Wasp Hand

by Jonathan Moeller

  “I hope they have coffee,” said Adelaide. She stood and stretched, and March found his eyes drawn to her chest before he could stop himself. “If we’ve been impressed into the Navy, at least I want some free coffee. And maybe a protein bar.”

  “I don’t think we’ve been impressed,” said March, leading the way to the cargo bay. He went down the ladder first, and then Adelaide followed. “I think privateers get nationalized for the duration of a crisis.”

  “You’re the privateer, Jack,” said Adelaide as he unlocked the strong room door. “You’re the one who got nationalized. I’m just your girlfriend.” She grinned.

  “What?” said March.

  The strong room door unlocked with a clang.

  She grinned again and pushed back some of her hair. “It’s just…not something I’ve been able to say for a long time. I’m your girlfriend.”

  March met her eyes and found himself smiling. “Yeah.”

  “Liability,” said Stormreel in his memory.

  March opened the strong room door and set the box with the quantum beacon on the floor. The cases holding the quantum inducers and the Firestone that Adelaide had found on Xenostas rested against the wall. March really hoped that Stormreel was correct and that the relics would not start talking to each other.

  He closed and locked the door, and then instructed Vigil to keep the ship on standby and locked down until he returned. Then he and Adelaide cycled through the cargo airlock and stepped onto the flight deck of the Roncesvalles.

  It was almost like walking into the downtown square of a busy city during rush hour.

  At first glance, it looked like chaos. Men in red and green coveralls ran back and forth, and drones on treads hurried after them. Fighters and bombers pushed through the atmosphere barrier with gusts of wind, floated overhead on antigravs, and then settled into their landing stalls. It looked like chaos, but March’s experienced eye picked out the order. The men in the green coveralls were repair and maintenance technicians, the men in red armorers and ordinance handling technicians. The uniforms were bright to make them visible and cut down on the risk of accidents. Damaged fighters were directed to repair stalls, while the functional ones received fresh armaments.

  No one paid any attention to March, but a few technicians faltered in their stride to glance in surprise at Adelaide. There were no women on Calaskaran warships, and Adelaide was an attractive woman. If she stood here too long, she might cause an accident when some startled technician driving a cart of ordinance looked at her for a little too long.

  “I feel slightly out of place,” said Adelaide in a dry voice.

  “Yeah, you’d think they had never seen an archaeologist before,” said March. “Come on. That coffee is a good idea.”

  Adelaide nodded and followed him to the far wall of the vast hangar. There was a narrow door labeled PILOT READY ROOM, and it slid open at their approach. Beyond was an empty room with the look of a pilots’ lounge, with tables and chairs, two flight simulators, and a counter with coffee machines and cases of protein bars.

  “Now that is what I was hoping to see,” said Adelaide. She filled two mugs of coffee and handed him one, and then took four protein bars and handed him two.

  “No powdered eggs, though,” said March as they sat at one of the tables.

  “You do like your powdered eggs,” said Adelaide. She tore open the protein bars and started eating with a will. They hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. How long ago had that been? Twelve hours? Fourteen? March wasn’t sure at this point.

  “Yeah,” said March, thinking of Martel’s World again. “It was…”

  Adelaide took a drink of her coffee.

  “After the hospital,” said March. “After I got away from the Final Consciousness and the surgeons took out most of my implants. When I woke up and was well enough to eat again.” Adelaide set down her coffee, looking at him. “Powdered eggs and vat-grown bacon was the first thing I ate. Developed a taste for it, I think.”

  “Oh,” said Adelaide. “I didn’t know that. Suppose there’s a lot of things I don’t know about you yet.” She smiled. “I’m looking forward to finding them out.”

  “I hope so,” said March.

  Her smile faded. “What does that mean?”

  “That box in the strong room,” said March. “There’s a lot of things like that in my past. I suppose I’m dangerous to be around.” He shook his head. “You joked that I had a girl in every port. I told you I didn’t, but for all you knew I was lying. I could have been carrying every disease you can get in a spaceport, and yet…”

  “And yet I still slept with you?” said Adelaide, raising her eyebrows. “And not once, but a bunch of times?” She smiled. “If it makes you feel better, remember that I had to hook you up to the expert system in the Tiger’s infirmary? It gave a full readout of your physical health as you were recovering from those stab wounds. No sexually transmitted diseases.”

  “You checked?” said March, surprised.

  Her smile turned shy. “Well, it’s not every day that a girl gets saved from a bunch of Iron Hands, is it? And I did check. Let’s say I was…contemplating the possibility of things that might potentially happen in the future.” Her smile faded. “I hope you’re not upset.”

  “No,” said March. “It’s only fair. I almost bled to death on your ship. Sensible thing to check.”

  She looked into her coffee. “I…was surprised that I checked. And that I was pleased that the results were good. Um. I’ve been alone for twelve years, right? Fifteen, really, since Duncan died. I…well, I got used to it. Comfortable with it. I mean, men would make passes at me on a reasonably regular basis, and I always shot them down. I didn’t even think about it. That was my default response. I had too many other things to do, both for my own work and for our mutual employer. And then I met you, and…and I started to think otherwise. You made me remember what it felt like to be a woman…”

  Her eyes went wide, and she covered her face with a long groan.

  “What?” said March, alarmed. “What’s wrong?”

  “No, nothing’s wrong,” said Adelaide, lowering her hands. Her smile was bashful. “But I just said that you made me remember what it felt like to be a woman. That’s so…corny. Like a really bad song. I’ve never said anything that corny in my life. I’m usually more eloquent than that.”

  “It’s been a long day,” said March. “And I started the conversation.” He shook his head. “I saw the Roncesvalles at Martel’s World.”

  “Oh,” said Adelaide.

  They ate and drank in silence for a while.

  “And you’re not the only one,” said March.

  Adelaide raised her eyebrows. “I’m not the only one who remembered what it felt like to be a woman?”

  Despite himself, March smiled. “No. But…I don’t do this kind of thing, Adelaide. I complete the mission, and then I move to the next mission. I don’t do anything else. I don’t have a…”

  “A girlfriend?” said Adelaide.

  March shrugged.

  “A life outside your work?” said Adelaide. “It’s all right if you do, you know. You can’t destroy the Final Consciousness by yourself, Jack. I can’t either. I would if I could, but I can’t, and neither can you. So you can either try to spend your life doing something that is literally impossible and will destroy you, or you can leave room for other things in your life. Friends. Family.” She swallowed. “Relationships.”

  March stared at her.

  “Liability,” said Stormreel in his memory once again.

  “Yeah,” said March. “I…it’s been a long time for you, but I’m new at this.”

  “And I guess I’m out of practice,” said Adelaide. She smiled. “But I’m willing to try it one day at a time if you are.”

  “Yeah,” said March.

  Her hand settled on his leg beneath the table.

  “And I wasn’t kidding,” murmured Adelaide. “You did make me remember what it was like to be
a woman. Repeatedly.”

  March found himself smiling. “That so?”

  “It is so,” said Adelaide. “And we…”

  The door hissed open, and Adelaide’s hand darted back as she straightened up. March felt an irrational wave of irritation. It was irrational because he wasn’t going to sleep with Adelaide on a Royal Navy starship about to enter a combat situation, and they didn’t have time to sneak back to the Tiger. Nonetheless, he still felt annoyed.

  Then he turned to see who had entered the room, and his annoyance turned to surprise.

  A man in a blue naval uniform with the rank insignia of a lieutenant commander walked towards their table. He had sharp features, cold blue eyes, and thick black hair going prematurely gray at the temples. Next to him walked a pretty young woman in a naval uniform. She had no rank insignia at all. Adelaide looked at the man, but not at the woman. There was a good reason for that.

  March could see the woman, but Adelaide could not.

  That was one of the Kingdom of Calaskar’s most closely kept secrets, and the reason that the Royal Calaskaran Navy had defeated the Machinists at Martel’s World.

  Of course, the woman walking at the man’s side wasn’t really a woman.

  Or human.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” said Lieutenant Commander Malcolm Caird, smiling as he held out his hand. “Jack March. I’m surprised to see you wrapped up in this mess, but I suppose I shouldn’t be.”

  March got to his feet and shook Caird’s hand. “And I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to see you. You were in even bigger trouble the last time I ran into you.”

  “That’s God’s own truth,” said Caird.

  “You know each other?” said Adelaide.

  “Lieutenant Commander Malcolm Caird,” said March, “meet Dr. Adelaide Taren of the Royal University of Calaskar.” They shook hands. “Commander Caird is a Navigator.”

  Adelaide raised her eyebrows. “The best of the best, then?”

  “I don’t know about that,” said Caird. “What are you a doctor of, ma’am?” He grinned. “You could always examine me and render a professional opinion.”

  “Archaeology,” said Adelaide. “I’d have to wait until you had been dead a few thousand years. Then you would be in my professional capacity.”

  “Pity,” said Caird.

  The woman who was not a woman stepped forward, peering at Adelaide. Caird called her Elizabeth, but March didn’t know her real name. Likely she didn’t have one.

  “The two of them are sleeping together, Mal,” announced Elizabeth. “Better not hit on her too much. Just enough that she isn’t insulted. Else you’re going to alienate our old friend Captain March.”

  “You said you’re a Navigator?” said Adelaide, changing the subject.

  “That’s right,” said Caird. “And for this operation, I’m going to be the helmsman and the navigator for the Roncesvalles.”

  To the public at large, the Navigators were the elite pilots of the Royal Calaskaran Navy, the absolute best of the best. That was an accurate enough perception, but March knew the truth. Caird was possessed by a macrobe, a dark energy creature from hyperspace, and it manifested as Elizabeth. March could see her thanks to the Machinist nanotech in his blood, and Caird could see her, but no one else but another Navigator could. Usually, macrobe possession resulted in grotesque mutation and homicidal insanity. In Navigators, it resulted in an ability to calculate impossibly accurate hyperspace jumps. Caird had calculated the fleet’s jump at Martel’s World, the jump that had caught the Machinist fleet off guard.

  “Say,” said Caird. “Are you the Adelaide Taren who made that documentary about the alien ruins in the Alexandria system?”

  Adelaide grinned. “That was me, yeah.”

  “I really liked that!” said Caird. “Pity I don’t have one of your books with me. I’d have you sign it.”

  “If we get out of this alive, Commander,” said Adelaide, “I’ll send you a signed copy.”

  “Yes, our current situation,” said Caird, his smile fading. “The admiral sent me down to talk to you. He also mentioned that Dr. Taren is a Silent Order operative so we can converse freely.” He looked at March. “And before you mention it, I did remember to lock the door behind us.”

  “Then you’re the fourth one the admiral mentioned?” said Adelaide.

  “Yes,” said Caird. “Of everyone in the Seventh Fleet, the only ones who know about the relics of the Great Elder Ones are you, Captain March, me, and Lord Admiral Stormreel.”

  “And me,” said Elizabeth.

  Caird snorted. “The three of us all learned about them the hard way. The admiral found out because he’s the admiral.”

  “So what is he planning?” said March.

  “Hell if I know,” said Caird. “The admiral’s one for playing his cards close to his chest. Makes sense, given how one loose tongue can sink an entire fleet.” He shrugged, his expression hardening. “Suppose we found that out the hard way, didn’t we?”

  “Yeah,” said March, thinking of the Covenant and the thousands of men who had died or been captured in the battle over Tamlin’s World. “What does the admiral want you to do here?”

  Caird shrugged. “He wants you to show me what you brought back from Vesper Station.”

  “Shit,” said March.

  Caird frowned. “What is it?”

  “Another relic of the Great Elder Ones,” said March. “Different from the last time we encountered one. Larger and more powerful and probably more dangerous.”

  “Dangerous to play with such toys,” said Elizabeth.

  She wasn’t wrong.

  “Better get it over with,” said March.

  “Actually,” said Adelaide, “do you mind if I visit the restroom first? There hasn’t been much time for it today.”

  “Oh, yeah,” said Caird, pointing at a door on the wall. “Right in there.”

  “Be right back,” said Adelaide, and she vanished behind the door.

  March looked at Caird.

  “She’s not cleared to know about the Navigators,” said Caird. “So, no mentioning Elizabeth.”

  “I figured,” said March.

  Caird grinned. “Congratulations, by the way.”

  “Congratulations for what?” said March.

  Caird laughed. “What, isn’t it obvious? When I met you, I thought that you seemed like the kind of man who needed something to take the edge off, but you were wound up too tight to do anything about it. Dr. Taren is a looker, and if she’s in the Silent Order, she’s got backbone, too. If she wasn’t with you, I would try to get friendly with her before we get back to Calaskaran space.”

  March grunted. “Won’t Elizabeth get jealous?”

  “Your human obsession with the reproductive act,” said Elizabeth, “is entirely incomprehensible.”

  “That’s a no, then,” said Caird. “Be sure to let Dr. Taren down gently, though.”

  “Gently?” said March.

  “When you tell her it’s over,” said Caird. “When you get her back to Calaskaran space. That was your original assignment, right? Get her back safely to Calaskar. Then I bet the two of you were alone and the sparks flew.” He shook his head. “But you and I, I’m afraid, are not the kind of men for long-term relationships.”

  “Why not?” said March, his voice quiet.

  “We’re too different from normal Calaskaran humans,” said Caird. “Me, with Elizabeth, and you with your metal arm. I suppose someday I’ll retire and settle down if I live long enough, but until then…you’d be asking her to wait while you do the Order’s missions. Doesn’t seem fair to her. Navy men know how long their tours will last, and they get shore leave, but Silent Order operatives don’t.” He shook his head. “Seems easier just to spare her the pain in the long run and get it over with.”

  March didn’t say anything. Caird’s logic rang truer than he would like.

  Much, much truer.

  The restroom door opened, and Adelaide s
tepped out.

  “Ready?” she said.

  “Yeah,” said March. “Let’s go.”

  Caird led the way from the ready room to the Tiger. The chaos on the flight deck had increased only further, and the technicians and the armorers continued their labors. Pilots ran back and forth, hurrying to their craft, and carts loaded with missiles and drums of chain gun ammunition drove from fighter to fighter. It looked like the admiral intended the Roncesvalles’s fighters to launch again as soon as they emerged from hyperspace.

  They reached the Tiger, and March unlocked the cargo airlock, and they strode into the hold. Caird looked around, no doubt remembering his time on the ship at Monastery Station and their struggle to keep the captured Wraith device from falling into the hands of Simon Lorre.

  The same Simon Lorre, as it happened, who had murdered Adelaide’s husband and unborn child. March had killed him, and now he was sleeping with the woman whose husband and child Lorre had killed.

  It was a strange tangle of fate, if there was such a thing as fate.

  The thought of breaking up with Adelaide upset him far more than he would have expected…but he still could not deny Stormreel’s and Caird’s logic.

  He pushed the thought out of his head. This wasn’t the time to think about it.

  “You haven’t redecorated since the last time I was here,” said Caird.

  “I’m a privateer trying to turn a profit in a tough galaxy,” said March. “Redecorating the cargo bay is a waste of money.”

  “See, you can tell Commander Caird’s in the Navy,” said Adelaide with a laugh. “Always eager to spend the taxpayers’ credit.”

  Caird snorted. “Don’t start. Trying to get anything out of Naval Procurement is like squeezing blood from a stone, with the difference that you are more likely to get blood from a stone than an extra credit out of Procurement.”

  March walked to the strong room door and stopped.

  “Wait a moment,” he said. “How much are you cleared to know?”

  Caird shrugged. “The admiral said we’re to share information freely. I suppose a Lord Admiral has the authority to order that, but the less each of us know, the safer we’ll all be, and the better chance of victory we’ll have at Vesper’s World.”