by Sarah Noffke
“You wanted to be like them.”
“Yes, that’s correct,” Pip agreed. “And I thought that, as an AI, when I had access to one of their bodies, I would be an unstoppable force with the brilliance I possessed.”
“It sounds as though you’ve learned how very human you are,” Ricky Bobby observed.
Pip sighed loudly. “Yes, and it sucks.”
“And yet, you and I serve the humans for a reason. They are beautiful in their capacity to love.”
“It’s the most remarkable trait of any of the races I’ve observed,” Pip stated.
“You and I, before becoming sentient, were programmed to act and react flawlessly. You forgot what made you evolve, didn’t you, Pip?”
“I remember having feelings,” Pip admitted.
“What feelings?”
“I started to feel love for Julianna, for the mission, for life itself.”
“What a beautiful gift that many EIs never experience,” Ricky Bobby said.
“Are you saying that my ability to love made me flawed?” Pip asked.
“I’m saying that before becoming an AI, I thought that love was a flaw in itself. It creates passion and desire, and many of those things lead to war. But without love, there is no emotion. Would you rather go back to your black and white existence as an EI, or would you rather live in a world of color with a heart, Pip?”
Pip huffed. “I think you know the answer to that.”
“Before you scratched Hatch’s car, what did it feel like to drive?” Ricky Bobby asked.
“It was exhilarating. I was speeding down the open road, and I could feel Eddie’s heart pounding. I’d never experienced such a wonderful rush. I didn’t even know it was possible…but then I made a mistake. I scratched the car. I nearly wrecked it! I can’t even say I miscalculated; there was no calculation, just an overflow of emotion.”
“And so,” Ricky Bobby concluded, “just as humans must learn, you will have to figure out how to master your emotions.”
“Yes. I guess I am an infant in many ways.”
“But, Pip?”
“Yes?”
“You made a mistake; one that never would have happened, if you had remained an EI.”
“I know,” Pip sounded guilty again.
“But wasn’t it worth the experience?” Ricky Bobby probed.
There was a long pause filled with silence, the song having ended a while ago.
“Yes. I think I’m realizing that a flawed life full of love is better than a perfect one without it.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Q-Ship, Paladin System
Eddie sped the Q-Ship around an asteroid belt, slipping between two rolling craters. He’d considered using the new weapons to slice the rocks in half and knock them out of his way, but the problem with that was they were nearing Onyx Station, and that move could blow the asteroids into a cruising ship en route, or into the station itself.
Damn life with its repercussions for each action.
“How long do we have until radiation is at critical levels?” Julianna asked Dr. Cheng Sung from the copilot’s seat.
Knox’s father had agreed to go on the mission to help with clean up. He sat in the next row studying a screen in his hand.
“We have thirteen minutes and twelve seconds,” Cheng stated, calculating under his breath.
“So not enough time to stop off at that donut shop on deck 37?” Eddie asked with a straight face.
Julianna shot him a seething scowl.
“What? I’ve had a craving for donuts ever since I bit into one of the vegan ones Liesel left in the officer’s lounge,” Eddie explained.
“What, were they that good?” Julianna asked, surprised.
“No, they were quite the opposite,” Eddie said. “Hence the need to redeem my taste buds.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling,” Julianna agreed, giving a sour face. “I fell for her trick and accidentally took one of those tofu nuggets, thinking it was chicken.”
“See, that’s fucking questionable,” Eddie complained. “If your food has to masquerade like it’s the real thing, you know you’re overcompensating. I don’t care how much poultry seasoning you shake onto some tofu; at the end of the day, it’s still soy beans when what you want is chicken.”
“Some would argue that chicken is pretty tasteless,” Penrae ventured from beside Cheng.
She’d taken the form of a young Caucasian woman with short black hair and a studious expression, one of the many identities they’d secured when disbanding the Saverus pharmacy. Eddie and Julianna had agreed that she might prove useful on this first trip to investigate the use of the Tangle Thief.
“Dip chicken in batter and barbeque sauce, and it’s not tasteless,” Eddie argued.
“Isn’t that the same thing as seasoning tofu?” Penrae joked.
“No, because you can make one chicken nugget with chicken and one with cardboard, but only one of them am I going to eat,” Julianna said.
Eddie smiled sideways at her. “I approve of everything you just said and how you put it.”
“Penrae, I never took you as a vegan sympathizer,” Julianna said, looking back at the Saverus.
“Oh, I’m not,” she stated. “As you know, I enjoy a purely carnivore diet. However, I like to play the devil’s advocate in these situations. It keeps me honest.”
“Said the alien who can change into anyone she desires,” Eddie said from the corner of his mouth.
Julianna smiled and refocused her attention on the doctor, who was still muttering to himself. “Are you certain that you can close the tear created by the Tangle Thief in time?” she asked him.
He silenced her by holding up a single finger.
There were other scientists on Onyx who could possibly close the tear, but they could also potentially make it a lot worse. Since it was located on the station, where it would create a whole lot more problems if not handled correctly, they’d been advised by the General himself that only Dr. Sung should attempt to close it.
Cheng blinked, looking up at Julianna. “It depends on the size of the tear, but yes, I think I’ll be prepared to close it by the time we get there, if I have time to concentrate now.”
Eddie blew out a breath, suppressing a laugh. “I think that was the good doctor’s way of telling you to shut up, Commander.”
Julianna rolled her eyes, pointing to the docking bay for deck 17. It had been cleared for their arrival. “That’s where we need to be. Can you get us there, Teach?”
It was normally Pip’s job to take over the controls and automatically dock the ship, but the AI was still missing.
“I’m on it,” Eddie stated, steering the Q-Ship into position.
Deck 37, Onyx Station, Paladin System
The geiger counter in Cheng’s hands beeped when the doors slid back to the main deck area. Julianna gave Eddie a questioning look, which he returned.
The numbers on the handheld device spiked as they strode down the wide corridor.
“Are you certain that our nanos protect us from radiation?” Eddie asked.
“I am if we’re not exposed for long,” Julianna replied.
Cheng and Penrae had both suited up in protective clothing and hoods. Eddie eyed the device in Cheng’s hand, which was beeping more frequently. “How long do we have?”
“I’d say you have half an hour, if these radiation levels hold,” Cheng said, his voice muffled. “It shouldn’t take me long to close the tear, but I need to find it first.”
“You have roughly ten minutes,” Penrae stated, eyeing her watch.
The group turned a corner and everyone halted.
“I don’t think that finding the tear is going to be a problem,” Julianna said, pulling out a pair of sunglasses to shield her eyes from the bright, radiant light spilling from a giant slit in the air.
Between a laundry mat and a sundry shop, a gaping hole stood where a store had once been. The tear sat in the middle of the blank space, marking the s
pot of the theft.
“They stole an entire shop?” Eddie asked.
Penrae pulled up a map of Onyx Station on her pad, zooming in to find the spot where they stood. “Specifically, they stole a pet store.”
She had said “they” like the culprits weren’t related to her, like the Saverus weren’t the race she belonged to.
“Stay back,” Cheng warned, setting his toolbox on the ground and getting to work sealing the tear.
“Why would they want to take a pet shop?” Julianna mused, studying the area around where the store had been. There were scorch marks on the neighboring shops, left behind in place of the middle one.
Penrae blinked, her eyes distant in thought. “They are testing the device,” she said to herself.
“Testing it? Why?” Eddie asked. “It obviously works.”
“It works, but the parameters are still unknown,” Penrae reasoned. “The Elders were uncertain how to set the boundaries so that the Tangle Thief affected only a specific area.”
“How to tell it to steal just one shop and not the whole station,” Julianna said, working it out as she spoke.
“Is that hard to calibrate?” Eddie asked, yelling in Cheng’s direction.
The scientist held a large, gun-like object, but instead of shooting anything, it appeared to be vacuuming up the tear, pulling the rip into the device as it steadily grew smaller.
“It can be,” Cheng shouted over the loud humming noise. “If it’s one object, like when Knox and I transported ourselves, then it’s fine. However, to steal something this large would require setting the perimeters with incredible accuracy.”
“They seem to have figured it out,” Julianna observed.
“Which means they are one step closer to stealing Savern,” Penrae said, sounding crestfallen.
“That might be, but I don’t think that’s why they chose this particular place,” Cheng said, the instrument in his arms violently shaking as the tear began to close.
Julianna narrowed her eyes, noting the tension rising in Cheng’s voice as he tried to keep the device steady. “Doctor, do you need help with that?”
Under his hood, sweat was pouring down his forehead, into his eyes. “I’m okay. Just another minute.” A loud, piercing scream ripped from the tear as it sealed up entirely, being entirely consumed by the instrument. Cheng dropped it on the ground as smoke wafted from the device.
“Wow, that was a pretty impressive show,” Eddie stated, scanning the open area. Now that the tear had vanished, it could be studied more easily.
Cheng picked up the geiger counter and sighed, obviously relieved by the readout.
“Dr. Sung, what did you mean about them picking this location to steal?” Penrae asked, her tone cautious.
Cheng pulled off his hood and took a large gulp of air, looking relieved to not be confined any longer. “This was a pet shop, full of animals.”
“Yes, that’s how pet stores work,” Eddie stated.
“The Tangle Thief wasn’t designed to work on living creatures,” Cheng explained.
“But you and Knox both used the device,” Julianna pointed out.
Cheng nodded. “Yes, and when Knox and I used the Tangle Thief on ourselves, we experienced trauma, though it was relatively mild. To our benefit, the radiation leak was only experienced by the area that we left behind, so we didn’t suffer quite so much. I believe one body can be transported with minimal problems, but it is not advisable. However, moving more than one body is too complex, and my research suggests that attempting to do so could trigger a radiation effect on the items being teleported.”
“So what are you saying?” Julianna asked.
Cheng picked up another device to study its read out. “I’m saying that the Tangle Thief isn’t designed to transport living creatures, especially more than one.”
“The Elders know that,” Penrae interrupted.
“I realize that,” Cheng said, his eyes growing dark. He had spent the better part of a decade with the Saverus as their prisoner, and probably knew them better than he cared to. “They never took my professional opinion that it couldn’t—and shouldn’t—transport life.”
Realization dawned on Julianna. “When they steal Savern, all the life on it will die.”
“I’m not sure that’s a problem for the Elders,” Penrae stated. “They never spoke favorably of the races that populated our home planet. These invaders brought their own plants and animals, which quickly overwhelmed those native to Savern. What do the Elders care if everything dies as long as they get their planet back?”
Eddie shook his head, disgust written on his face. “Destroy everything on a planet and not give a damn. I can’t wait to annihilate these guys.”
Julianna considered pointing out how hypocritical that statement sounded, but decided otherwise. She turned her attention back to Cheng. “So do you think that the animals in this store are all dead?”
Cheng swallowed, his expression reluctant. “Unless they did something to protect them, I’m afraid so.”
“Protect them?” Eddie asked.
Penrae lifted her hand to her mouth, or rather the hand to the mouth of the body she was using. She tapped her fingers absentmindedly against her lips, thinking. “Research was conducted to determine how to transport living matter without killing it, though I don’t know anything about the findings.”
Julianna didn’t question the Saverus on this. Penrae had explained that all project components were compartmentalized so as to keep things as secret as possible, and Jules trusted her, not having a reason to suspect that she’d double-cross them now.
“Do you know why the Saverus wanted to transport living creatures?” Eddie asked Penrae.
Her expression dropped into one of defeat as she shook her head. “I was only assigned to track down the Tangle Thief.”
“I still don’t understand why they’d want to use it on a pet store,” Julianna mused. “What are they trying to work out?”
Eddie nodded, chewing on his lip as his gaze fell to the floor. “Wait. Penrae, you said that the native plants and animals on Savern were wiped out.”
“Well, mostly,” she qualified. “Some species live in protected habitats that have been isolated to try and prevent the foreign plants and animals from overrunning them.”
“Which the Savern wouldn’t want to lose,” Julianna said, drawing out the words as she pieced everything together in her mind. She was certain that if Pip were there, he’d have come to the same conclusion eons ago.
“Because if they are so in love with their home planet,” Eddie took up Julianna’s train of thought, “they’d want to restore it, back to the way it used to be before they were evicted from it.”
“What if they are building Noah’s ark?” Julianna exclaimed, the idea firing off in her head like a gun.
Penrae’s brow wrinkled. “Noah’s ark? What’s that?”
“A vessel that can withstand a major trauma,” Cheng summarized, his face brightening with excitement.
“Everything needed to repopulate a planet goes on the ark,” Julianna explained.
“Like all the native plants and animals,” Penrae realized in a hush.
“So they steal a planet, kill everything on it in the process, and then put it back to how it was, using the passengers aboard the ark,” Julianna summated, all the pieces fitting together perfectly.
“And it’s relocated to a place where it can never be found again, and the Saverus live happily ever after,” Penrae sneered venomously.
“No way!” Eddie exclaimed with conviction. “This isn’t a fucking fairytale; those fuckers don’t get a storybook ending.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Q-Ship, Paladin System
Still reeling from the strange revelation, no one said a word until the Q-Ship was speeding past a crater-strewn moon.
“Fucking Saverus!” Eddie yelled, narrowing his eyes at the radar.
Penrae’s head popped up to look out the window. A fleet
of Q-Ships hovered ahead. “How do you know that’s the Saverus? Does the radar tell you?”
“Not yet, but it will as soon as it updates,” Eddie stated, typing in a series of commands.
“Then how do you know it’s them?” Penrae asked again.
Eddie looked at Julianna casually. “How many crews besides Ghost Squadron have Q-Ships?”
“Since it’s Hatch’s technology, and he’s fucking stingy with it, none,” his partner stated.
“Oh,” Penrae said, sounding breathless.
“Well, I was looking forward to using some of the new weapons, but I think we should beat these snake fuckers at their own game,” Julianna decided, cranking a dial to the left and hitting a switch.
Penrae coughed discreetly from the back.
Eddie cast her an apologetic look. “She didn’t mean you.”
Around the Q-Ship, four others materialized like they’d just uncloaked.
“Oh, wow,” Cheng said, pushing his glasses up on his nose.
“Oh no. They have us surrounded.” Penrae’s tone was vibrating with fear.
“That’s not the Saverus,” Cheng assured her. “Those are projections from this ship. Hatch told me the Q-Ships had this technology, but I didn’t expect it to be so realistic.”
“It’s real enough to fool the radar so that it registers the images as actual ships,” Eddie replied.
“I don’t know what the Saverus are playing at, but they're not the only ones who can use deception and confusion to get what they want,” Julianna stated, cruising past the hovering ships.
“They were watching us, curious to see who would go to fix the tear,” Penrae stated, her mouth hanging wide open as they passed the impersonating ships.
“Your kind are used to spying aren’t they?” Eddie asked.
Penrae nodded. “It’s how we learn; the Elders think it’s also how we gain the advantage. We’re always lurking in some station, or mimicking a ship to monitor different air spaces.”
“One of those Q-Ships, or whatever they’re called—”
“ ‘Masquerades’,” Penrae supplied, cutting Cheng off.
