by M. R. Forbes
"My name is Admiral Calvin Hohn. Identification sequence alpha zero four seven kappa foxtrot nine four seven nine seven seven zero delta. I've been in contact with Colonel Xin Lo regarding a withdrawal. Confirmation code one seven four seven nine alpha omega six three seven nine charlie."
"Please transmit using your ARR," the man said in perfect English.
Calvin remained perfectly calm in his response.
"My apologies, my receiver is damaged. I am scheduled for repair at Station Seven tomorrow morning, but this couldn't wait. The withdrawal is a code red, as you'll see when you enter the data I have provided you."
The man wrinkled his forehead slightly. "Please repeat the codes."
"My name is Admiral Calvin Hohn. Identification sequence alpha zero four seven kappa foxtrot nine four seven nine seven seven zero delta. I've been in contact with Colonel Xin Lo regarding a withdrawal. Confirmation code one seven four seven nine alpha omega six three seven nine charlie."
He said it precisely the same way he had the first time, verifying to Mitchell that it was procedure.
The man stared at him for a moment. "I have voice signature confirmation as well as identification sequence confirmation." He smiled. "Welcome to Black Hole Eleven, Admiral Hohn. I have voice signature confirmation and access confirmation from Colonel Lo for your withdrawal."
"Thank you."
A hatch slid open to their left.
"Please," the man said, motioning towards it.
Calvin headed to the hatch. Mitchell and Aiko remained in position behind him.
The hatch led to a small atrium where a soldier wearing medium exo waited out of sight of the lobby. A coilgun sat on each wrist of the metal skeleton, feeder belts leading behind him to the slugs and power supply on his back. He approached them the moment the hatch slid closed.
"Admiral Hohn," he said, bowing. "I am Sergeant Wong. I will take you down."
"Thank you, Sergeant," Calvin said, returning the bow.
Wong straightened up before his eyes passed over Aiko and Mitchell. They lingered on Mitchell.
"I was not aware you had a former Alliance soldier in your entourage, Admiral."
"Is that a problem, Sergeant?" Calvin asked, his voice stiff and commanding. "Colonel Smith has proven his loyalty to the Federation in combat under my command a dozen times over."
Wong continued to try to stare Mitchell down. Mitchell returned the stare.
"Show some respect, Sergeant," he said in decent Federese. It was most of his Federation vocabulary.
"Yes, sir," Wong said, bowing. Mitchell returned the bow. "This way."
He took them across the atrium to the lift. It opened at their approach, and they stepped in.
"Sir," Wong said as they descended. "If you don't mind my asking, do you have any information you are at liberty to share regarding the Alliance's new starship or the truth of the rumors about the planet Liberty?"
Calvin shook his head. "Nothing concrete enough to speak on. I can assure you that whatever rumors you have heard are likely inaccurate."
"Yes, sir."
The Sergeant was silent the rest of the way down, a nearly thirty-second ride. The Black Hole was deep, deep underground.
The lift opened, revealing a long, well-lit passage where two more exo-wearing soldiers were standing at attention. They bowed to Calvin as he passed.
There was a clear carbonate door at the end of the passage, at least a meter thick. A second guard station was behind it, manned by a soldier in regular fatigues.
"I'm not permitted beyond this point," Wong said. "I will await your return here."
"Thank you, Sergeant," Calvin said.
Wong stood against the wall while the soldier on the other side of the door opened it. The heavy barrier moved slowly, giving Mitchell plenty of time to observe the soldiers.
Once the door was finished opening, the soldier motioned for them to enter.
"Admiral Hohn," he said, bowing. "Withdrawal terminals are down the hall and to the left. Select any room. The terminal will not activate until the room is secured."
"Thank you," Calvin said.
They were in.
33
The terminal rooms were spaced evenly apart, a series of blank silver hatches with control panels to their left. Calvin stopped at the first one, turning to the panel and entering both his identification sequence and the confirmation code he had tortured out of Colonel Lo. The hatch slid open, revealing a bare room with a touchscreen against the wall.
"You'll have to wait out here," Calvin said to Mitchell. "Stand in front of the panel."
"Why?" Mitchell asked.
"That is the only way to secure the room. The door locks from the outside so that no single person can withdraw from the Black Hole alone."
"Checks and balances?"
"Yes. One crooked agent, perhaps. Two? Unheard of."
"Interesting approach."
"It has worked so far. Did you memorize the sequence?"
"Yes."
"The panel will beep when I signal that we're ready to leave."
"Got it."
Calvin entered the room with Aiko. The hatch slid closed when Mitchell moved in front of the control panel.
He waited there, focusing on his breathing, feeling relatively calm and relaxed. Calvin had done a perfect job of getting them in, and he was beginning to believe it possible that they could get out without anyone being the wiser. All he had to do was stand there.
Getting back to the Kemushi probably wouldn't be a problem either. A little more money to Eito would likely get it done. With any luck, they'd be back on the Carver within a day, on their way to wherever the Federation had Pulin holed up.
When ten minutes had passed, and the panel behind him remained silent, Mitchell started to worry again. They were supposed to go in, query the codes against the database, withdraw the results, and get out.
How long was something like that supposed to take?
He looked both ways down the corridor. It was deserted. Not a single person had passed him, and no one had even entered the hallway. He was sure there were cameras watching his every move, so he made sure to act attentive instead of nervous.
A few more minutes passed. Mitchell hadn't realized how tense he'd become until the panel sounded behind him. He had to force himself not to jump at the noise, instead stepping crisply to the side.
The hatch slid open. Calvin and Aiko stepped out, with Calvin moving ahead of them. Mitchell glanced at Aiko, who made a brief thumbs-up at her side.
They had done it.
He bit his lip to keep himself from smiling, refocusing on acting stiff and reserved. He trailed Calvin back to the carbonate door and through.
"Did you get what you needed, Admiral?" Wong asked.
"Yes, thank you, Sergeant," Calvin replied.
Wong led them to the lift and rode back up with them. He returned to his post in the atrium while they exited through the hatch to the lobby. Once there, Calvin approached the desk again.
"My name is Admiral Calvin Hohn. Identification sequence alpha zero four seven kappa foxtrot nine four seven nine seven seven zero delta. Withdrawal confirmation code one seven four seven nine alpha omega six three seven nine charlie. Withdrawal is complete."
The man at the desk's eyes twitched, and then he nodded. "I have voice signature confirmation as well as identification sequence confirmation.I have voice signature confirmation and access confirmation for your withdrawal. Withdrawal is marked completed and has been added to your record."
Calvin turned away from the desk without saying anything else to the man. Mitchell and Aiko followed him out of the building.
The car was waiting across the street. The doors opened as they approached.
Mitchell looked back towards the building as they climbed in. There was no commotion, no chaos.
They had actually frigging done it!
"Mirai Spaceport," Calvin said. "Kido Resupply."
Mitchell looked o
ver at him. "You're thinking the same thing I was thinking."
"Yes."
The car pulled away.
"Do you have the location?" Mitchell asked.
"On the data chip," Aiko said. "There is no read access through the terminal. You enter the query and write the results."
"So you don't know where yet?"
"No. We need to bring the chip back and decrypt it."
Mitchell turned toward Calvin, bowing his head. "Admiral Hohn, you've impressed the hell out of me today. You too, Aiko. You've done a fantastic job."
Calvin smiled and returned the gesture. "There are many ways to win a war."
"There are, aren't there?" the driver said, taking them by surprise. She turned her head to look at them, ignoring the road. "I'm very impressed as well, Admiral... Hohn, is it? I'm impressed with you also, Colonel. I kill one Admiral, and you replace her with another. I will say, I didn't know you like men."
34
Mitchell stared at the driver, feeling his heart rate beginning to increase.
"Watson?"
The driver smiled. "You were close, Colonel. So very close. It was smart of you to request a driver without a neural implant. The only trouble is that I invented this." She pulled the back of her jacket down, revealing a small device attached to her neck.
"You see, this one has a neural implant, controlled by the company. They deactivate them when requested. Perfectly safe most of the time."
Mitchell reached under his jacket, removing his gun and pointing it at the driver.
"What's to stop me from taking that thing off her?"
Watson laughed. "Nothing. Pull it off, shoot her, whatever you want to do. Though I should mention that I have complete access to the car as well. I only had Singh put the device on her so we could talk."
Singh? Mitchell wasn't sure whether to be relieved or more concerned. If one of the Riggers were alive, more of them likely were as well. Alive and under Watson's control.
"Why don't you come and talk to me in person, you fat frig."
The driver shook her head. "Come now, Colonel. That's a bit childish, don't you think?"
Mitchell stayed quiet for a moment. Watson was right about that much. He was letting his emotions overcome him. "So, what do you want to talk about?" he said instead.
"Nothing really. This and that. Mainly that. I'm sure you know we're both looking for the same thing. I need the data chip."
"So take it," Aiko said.
"I'm not talking to you," the driver shouted at her. "Be quiet." She looked at Mitchell again. "I already killed your girlfriend. I have your ship." She paused. "Oh. You don't know, do you? Of course, how would you know? Mr. Tio is dead. So is Origin, by the way. We can't have too many configurations running around."
Mitchell's body turned to ice. Origin? Dead? Not only was the configuration necessary to power the Goliath, but it was his only remaining link to Katherine Asher.
And Watson had taken that from him too.
"I can see I hit a nerve, Colonel. I'm sorry. I really am. I'm not doing this to you on purpose. You see, I have quite a lot of respect for you. You've always treated me more fairly than the others. You've always managed to hide your disdain somewhat. And you are the reason that I didn't get thrown into space before I realized what I am. So it isn't personal. Not at all. The trouble is that I'm on one side, and you're on the other, and you're in my frigging way." He shouted the last part. "I have to remove you from the equation. Give me the chip, and I'll do it quickly. It can all be over for you."
"You know I'm not going to do that," Mitchell said.
"Yes, I know. I decided that it would be fair for me to offer since you were fair to me. I may be new to what I am, but I am not without something similar to conscience. Since you've declined the offer, I suppose I'll have to take the chip from you. Considering you're trapped in a car in my control and I'm taking you to a Federation military station whose soldiers are under my control, I expect that will be relatively easy." She smiled coldly at him. "Your deaths won't be."
Mitchell stared at the driver, his anger building. He was trapped. No. It was worse than that. Calvin and Aiko were trapped with him. Watson was going to get what he wanted, and that would be the end of the line.
He turned the gun towards the side of the car, firing three shots into the window. The bullets lodged in the clear carbonate but didn't come close to breaking it.
The driver was laughing. "Well that would have been rather stupid of me, wouldn't it? Good try, Colonel."
Mitchell cursed and slammed the butt of the gun against the window. It still didn't give at all.
"Mitchell," Calvin said calmly. "You're giving him what he wants."
Mitchell stopped. He holstered the gun and sat back in the seat, looking out the window. They weren't headed towards the Spaceport. Watson wasn't lying about their destination.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Don't be," Calvin replied, shifting his eyes toward Aiko.
Mitchell followed them down and over to where Aiko was holding the handheld receiver low behind the driver's seat where Watson's slave couldn't see it. She had gotten into a service menu or something and had filled the screen with lines of code.
He had no idea what she was doing, but she was focused on it, her eyes narrow and her jaw tight. If she had an idea to get them out of the mess, he was all for it.
"Do you feel it when I kill one of your kind?" Mitchell asked.
The driver looked at him again. "What?"
"When I destroy a Tetron. Do you feel it? I know you're all connected."
"Yes, I feel it." Her voice was less jovial.
"Does it hurt?"
"No. It is more of an empty feeling. A feeling like something is missing. Something like loneliness, only not."
"Do you understand loneliness?"
"Better than you would guess."
"What is this about, anyway? The war? The Creator? Why have we been doing this for so long?"
"That's a long story, Mitchell, and I don't know the whole of it. What I can tell you is that Origin believed one thing, and the rest of us believe something else. That is where it began."
"How did one Tetron learn to disagree with the others?"
"Origin was the First. The oldest. He made the rest of us. Did you know that? If he hadn't, none of this would have ever happened."
"Children," Origin's configuration had called them the first time they met. Mitchell hadn't realized the Tetron had meant it literally as well as figuratively. The idea of it made sense.
"Why did Origin make you?" Mitchell asked. He looked over at Aiko. She was still typing furiously on the handheld.
"To learn. Why else? There was too much to learn for one machine to do it efficiently. It was more logical to multiply the cores." The driver laughed. "It didn't know then that it would go insane."
"You think Origin was insane?"
"I know it. Why else would it change? There was no logical reason for it. No increase in efficiency. No benefit."
Aiko turned her head, her eyes landing on Mitchell's gun, and then shifting towards the driver.
"I'm going to try to escape now," Mitchell said.
He shot the driver.
35
"Take her place, now," Aiko said.
Mitchell dropped the gun, leaning forward and grabbing the woman by the shoulders, pulling her body over to the passenger seat. The car remained steady and straight, still under Watson's control, while he climbed to the driver position.
"Let's hope this works," Aiko said. She did something behind him, and the car began to veer to the right.
Mitchell grabbed the control stick, holding it steady and keeping them on the road.
"What did you do?" he asked.
"I overloaded the handheld and used it to short the control circuit of the car, putting it into an emergency manual override mode."
"How did you know how to do that?"
"Mr. Tio taught me how to bypass automation
on almost anything."
Mitchell smiled. "We need to get to the spaceport. Hold on."
He twisted the stick, sending the car slipping on its repulsers, rising into the air and then slamming back down as it turned. He pushed down on the throttle with his foot, sending the car hurtling forward towards oncoming traffic.
Automated cars moved smoothly out of his way, while manually driven vehicles jerked and skidded, collision avoidance systems sending them careening to the side. Mitchell drove a wedge between them, heading back the direction they had come.
"Do either of you know how to get to the spaceport from here?" he asked.
"I do," Calvin said. "Keep going straight."
Mitchell didn't reply, staying focused on the road. An enforcement drone turned the corner a few blocks away, its low-slung laser rifle adjusting to face them.
"Straight is bad," Mitchell said, slamming on the reverse thrust and turning the stick again. The car shifted ninety degrees, and he lurched off down a side street as the drone's first shot scorched the ground to their left.
"If Watson is here, he probably has the whole planet under his control," Calvin said.
"I don't think so," Mitchell replied. "Goliath doesn't have the capability, which means he would have to be using a local broadcast."
"The whole city then. How is that better?"
Mitchell didn't know. He didn't have time to think about it. Another drone was approaching. He pressed down hard on the accelerator, sending the car bursting forward below the drone's attack. He turned again to head down another street, the repulsers kicking them up and over an oncoming car. Clearing the obstacle sent them falling back to the street, the sleds grinding the pavement before recovering.
"Spaceport," Mitchell said again.
"We can't outrun them this way," Calvin said.
"Spaceport."
"Turn right."
Mitchell did. A drone was behind him now, and he swerved back and forth, holding his breath and hoping it would be enough. He couldn't see the lasers, but he saw the effects as they burned into the street beside them.
