to do was freeze all port traffic—a task that took no more than a handful of minutes—then slowly hunt the two of them down.
She stared blindly out of the scarred window panels, hoping they could find some way out of the mess. Meanwhile, the countdown still continued back on the ship. Only a few more hours left now.
The city and its environs were as depressing as Moon’s thoughts. Slater’s End was not as well-organised nor as clean as the more advanced Republic planets. She doubted they even had an accredited science centre. She wondered how they could exploit such a lack of technology. How could she and Srin make the absence of something an advantage?
They passed swaths of ruin and disorder, parts of the city that, in fact, looked as though they still hadn’t cleaned up after a small war. She wondered what had happened to cause the destruction.
The transport came to a stop in what was obviously the centre of the city—a small square. Moon and Srin, their soldier minders and a small group of several others disembarked. The atmosphere on the planet, now that the spluttering engines of the
transport were killed, was almost as eerie as the one aboard ship. Around them, the people, whether old or young, were mostly silent and wary. A chill wind blew down the streets, which were lined with tall, narrow buildings. Small scraps of plastic were lifted into the air by the breeze and blown into people’s faces. Moon almost wished she was back on the Differential.
“Let’s go shopping,” Srin suggested happily as the second group peeled off amid much raucous laughter. Moon and their soldier-chaperones looked at him in disbelief. He pointed to a tall, cantilevered building to their right. “That place looks interesting. And at least it will get us out of this wind.”
There was no arguing with that piece of logic. Moon saw from the soldiers’ postures and sullen expressions that they resented spending valuable recreation time in such a hole of a place, especially when it also entailed “babysitting” duty. To their minds, vacation spots were filled with pretty, available women, free-flowing intoxicants, warm weather and the freedom to do whatever the hell they wanted with little thought of consequences. Slater’s End offered a bleak and cold landscape, the ground sunken in places where subterranean mines had collapsed, and where the amenities looked either substandard or nonfunctional.
Silently, they trudged to the building that Srin indicated. None of them were expecting much, so the inside of the complex was a pleasant surprise. While the outside was grey, scraped concrete, chaotic colour decorated the walls of the interior, as small shops jostled for space with their neighbours.
“This is more like it,” one of the soldiers growled behind Moon.
She looked around. The life that was sucked out of the exterior landscape seemed to find a home within the centre. Children played games in the narrow pathways fronting the shops, giving chase and zig-zagging between towers of electronics spare parts, food items and odd-sized boxes, labelled in a number of languages. Signs littered every free centimetre of vertical space, gaudy and multicoloured.
