Carthage Prime

by Toby Neighbors

  “Maybe,” Nyx said. “We aren’t technically breaking any laws. The satellite ban is in place because the planet doesn’t have adequate orbital tracking. Satellites would be a danger to ships bringing in vital supplies, but our little buoy is too small to cause damage to a space vessel. And it’s engineered to break apart on contact.”

  Alex launched the coms buoy and continued around the curve of the planet. Nyx could still get a reading on the suit’s systems, but Alex was effectively out of sight. The Republic’s sophisticated radar system couldn’t pick him up on the far side of the planet. Half an hour later, he was in position.

  “What now?”

  “Now we wait,” Nyx said. “It shouldn’t be long before you pick up the Zen Tech ship.”

  Nyx optimized the Titan’s systems without explaining it all to Alex. His job was to be the spy, hers was to make sure the officers on the Republic got the information from him. The FA Titan was a versatile MBS, the most effective combat mech in the CDF’s fleet, but also the most difficult to operate. Yet combat was just one role the Titan could play; it was also an effective spy when the need arose. As Alex’s controller, Nyx could narrow the suit’s outward-bound transmissions into a tight beam of information, which she directed straight toward the buoy. She could not only hear his reports, but she had full readings of the suit’s systems and could display the exact same visuals that Alex saw himself. His eyes were useless sealed up inside the Titan battle suit. There was no window—all visuals were picked up by the suit’s tiny cameras, and the digital feed was translated by the INC chip into visual representation by his brain. The INC also replicated that information and sent it back out of the Titan to the controller. Nyx made sure she could see what Alex was seeing and that the senior officers on the bridge of the Republic had full access, as well.

  So far, there wasn’t much to see. Alex was on the dark side of the planet. A glowing line marked the far edge of Carthage Prime. Alex and Nyx watched that glowing line for the arrival of the Zen Tech ship. When it came, it was like a shadow.

  “She’s killed her running lights,” Alex explained. “I can’t keep visual track in the darkness on this side of the planet.”

  “No worries,” Nyx said, typing away at her console. “I’m bringing up thermal vision now.”

  The image on Nyx’s screen and in Alex’s head changed. The dark side of the planet began to glow a deep purple. Space was still black, but the Zen Tech ship was a red blob with yellow and white lines at the engine exhaust ports.

  “Wow,” Alex said.

  “We have a strong visual,” Nyx added. “We should be able to keep tabs easily enough.”

  The ship settled into orbit and seemed to come to a complete stop. For several hours, nothing seemed to happen. Whatever the officers on the rival ship were doing, they were taking their time. Eventually, when Alex’s shift was nearly over, a smaller blob left the Zen Tech ship and headed for the northern hemisphere of the planet.

  “Looks like they’re delivering goods to the colony,” Nyx said.

  “Yeah, but why hide out on the dark side of the planet if you’re just making a delivery?”

  “Probably because we were here first,” Nyx said. “They’re a direct competitor, and they don’t want us to know what they’re doing any more than we want them knowing what we’re up to.”

  “But they already know, right? We bid for the planet’s mineral rights, and that was public.”

  “True, in this case they know. Which is why we aren’t being more secretive.”

  A few minutes later, Sly arrived to relieve Alex. They talked about what had happened, and then Alex began his journey back to the Republic.

  “Feels good to be moving again,” Alex said. “Doing something is better than nothing in my book.”

  “Watch duty is usually boring,” Nyx said. “You handled it well.”

  “There was something to watch for at first. And at least we could talk. That helps.”

  Nyx felt a tingle deep inside. Was Alex flirting? She couldn’t tell. Real life was nothing like the holo-films, in which men and women were smooth-talking and confident. Her experience was much more awkward and difficult. She liked Alex. A controller falling for their operator wasn’t unheard of, but there was a danger to falling in love with someone who put their lives on the line. Some controllers were never the same after their operators died in action. Nyx wanted a long and distinguished career in the CDF. She always imagined that love and family would come later in life, probably from somewhere outside of her work. But the more time she spent working with Alex, the closer she felt to him. Their few times together in person were the highlights of her short professional life.

  But she was a novice at love. There were signals and implications that were like a foreign language to her. She needed a translator, but she was completely on her own. And she knew she was on dangerous ground with Alex. If she fell in love with him but he didn’t have feelings for her, it could ruin their working relationship. If she could no longer work with Alex, she’d have to request a new operator—and controllers requesting new operators were shuffled to the end of the waiting list. She might get stuck on a small orbital station on a sleeping world on the edge of Ahzco’s galactic territory, where nothing ever happened. She could be paired with an operator in a Defender or Patroller MBS. She didn’t think she could be happy with such a simple battle suit and playing a small role after being paired with Alex in the elite FA Titan. Basically, she was risking her career by even entertaining the idea of a romance with Alex.

  She would have to tread carefully. Risking her career wasn’t smart, but neither was manipulating her emotions. There was more to being a controller than she had imagined, yet she was determined to be great. Nothing could interfere with her ambition—not even Alex. It was a painful thought, but she refused to budge. Her dreams were more important than any boy, and she was determined to see them come true.

  Chapter 21

  Alex reached the Republic with no difficulties. The Titan MBS was like a second skin once his INC was synced with the battle suit’s computer controls. He didn’t feel claustrophobic or even tired. The only unpleasant part of his tour was the boredom. Coming back around to the light side of the planet was satisfying. On the dark side, a million stars were visible in the great void of space, but on the light side the beauty of Carthage Prime held his attention.

  He passed through the artificial gravity barrier and came down on the Titan’s feet inside the launch hangar. In his absence, the drop ships had returned. He came into the Republic between two of the slick vessels used for ferrying operators into combat zones. They looked powerful, but bloated and heavy. The FA Titan, on the other hand, was light, sleek, and powerful in its own right. Alex absolutely loved being a Titan operator. He wasn’t anxious to get into a fight, but he looked forward to seeing what his team could do in the powerful battle suits.

  After striding across the launch hangar, he made his way into the MBS hangar. He was met almost immediately by Everyss, who waved him back to the harness that would support and recharge the suit as soon as he was out of it. She hooked the harness onto the battle suit with swift efficiency and then rolled the portable stairs up close beside him as he opened the Titan.

  “How was your first time out?” Everyss asked.

  “Perfection,” Alex admitted. “The suit is perfect.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said. “I’ll have it recharged and ready, Corporal.”

  “Thank you,” Alex said.

  His stomach growled as he left the hangar. He retrieved his PIL from the locker in the ready room. The other operators had mostly moved on. There were two messages on his PIL. One was from Chief Landry, giving him permission to return to his berth and use the facilities in the operator section of the ship. The second was from Ash. She and Newt were in the chow hall waiting for him.

  He was slowly becoming familiar with the winding passageways of the spaceship. He found his way to the chow ha
ll without using the map on his Flex PIL, which he had snapped onto his forearm. He walked into the nearly empty chow hall and saw his friends at a table, waiting on him. After retrieving a bowl of pasta that came with crackers and a container of steamed broccoli, he joined his friends at the table.

  “How was it?” Newt asked.

  “Sort of like a simulation,” Alex said, “but longer.”

  “That sounds dull,” Ash said.

  “What can I say—it’s surveillance,” Alex said. “Odds are, the Zen Tech ship is just delivering supplies.”

  “Boring,” Ash decided.

  “Is it hard being out alone?” Newt asked.

  “Not really,” Alex said. “You’ve got your controller to talk to.”

  “My controller doesn’t talk,” Newt said. “He spits out information like a computer. I think AI has more personality.”

  “Mine’s a barrel of monkeys,” Ash said sarcastically. “It’s like flying with my mother. She’s constantly telling me to slow down.”

  They chatted while they ate. Newt had the third shift, and Ash was up after that. Once they finished eating, Newt headed off to the ready room, while Ash went to their quarters to get some sleep. Alex decided to go to the weight room. It took a few minutes of trial and error to figure out the controls on the circuit machine, but once he had it set up, he powered through a full workout. After hardly using his muscles at all in zero-gravity, it felt good to push himself. He left the gym tired, sweaty, and happy. He was living a life he’d never imagined possible. Not only had he left the dreary colony on NP8261 far behind, but now he was actually an operator in the CDF. After spending the last eight hours in space operating an FA Titan, he couldn’t imagine anything better than being in the Corporate Defense Force.

  He returned to his berth to shower and get some rest. Ash was in her bunk. She had dialed up the opacity of the transparent door to her recessed sleeping pod. It blocked light and made it impossible to see who was inside the pod or what they were doing. Alex guessed she was sleeping, but he couldn’t say for sure.

  After taking a shower, he stretched out on his bed in the small private room he’d been assigned. The room was a lot like his bedroom growing up, only with less clutter. He wondered if he would be on the Republic long enough for him to add a few personal touches. He activated his PIL and checked for messages. There were none. Being at the edge of open space, transmit times for messages were longer than before, even on Ahzco’s company network. With no news from his parents, he felt a pang of loneliness and browsed through his pictures of them. There weren’t many on his PIL, and he wished he had taken more before leaving NP8261. He had hoped to see them once he completed training. He couldn’t help but wonder what Skandia Seven was like. Alex had never been to a level-one planet. His condition for joining the CDF was a transfer for his father, and Loman Haley had even included a bonus that allowed them to purchase a small home. He typed out a quick message telling them he’d been promoted to corporal but leaving out any details of the mission he was on. The last thing he wanted was to have them worrying about him.

  He checked the company site and saw that his promotion came with a bump in pay. His banking account could grow while he was deployed on the Republic. His ship credits accumulated since he didn’t get up to the entertainment levels often, although it did cross his mind that he could go up and meet with Nyx sometime. He wondered what that would be like. Would his team resent it? He had dated a time or two growing up, but it was never really serious. The girls were more like friends than love interests, and the dates were really about just going through the motions—more of a social activity than an actual romantic encounter.

  There was too much pressure to even consider going up for a while. The threat alert had been dialed back to orange, but there was still a chance that the Zen Tech ship could attack them. He didn’t want to be six levels up watching a holo-film if the ship were attacked and his team was called into action.

  He read for a short while before setting his PIL to wake in him eight hours, then put it on standby cuffed on his forearm. He turned the lights off and lay in the darkness, wondering what Nyx was doing, as he drifted off to sleep.

  A week went by, and Alex began counting the days according to his shifts on surveillance duty. He adjusted to the routine easily enough: breakfast with Sly and Newt, his watch shift off the ship, then back for dinner with Ash and Newt. Some days he went for a long walk after dinner or hit the gym to work up a good sweat. He almost always spent an hour reading before bed. One thing his credit account afforded him was the ability to purchase books from the online bookstore of his choice. He soon had a virtual library of books waiting to be read.

  His work was boring at times, and isolation was hard to avoid. His team had created their own routines, and while they spent time together every day, he felt like there was distance between them. His relationship with Nyx was growing, but he felt as if there were barriers between them, too. He had been thinking of inviting her to have a meal on the entertainment level with him, but something about her demeanor had changed. It was hard to be certain, though, since he heard her in his head as if her voice was actually his own inner monologue. He talked to Sly and Newt about his feelings, but not Ash. Their relationship had cooled since the yellow alert. Everyone seemed to be moving away from Alex, creating intentional distance. He didn’t know if it was because of him or simply to avoid being hurt, but it made him feel like something was wrong.

  In the end, he decided just to focus on the work and his routine. There was no need to shake things up. On the eighth day, shortly after Ash had gone on watch, Alex was awakened by a ship-wide announcement.

  “Yellow alert. I repeat, this is a yellow alert. All personnel report to their stations.”

  At the same time, Alex’s PIL vibrated on his arm. He was struggling to wake up as he activated the PIL and looked at the message: Titan team report to ready room 108.

  He got to his feet, stretched, then pulled on his compression fatigues. He was still tugging at the tight-fitting clothes as he hurried down the corridor. He made his way to the ready room and found his friends, including Master Sergeant Brooks, waiting. The NCO waved him over to the briefing section where everyone else was gathered. Chief Landry was already speaking via the large display screen.

  “...have set up operations on this plateau, at the northern end of the Cipius mountain range. The operators on the ground have two primary objectives. First, protect the miners drilling for ore, including the expeditions to surrounding sites. And second, maintain passage from Tunis to the base of operations...”

  “What’s going on?” Alex whispered to Sly.

  “The ship we’ve been watching sent drop ships to the southern hemisphere,” Sly whispered back.

  “...land mass is massive, with most ground water frozen, creating one super continent in the southern hemisphere,” Chief Landry continued. “Odds are high that the landing parties we have observed are merely there to poach ore, but they could be combat forces, and if so, we have to be ready to intervene. To that end, Romeo Company will board a drop ship tasked with slipping into atmo and doing an aerial reconnaissance of the Zen Tech vessels. Master Sergeant Brooks, your squad should be ready for immediate deployment in the case of an attack.”

  “Roger that, Chief,” Brooks replied. “We’ll be ready.”

  “Titan Team, all further recon missions are canceled until further notice,” Landry said. “You’re to be in a state of readiness at all times. If combat is initiated, you will make a precision entry from orbit and bring the full weight of your FA Titan team to bear wherever you’re needed. Any questions?”

  “No, Chief,” Alex said.

  “Very good. Stand by for further orders.” The screen went black as the transmission ended.

  “All right, you heard the man,” Master Sergeant Brooks shouted at his squad. “Romeo Company, get your gear ready and report to the MBS hangar. I want everyone suited up and ready to rock in fifteen min
utes.”

  The squad rumbled past Alex and began getting ready. There was a mix of excitement and frustration. Being suited up but clamped into a drop ship was not Alex’s idea of fun. He could only guess how Romeo Company felt about it after their last experience. Who knew how long they would be confined in the drop ship?

  Alex sat down next to Sly and Newt. He needed one of the refresh strips with its jolt of caffeine, but he decided to wait until Romeo Company had cleared out.

  “Sounds like Ash may get some action, after all,” Newt said.

  “Yeah, maybe,” Alex said. “Do you guys have everything you need?”

  “I wouldn’t say no to a quick shower,” Sly said. “I’m getting ripe.”

  “We know,” Newt said.

  “Go get it,” Alex said. “Odds are high that this is the only free time we’ll have for a while.”

  “Thanks,” Sly said, slipping past Newt and Alex.

  “When was the last time you slept?” Alex said.

  “I got in eight hours,” Newt said. “If you want to crash, I’ll make sure Sly gets back here.”

  “Okay, thanks,” Alex replied. “You wake me if there’s any news at all.”

  “Sure, Ace, no problem.”

  The ready room cleared out, and Alex dialed the light down. Newt was on his PIL, and Alex slipped on the sleep mask but left the ear plugs out. If there was trouble, he didn’t want to be caught off guard. His body had burned through the adrenaline that he’d felt upon being wakened by the yellow alert. He stretched out on a padded bench and was grateful for the chance to sneak in a little more rest. The sleep mask blocked the light, and he was soon able to drift off into a fitful doze.

  Chapter 22

  Alex was awakened an hour later when his PIL vibrated. He pulled off the sleep mask and sat up. Ash was standing by the food dispenser, wolfing down a quick meal. Newt and Sly were standing near the briefing area. Both of them were looking at their PILs and talking.

  The Flex PIL on Alex’s forearm showed a message. The Titan team was being called to action. Alex felt a tremor of panic—he didn’t feel ready, but it was too late to back out. He stood up, popped open his locker, and retrieved a caffeine strip. He placed it in his mouth and felt the sudden, flavorful burn followed by the jolt of energy. Suddenly his fears were cast aside, and now he felt invincible.