by C. T. Phipps
I gave a half-smile. “No, you haven’t told me about your past.”
Ida shrugged. “I’ll leave that for the youngsters. One story sticks out for relevance, though. Back when I was running guns in the early days of the Commonwealth’s wars of conquest, when I was still a fit and sexy seventy-five, I knew a revolutionary named Carlos the Red.”
“Never heard of him.”
“You wouldn’t have. He was a roguish dashing figure, with a beret and red skin. He and his people used nano-tattooing to cover their entire bodies in beautiful illustrations of their battle prowess. Carlos loved to talk about how the Commonwealth was the enemy and how he would liberate his world from their oppression. He claimed the only reason they wanted to take his world was its resources.”
“Sounds familiar.”
Ida smiled. “Man could fuck like a sand dragon, too.”
I tried not to grimace at that mental image. “What happened to him?”
“He won. The Commonwealth withdrew like it occasionally does. His world’s economy collapsed, and he killed a bunch of innocent people trying to hold onto power. Ten years later, when he died at the hands of his bodyguard, the planet petitioned to rejoin the Commonwealth. Been an upstanding member ever since.”
“Not exactly a compelling moral. Don’t fight for freedom because it’s not worth it?”
“Oh, no, it’s much worse. The moral is everyone in power is one kind of son of a bitch or another. Don’t trust ’em. Fight for people rather than fight for the people themselves. Individuals are worthwhile but people as a whole are a nebulous concept which can be used to justify anything.”
I respected that sentiment, even if I didn’t agree with it. “I don’t have anyone to fight for.”
“Then maybe you should remedy that.”
I prepared to get up but, instead, just reached over and picked up the teapot to pour myself something non-alcoholic. “There’s one thing I don’t understand—”
“Just one thing? You’re a very lucky man.”
“How did I end up on the ship of a Watcher?”
“You really want to know?”
“Yeah.”
Ida chuckled. “I thought you were Hans Nakamora.”
I stared at her. “My wingmate?”
“Yeah, the Star Dancer of Crius. I saw a couple of propaganda films about him. The bastard son of royalty raised in poverty only to become the greatest warrior in the Archduchy. Caused my heart to pitter-patter.”
“Starfighters of Desire,” I said, staring. “God above and below, I hated that movie. They made me a complete asshole in it.”
“You had to admit the romance was good.”
“Hans was asexual. He’s also dead.”
“A pity. Handsome fella.” Ida leaned back into the sofa and got more comfortable. “There had been rumors he ejected from his starfighter at the last minute, so I thought you’d eventually reveal yourself. My people in the underworld have a tendency to steer interesting folk my way or to my contacts. It just turned out I had the wrong person.”
I rolled my eyes. “So, I just what, hang around with you as your people look in every little nook and cranny for where these rebels are based?”
“Sounds good to me. I figure if word gets out that you’re hiding on my ship, the real you, the Free Systems Alliance will send some people to either pick you up or silence you.”
“So, I’m the bait.”
Ida chuckled. “Something like that. Honestly, I have another operative who will be very interested in meeting with you and together I think you two could bust some heads.”
“Does this operative have a name?”
“Yep.”
I paused.
Ida smiled.
“I see.” I smiled back and took a sip of tea. “Just when I thought this was going to be boring. I was worried you were going to have me recite speeches denouncing the fake me and blood tests to prove my identity.”
“It’d be better if no one knew about my status as a Watcher. As far as the Free Systems Alliance is concerned, you’re just a former war hero in hiding. When they make contact with you, we’ll follow them up the food chain to their masters.”
“Who I will then deliver unto their doom.”
“Fraid so.”
“Anything else?” I wasn’t sure I was going to go along with this plan any further than it took me to the next point. On the other hand, I did want to find out who the hell was impersonating me. If there was even a slight chance that was Judith, I needed to know.
No, Judith was dead. No hope was better than false hope.
“We’ll be heading out to a ship that we think was conducting scientific experiments for the FSA. I had a friend on board disable the vessel, so it’s sent up a distress signal. We can show up there and either rescue any survivors or loot the wreckage for anything useful. Hopefully, we can extract my agent, too.”
I stared at her, not at all pleased with her revealed ruthless side. “And hope their friends don’t send an army to blow us up.”
“That too. If there are any survivors other than my associate, you can make contact with them and persuade them of who you are.”
“This is a terrible plan.”
“Probably, but I didn’t come up with it. My superiors are morons, God bless them.”
I snorted. “Do I have any choice but to go along with it?”
“Not if you don’t like prison camp food. I think you’ll like the person on board, though.”
“I doubt that very much.” I sighed then paused. “Show me the video again. I want to get to know these people.”
I needed to know what choice of evils I was really making.
Chapter Seven
I dreamed again.
This time I was prying open the metal doors of a sealed super-steel warehouse on Skellige, one of the vassal-worlds taken during the Second Archduchy War. I was working with scavs, the lowest of the low, moving through the ruins of battlefields and former Archduchy possessions. The warehouse was just one of the many innocuous locations marked on the document sheets we’d stolen from our last haul, a State Security messenger ship which had never managed to reach its destination.
When the door was pulled open, the smell was horrifying. The rancid smell of meat, which had been left to rot for God knew how long. The interior of the building was dark and there was no sign of State Security guards, markings, or hints this was one of their facilities. It had probably been cleaned out but many of the organization had fled their posts after Crius, abandoning whole collections of important equipment.
I just wanted to make enough money to get out of Sector 7 and get to one of the Free Systems in Sectors 8 through 12.
“Put on your breath masks, lads,” Captain Thompkins said. He was a jolly red-haired man with a goatee and a complete lack of scruples. The scavenger leader was half-pirate and had accepted my presence in the group along with other people who didn’t belong anywhere else.
I, reluctantly, did as he asked. The genetically engineered gelatinous membrane slid over my face and purified the air I breathed. I wasn’t exactly comfortable with this sort of biotechnology, ironically given my people’s extensive use of it, but it was a cheap substitute for importing actual equipment from the more civilized nations.
“You go on first, Steve,” Captain Thompkins said to me. “New guys always take the biggest risks.”
Why there was always a need for new crew, I gathered. I hated this current bunch and intended to ditch them for someone slightly more honest the first chance I got. Heading on in, I flipped the interior lights and found the power was down. Pulling out a light rod, I lifted it up and stared at the sight that greeted me.
Corpses.
Thousands of them.
All piled on top of one another like trash.
“Well, that explains the smell,” Thompkins said, coming up behind me. “It’s an old State Security Processing Facility.”
There were complaints from the scavenger tea
m behind me, clearly having hoped for something other than bodies.
I stared, stunned into silence. “I thought those were just propaganda created by the Commonwealth.”
“Oh, Shiva and Kali, no,” Thompkins said, laughing. “Those Crius bastards were always looking for new genetic material to test their enhancements on or work their wacky science. You got used to people disappearing on worlds like mine, especially if they weren’t living up to their potential.”
“Monstrous,” I whispered.
“Not really,” Thompkins said. “These facilities usually have vaults full of confiscated property for the Parentland. If they didn’t bother disintegrating this load before they fled, they might have only taken what they could carry with them. Also, I can see the armory door is still sealed. That means it’s payday tonight!”
A cheer went up from the rest of the scavs.
My eyes opened, and I was once more in the present. This time, I didn’t have a hangover despite the fact I’d spent the entirety of the night drinking with Clarice. I’d set my blood-nanites and artificial organs to cleaning out my system when I slept. Not just of the alcohol but also the tranquilizers, memory suppressors, and more. I wasn’t sure if letting the memories flood back was a good idea since traumatic memory was a medical condition, but I wanted to be conscious of everything before I made my final decision.
Clarice’s taut, well-muscled body nuzzled up against mine beneath the sheets and I looked over at her, seeing the outline of her frame beneath. It was a very different kind of body to Isla’s and one I had enjoyed riding. I was glad, really, that my friendship with her had survived and hoped I could continue it with both her and Isla. I wasn’t sure if it would survive with any of the other crew.
We were in Clarice’s quarters this time and it was a strong contrast to both mine and Ida’s. The place was full of holos, pictures, and symbols of the life she’d left behind, but also arranged with a military precision. I saw images of her cousin Janice, Isla, Ida, a few shots of the mercenary group she’d left behind, and several of crew members. None of me but I didn’t expect that. There were guns and armor throughout the room, mostly arranged in neat little cases with much attention to safeties. I also saw her framed System Patrol badge on the desk by her headboard.
Decommissioned.
Troubled by the memories of Skellige and other horrors that leaked to the forefront of my mind, not to mention my Traitor’s Alliance with the Watchers, I leaned back against the headboard and took a deep breath. “Sickening.”
Clarice surprised me by revealing she was still awake. “Because that’s what every girl wants to hear after a night of rough energetic sex.”
“No, that was more than satisfactory.”
“You should be a poet, Cassius. I bet that silver tongue of yours won many young ladies over.”
“Speaking has never been my tongue’s best use.”
Clarice chuckled. “Okay, good one. I may actually invite Isla for our next session as a reward.”
“I’m fairly sure a reward would imply it wouldn’t be for you as well.”
“I keep forgetting Crius women don’t pretend sex is a big chore that is given as a reward to men for good behavior.”
“That seems like a shockingly bad idea.”
“Eh, it may just be for Shogun upper-class women. We’re supposed to be pure, chaste, and virginal until our marriages to whichever man or woman our House master picks for us.”
“I seem to recall hearing something about that. How’s that working out for you?”
“With lots of scheming, adultery, secret lovers, lies, blackmail, and murder.”
“So, much like Crius.”
Clarice stretched and sat up. “I had to break up three more fights today over you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Two of them were people going after Holtz for trying to take you down. Apparently, you’re some kind of national hero to surviving Crius.”
“That…makes no sense to me. Everyone on the ship from the Archduchy is a peasant.”
“Commoners love nobles. They all dream of being swept away by one so they can order people like themselves around for the rest of their lives. You married one, after all. You also didn’t commit any war crimes.”
I thought of Kolthas and the fifty thousand people who died there without warning to get at the military base located on it. “That’s debatable.”
“Yea?” Clarice said. “But people have a tendency to remember things as better than they were.”
I paused. “Ida recruited me to help her track down the Crius Reborn soldiers and this Free Systems Alliance.”
If Clarice didn’t know Ida was a Watcher, I wasn’t going to keep it from her.
Isla either.
“Good,” Clarice said. “We can do some real good by taking those bastards down. More so than any of the pirates and smuggling rings we’ve been tracking.”
A lot of the Melampus’ illegal activities took on a new light with the realization they were being conducted by a member of the Commonwealth’s secret police. “Are you a Watcher?”
Clarice snorted. “Fuck no. I just work for them.”
“You promised me you’d tell me your backstory after drinking.”
Clarice frowned. “Sadly, we went straight to sex after drinking so I reserve the right to withdraw that offer.”
“No takebacks.”
Clarice rolled her eyes. “Fine. What do you want to know?”
“You’re a member of the Rin-O’Harra clan?”
Clarice closed her eyes. “Ida let you know about that, huh?”
“Yes, she did.”
The Rin-O’Harra clan was one of the most powerful bloodlines in Sector 7. They were, in addition to being the not-so-secret rulers of Shogun, heavily involved in every aspect of commerce from interstellar trade to skim from tariffs. They had made uncounted trillions from selling Crius technology and enhancements to the Commonwealth as well as Independent Systems. They were also slavers.
Clarice sighed. “Well, you can imagine the majority of it. Born a wealthy merchant princess on a planet where everyone works for you or your family. I was taught the ins and outs of gun-running, narco smuggling, extortion, bribery, and how to kill someone in a way that left a message.”
“That requires quite a bit of imagination.”
“Even for a Crius?”
“Even for.”
Clarice looked at a picture of a redheaded woman similar to her but even more beautiful than Isla, which I scarcely imagined possible. “My cousin and I were raised to be the heads of the family. The two of us were expected to take control over different sections of the business, push ourselves to the limit, and the one who made the most credits would get to be the new Matriarch.”
“What happened?”
“I got put in charge of the slavery section of the family business and lasted a week before wanting to blow my brains out. They tried to move me to the bioroid section but, by then, I was already seeing them as people. It’s how I became the first crewmember to recognize Isla, you know. I once saw an entire warehouse of Sexy Snow Queen Isla dolls.”
I stared at her. “Sexy Snow Queen Isla…from the children’s movie?”
I couldn’t not see it now.
“She also came in sets with a talking reindeer and her brother Hans.”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose.
“Do I even want to know how popular those are?”
“Extremely.”
“Ugh.”
Clarice nodded. “Of course, my family made its fortune in knock-offs. For the actual slave-slaves, we wiped the memories of illegals and refugees, then surgically altered them, and wiped their memories before selling them as bioroids. Other people we just signed on labor contracts, which they’d never be able to rid themselves of. Those we did our best to get addicted to glimmer or blitz to ease the transition.”
“I get the picture.”
“No, you really don’t.”
“Do I want to know how many were sold to Crius?” I tried not to be sickened by how many brothels I’d taken my squadron to which had been tended by bioroids.
“Very few,” Clarice said. “They could afford to buy top-shelf stuff straight from the Commonwealth.”
“What happened?”
“I ended up washing out, got addicted to drugs and alcohol. Spent a lot of time with whores. In the end, after rehab, my newly promoted matriarch cousin arranged for me to have the one job I thought I might be able to actually do some good in.”
“A cop.”
Clarice nodded, resting her head against my chest. “A cop. The System Patrol was corrupt as hell, but I figured I might actually be able to do some good. My partner, Darren, and I, did a lot of good on Shogun. There were plenty of gangs other than the Rin-O’Harras, and even my family decided to go with it.”
“Until something happened.”
“Something always happened. I ended up finding a crate full of drugged-up refugees set for my family and decided to turn them into the Commonwealth rather than local authorities. I made a big decision to turn on my family and do the right thing.” Clarice sighed. “They killed Darren for it and my sister covered up my involvement. After that, I was fired for some glimmer packets found in my locker.”
“And so you ended up with Ida.”
“There was a new sheriff in town and the Commonwealth needed people like me to clean things up.”
“Did it work?” I asked, not at imagining it did.
Clarice stared at the door. “My cousin, Janice, is now the head of the Shogun Merchant’s Guild and the Commonwealth is considering her for Sector
Seven’s non-voting Parliamentary representative on Albion.”
“Ah.”
“We’re cutting back on slavery of people-people, though!” Clarice raised an ironic fist. “Legal pharmaceuticals, licensed armaments, and locally-owned Ares Electronics branches for all the sector’s bioroid needs! Redemption for the family! Legitimacy!”
“You must be so proud,” I deadpanned.
“You have no idea.” Clarice slid out of bed and I watched her backside as she walked around the room, looking for a bottle with some alcohol left in it. “Even Janice is sickened by it. Then again, I always thought she wanted to be the hero, too. She was just strong enough to carry on the family business whereas I wasn’t. Anyway, I’ve helped Ida take down some real scumbags so I can at least look at myself in the mirror now.”
