Randolph Lalonde - Spinward Fringe Broadcast 08 - Renegades

by Randolph Lalonde

  Several bone rattling thuds announced the impacts of explosive rounds against the blast door Alice was almost finished welding shut. “Back!” she ordered her team. “Take cover and watch for any sign that they’re trying to go around.” The Warlord boarding crew that had been placed under her command, a group of thirteen experienced soldiers, obeyed her orders and took positions around the broad hallway. Several of them held up the deck plates they pulled up to access the main trunk line for portable cover, and formed a half-circle around the hole Remmy worked in.

  “Explosives detected,” Alice announced as she highlighted the wall beside the blast door. “Get ready to hit them hard as soon as they come through.” She glanced at Remmy as she readied a thermal grenade. Why she was trusting his judgement over her own instincts, she would never know.

  The wall burst through, sending a wave of heat and shrapnel over the Rangers and her boarding team. Together they were twenty-eight, the Ranger team under the command of Remmy, and the Warlord team under her command. Some of their energy shields were partially depleted thanks to the blast, a few that were too close had been knocked down, but they came through it fine. Alice and two others lobbed grenades through the ragged opening, and just as her tactical sensors counted fifteen anti-incursion soldiers, the grenades detonated.

  The enemy was in cheaper armour, and didn’t fare well against the heavy grenades, losing six of their number in the detonation.

  “God dammit! I just had it! I was just connected!” Remmy shouted up from his hole. “Just keep the deck steady for ten seconds and I’ll have control of communications, navigations, the whole thing.”

  Another incursion team appeared on her tactical monitor, coming in through an airlock only thirty metres behind them. “Ganjavi, get a trap ready in this corridor, we need to blow it as soon as that secondary group comes through,” she ordered, highlighting the short hallway leading to the airlock and a number of escape pods.

  “Aye!” he replied, running towards his objective.

  The first incursion team started firing through their improvised door. The Rangers and the Warlord teams returned fire, immediately pressing the enemy back. Alice could see there were more soldiers gathering on the other side, however. “We’re going to be overrun unless you do something now, Remmy!”

  “I got it!” Remmy shouted back. The lights flickered, and emergency doors slammed shut, one nearly cutting Hooman Ganjavi in half. “Sonofabitch!” He shouted, barely stopping in time.

  “Do you have the slave frequency synced up with the Warlord?” Alice asked.

  “One sec!” Remmy said, shutting down the ship’s reactor completely. It would take half an hour for it to restart, leaving the destroyer defenceless in the meantime. “The uplink is good, the Warlord has control of the ship.”

  The simulation ended, and Alice disengaged from the training system. It always took her a moment to remember where she was after a mind-show like that. They were in a lounge with an extremely low ceiling, a space that was really improvised with the redesign of the ship with salvaged seating and makeshift tables. It was right below the main crew quarters. Alice could stand up straight in the space, but few others could. “Fine, you win, good strategy,” Alice told Remmy, looking down at him where he stretched in his seat.

  Only six others shared the space with them; the rest of the people participating in the simulation were doing so from their bunks. “It’s not about winning,” Remmy said. “And if it were, we both would have won. You held the position long enough for me to finish the uplink.”

  “He’s right, Alice,” Stephanie Vega said, removing the small uplink patch from her forehead. “You’re getting better at coordinating a team, and you’re even improving when you’re not the leader, but you have to accept that this isn’t a competition. That kind of mindset will get people killed in a real situation.”

  “I know,” Alice said. “I let Remmy finish his plan, right? I get it.”

  “You did, and that’s something, but we’re getting our teams together so we can pursue more than one course of action when it’s called for,” Stephanie replied, her tone level and non-confrontational. “It’s not about letting the other commander do their thing, it’s about coordinating. For a little while there you had a chance to plant your explosives around the reactor while Remmy set up in the trunk lines. If you’d coordinated a little more, you’d have multiple contingencies in place, ready just in case Remmy’s plan fell through. If that happened, you’d be all set to leave the ship immediately, saving the lives of your people, then you could blow the reactor, disabling the destroyer, too. Instead, you took an ‘either-or’ stance and reduced your chances of successfully completing the operation.”

  Alice couldn’t think of anything non-argumentative to say, so she quietly pulled her interface patch off and nodded.

  “I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m brow-beating you,” Stephanie said, laying a hand on her shoulder. “I just want you to get as much as you can out of these sessions because I know you could be a really important part of the team on the Warlord. I hope you still want to be.”

  “Honestly? I think I’d rather be solo again, but someone signed the ownership of my ship away,” Alice replied without thinking. She was letting her irritation speak for her. What Stephanie was saying was probably right, and she did want to be a part of the team, but she felt like she couldn’t do anything right lately, and being on her own was a compelling alternative. “Wouldn’t it be better if the Clever Dream were here? I did fine on my own, even in the battle of Port Rush. I can captain her no problem, and what good is my ship doing in Haven Shore, anyway?”

  “You were killed on that battlefield, Alice,” Stephanie said. “You can’t trust that your cybernetics will save you every time. I want you to come back in one piece, and working with a team makes that easier. That’s why the captain put you in my command chain, so you could benefit from my team’s experience.”

  Remmy cleared his throat. He was smirking; all this must have been pretty entertaining to him.

  “The Rangers are learning as much as they’re teaching,” Stephanie said. “Your performance wasn’t perfect in there either, Remmy. We can go over that later.”

  “Sounds good,” Remmy said, looking a little less pleased with himself.

  “You’re constantly improving, Alice,” Stephanie said. “That’s what matters.”

  Despite the reassurance, Alice didn’t feel like hearing any more, and she was also tired of Remmy. If there was a combat sim going on, he was already in there any way he could be, and his weird choice of ancient entertainment drew crowds in the mess hall during down time. There was just no getting away from him. “Thank you, Commander Vega,” Alice said. “All right if I take a walk?”

  “Sure, I’ll keep you company part way, I’m headed to the officer’s mess,” Stephanie replied.

  Alice made for the door, Stephanie right behind her, irked that they were going in the same direction. “I didn’t know it was finished.”

  “There are a few chairs and some improvised tables,” Stephanie said. They walked in silence for a few moments before she broke the silence. “I’m not kidding when I say you’ve been improving. Your situational awareness is higher than most of the people I’ve worked with in the last few years. You keep track of your team, the enemy. and the details of the mission really well.”

  “But I’m still no team leader, not for real, anyway,” Alice said. It was the ‘but’ statement that Stephanie was holding back, she was sure.

  “You’ll get there with experience. I didn’t sign on with the captain as a leader, it took me a lot of missions to get there. I got to know people, how they thought, who they were, and those relationships taught me a lot about my style of command, and eventually I was ready to take the lead. You should try to get along with Remmy, by the way. He’s good for downtime.”

  “What? My stalker?” Alice replied. “When I was in the Rangers he checked my profile constantly, ten times a day, s
ometimes more.”

  Ashley emerged from her quarters and smiled at them as she fell in step. “Where we goin’?”

  “Officers’ mess, to see the captain,” Stephanie said as she checked Crewcast. “I think Alice and I want turns at talking to him. Alice says Remmy has been stalking her, by the way.”

  “Really?” Ashley asked. “How’d I miss that? I haven’t seem him staring at you in the mess hall with dreamy eyes or anything.”

  “Well, it looks like Alice has been stalking him, too,” Stephanie said with a smile, looking up from the communications and utility unit covering her forearm. “He did check your profile a lot while you were in the Rangers, eleven times one day, an average of five times a day the rest. Checked out a few pictures of you at the beach too, but mostly he was checking your daily commentary.”

  “How many times did he check my beach images? I can’t see that,” Alice asked, flushed.

  “Six, but he’s only human, and you’re about the same age, maturity-wise,” Stephanie replied.

  “Yeah, right!” Alice protested.

  “The system does not lie,” Stephanie replied. “Speaking of which, there were eight days in the last month where you checked his profile fifteen times.”

  “In eight days?” Ashley asked. “That’s not too bad, kinda crushy though.”

  “Oh no,” Stephanie laughed. “Fifteen times a day on eight different days. It says you checked stats, his daily commentary, and you watched three holos of him in training, and you Rangers don’t wear much on the obstacle course.”

  Ashley filled the hall with a gleeful screech and clapped. “He’s even your size, you’d be so cute together!”

  Alice was mortified. “I was tracking him! He’s been competing with me since the beginning of Rangers training. It’s annoying, we’re supposed to be a team, just like you said.”

  “Wait, it shows here that you checked his profile a few days before he checked yours,” Ashley said as she checked her own comm unit. “Was there romance on the obstacle course?” she asked with a grin.

  Alice brought up the holographic clip she used to glare at when they were in training. She had randomly been placed on the starting line of Circuit D3, one of the most challenging obstacle courses, beside Remmy. She started the holographic playback right before the moment that she’d never forget. A second before the starting buzzer sounded, Remmy looked at her and winked. “He completely threw me off my game, got ahead of me right away and when I got to the rope swing he did this.” She advanced to a latter stage of the course, when she had just finished climbing a muddy wall with hidden hand-holds. Remmy finished just ahead of her and swung across the elevated mud pit with ease, then flung the rope back across the span. Alice was clearing muck from her eyes, so she didn’t see the thick rope and it struck her squarely in the forehead, knocking her off balance and back down the climbing wall. “I nearly broke my neck! That’s four metres!”

  “Not on purpose,” Ashley said, nearly doubled over laughing.

  “Nope, I’d say he was trying to help and didn’t check his timing,” Stephanie agreed. “He probably didn’t even see who he was swinging the rope back to.”

  Alice deactivated the little hologram and shook her head. “It had to be on purpose, that’s why he’s been in my sights all this time.”

  Ashley giggled and nodded. “I’m sure it has.”

  “No, as my competition, he started it. I scored in the bottom that day, and he made top three,” Alice insisted.

  “You ever ask him about it?” Stephanie asked.

  “Are you kidding? No. He’d just laugh, that’s how he is.”

  “You know, there are a lot of other, older ladies in these beach holograms too,” Stephanie said. “If this is a real problem, I can use my security access to see who he was looking at. Do you really think he’s stalking you?”

  “Yes,” Alice said.

  “Okay, let’s see who he was looking at in these images,” Stephanie said as she reviewed the behaviour capture data. Alice couldn’t see the information. To her frustration, Stephanie was reviewing the files in privacy mode. “Yup, he was looking at Shiriza in all of them, and for your information, he asked her out the day after she dropped out of the Rangers.”

  “Oh,” Alice remembered the woman. She was fairly nice, older than both her and Remmy by several years, but a little frigid. Shiriza was beautiful though, and fairly exotic looking, with dark skin and wavy dark hair.

  “She turned him down and banned him from her social profile,” Stephanie said. “The story gets worse from there.”

  “For who? Her or Remmy?” Ashley asked.

  “Remmy. She said some nasty things about him to all the women in her circle of friends. Might explain why Remmy didn’t have much luck dating in Haven Shore, not for lack of trying. He’s about as awkward as a one legged stool.”

  “Ouch,” Ashley said. “Points for dedication, though.”

  “Definitely,” Stephanie agreed. “But he also isn’t stalking you. Looks like he checks out your profile because he thinks you’re a friend. Probably likes that you follow what he’s doing.”

  “Yeah, right,” Alice retorted.

  “Listen, Crewcast doesn’t make mistakes with this kind of thing. From the behaviour analysis I’m seeing, he thinks you’re too young for him and probably sees you as a kind of kindred spirit, there’s nothing weird about it.”

  “Speaking as someone whose been ogled and followed,” Ashley said in a much kinder tone than Stephanie, “I can tell you this is a good thing. He’s short on real friends, I think, and he’d probably be easy to get along with.”

  “But the movies he shows, and I’ve seen him joking around,” Alice said. “It looks like a lot of people here like him.”

  “Sure, but he doesn’t know any of them, they’re all new crew looking for connections too,” Ashley replied. “You two could be good friends, unless you’re disappointed that he’s not-“

  “No, no,” Alice said. “If you’re sure he’s not stalking me, then good, and I’m not disappointed.”

  “Well, there would be no problem if you were,” Ashley said with an impish grin. “Crewcast says you’re about seventeen to eighteen now, and he’s twenty three, you’re about the same dating maturity, and there’s nothing ick-“

  “Seriously?” Alice asked with a screech.

  “Just buggin’ ya,” Ashley chuckled.

  “Is this okay now? You’re not going to accuse him anymore?” Stephanie said in a more serious tone.

  “Yeah, I guess the evidence can’t lie,” Alice said. “Wish I knew before.” The hatch leading to the officer’s mess was just up ahead, and it seemed that was the last place she wanted to be all of a sudden. “I think I’ll turn in early. See you later.” She accepted a hug from Ashley before making her way to her bunk.

  CHAPTER 34

  Taking Control

  Rituals were the core of Ayan’s older memories. In her last life, as Ayan Rice, she was a soldier first and an engineer second in her training. That may have reversed later in her career, people depended on her as an engineer, but the discipline and routines of a soldier were always present.

  Things were very different in the life she was living. She couldn’t help but reflect on the changes as she shaped her vacsuit into a much smaller version of itself so she could feel her muscles move unassisted. She was up before Lacey, hopefully before anyone who would need her could come calling. That was part of a routine she’d embraced over six months before, when she recognized one of the major differences between herself and the old Ayan. It was much easier to get out of shape, and she wasn’t nearly as coordinated.

  Simulations were fine, they could trick your mind into thinking you were having actual experiences, feeling actual pain, and exerting yourself as much as you would if you were actually doing whatever was being transmitted to your brain. There were a few important things they couldn’t do, however, like train muscle memory. There were short cuts, like targeted e
lectro-stimulation, but Freeground fleet training maintained that there was nothing like getting into workout gear and having it out on the track, or obstacle course, or firing range, or sparring room, or whatever activities you wanted to practice to the point of reflex.

  Ayan’s purpose that morning was two-fold. The run would clear her head, and she wanted to challenge her fear of heights. It wasn’t a full-blown phobia – that was rare – but an intense fear. The large octagonal tower top had transparesteel windows around the edge tilted on a forty-five degree angle, and a wide gangway one level up. Tamber was still shrouded in the shadow of night, but the moon had turned to reveal a starry night. People who grew up on colonies with an Earth configuration with one moon said it was difficult to adjust, but Ayan’s sense of time was tied to nothing but a clock. The extreme tidal forces did affect mood and a few other biological factors, but she was well acclimated after spending months on the ground.

  She jogged up the steps leading to the platform and started running along the inner edge. The platform was mostly transparent. If she started running in the middle, it would look like she was running in mid-air, with nothing but a clear view of the ground so far below. Her palms were sweating, her heart protested with a vigorous beat, and her mind objected, but she focused on moving forward.

  She remembered feeling out of shape and facing the choice: begin taking fitness pills that were normally reserved for people who didn’t have space for exercise, or start working it off. The soldier in her won, and with a little embarrassment she approached Oz to coach her. He did, and those first workouts seemed so long, they were so hard that she found herself wondering if her body was defective. It took months, but she eventually got into the shape she wanted. There was no changing the fact that she was short, or that she would always be thicker than her previous inception without serious body modifications, but once she uncovered her natural shape, she began to like it and there was no way she’d allow herself to slide back. Ayan swore off the fitness pills as well. Unless she set foot on a starship, she’d depend on good old physical exertion to stay in shape. As for being clumsy, she still bumped into things from time to time, but Ayan felt like she’d taken possession of her body, and mishaps were far more infrequent.