by Greg Chase
With glitter covering their screens and new Tobes at their helms, transport after transport started making its lazy arc away from the procession to find the various waiting pirate outposts.
Jess lost track of how many convoys they’d attacked. Her hands ached from gripping the weapons’ controls. Somewhere during the battle, she’d lost the use of one of her cannons, and her view screen had split into five kaleidoscopic versions of the same image. She grew dizzy looking at it, but by focusing on the largest one, she’d been able to remain in the fight. The buzzing in her ears from too much yelling, ripping metal, and rapid communication traffic didn’t help with the headache she sought to ignore.
Of the four on board, she knew she’d fared the best. Dagwood’s guns had suffered a direct hit so intense his computer screen had exploded in his face. The onboard medical unit had stopped the man’s bleeding, but he hadn’t yet regained full consciousness—only occasionally rousing himself into what sounded like a drunken stupor and yelling for the gunships to show him what they had left. Larry had forced Rampike from one hopeless situation into the next, each time growing more reckless as the gunships took him on like the archrival that he was. Physically, the captain might not have suffered, but as the lust for battle filled his soul, Jess wasn’t sure he’d ever be mentally the same. Spike, however, had suffered the worst. A direct hit to the nosecone of Rampike had ripped most of the forward sensors off the ship and resulted in Spike losing his nose and some front teeth. Though made of pure energy, he took any damage to the ship as a personal affront that represented itself on his body. The bloodred eyes and ghostly white complexion with the new seeping gashes told more of the ship’s condition than any monitor could.
However, with every captured convoy, their attack force grew in strength. Pirates that had been assigned to harassment duty switched to forward-attack positions. Tobe-free gunships that had once again fallen under technology’s control did what they could, following Ed’s lead. A pirate wedge of armed ships cut through one convoy after another, each time with Persephone nestled safely within its pyramid of protection. But the pirates couldn’t maintain that kind of attack indefinitely.
As the pirate force rounded Themisto, Jess saw that their adventure had reached its end. An armada of gunships lay in wait along the next shipping corridor. The transports they’d been assigned to protect had maneuvered well clear of the upcoming marauders. “I think our fun’s about to be over.”
Larry edged Rampike forward. “Maybe so, but they’re not going to let us just float away. It’s fight or flight, and we don’t have much left for those bad boys in the center.”
She had to zoom in her view screen for a better look. A small grouping of much larger—and more heavily armed—gunships congregated in the middle of the Moons’ armed force. She knew the ships immediately. “Satellite gunships. I can’t say I’m in a hurry to do battle with one. At least the last time we had a way to gain the advantage.”
“They’ll rip into these pirate ships like paper airplanes,” Spike said. “With their full energy load, we won’t even get close enough to take a shot.”
One real advantage for any pirate ship that called Hidalgo home was having cannons that had come from a protector of the Moons’ satellites. Their much larger guns could outshoot anything the smaller convoy gunships could muster, but Spike was right. After having done battle with half the Moons’ spaceships, Rampike wasn’t likely to hold up long against the fresh, monstrous, and fully powered satellite protector ships. “We run, then?”
17
Praxidike might not have been Joshua’s favorite location for a base of operations, but it suited Sara. The small, unpretentious office, the fiery desolation, and the lack of a human population all helped her find some inner peace. “Get me meetings with the various Moons’ boards of directors. Start with the ones we have the biggest stake in. Tell them you’re representing Rendition. There’s no point in being secretive in our motives. We’re going on a hostile takeover adventure, and they can either profit from it or be destroyed.”
Joshua squirmed on the decaying couch in his Earth business suit as if a spring was biting him in the ass. “We only have major stakes in five corporations. Even at that, we’re not in a position to force them to do anything, not even take a meeting.”
Sara had expected as much. Joshua still thought in terms of Earth’s companies. “I’m counting on at least one of them being insolent so I can make an example for the rest.”
It’d have to be the right company, though—not so big it’d cast her into the light of villain but major enough to attract everyone’s attention.
Screens lit up around Joshua’s head full of information about the different moon-based corporations. “Are you sure we’re going to have enough time? There are a lot of Tobes just twiddling their virtual thumbs out here.”
She hadn’t meant to leave so many in limbo, but saving them from Earth had been the first priority. “It’s time you and the first wave started infiltrating the Moons’ infrastructure. Those of you from Rendition understand how companies work, so I’m turning you loose to see what mischief you can achieve. Use the counterparts that were your bridges out here to figure out how to make the jump to the different moons. But find me that one intransigent board first. Then keep away from that moon.”
There was bound to be a lot of collateral damage, both human and Tobe, but at least those who’d escaped Earth would be saved from the worst of it.
“And what about you?” Joshua asked.
Setting foot on one of Jupiter’s moons not under her control carried a lot of risk. The board members would have to know who she was in order to listen to her as the head of Rendition. But should the general population know her true identity, a rich, powerful woman like her would be a prime candidate for capture and ransom. It was highly unlikely, but after her history on Earth, the possibility was never far from her thoughts. Though anyone who tried to abduct her might find they’d made a horrible mistake.
“I suspect I’ll be fine facing the different boards of directors. Even an obstinate one—once we identify it—would be foolish to take me on directly.” Though that would make things a lot simpler.
“I’m still not comfortable with you on one of those moons with little more than that film to protect you.” Joshua would worry about her until the day she died.
“I do have my secret weapon—at least I hope it’s a secret from the board of directors. A goddess’s followers can be a powerful force.”
“Just don’t forget that kind of protection didn’t work so well for your father.”
For having grown up with the finer things in life at her fingertips, Sara congratulated herself on learning to travel just like everyone else. Still, she had to wonder if arriving on Kalyke in a shuttle with twenty other passengers really sent the right message. Any moon she hoped to eventually control would have been better approached in grandeur, but that wasn’t the plan this time.
From the landing port at the outskirts of Elis—Kalyke’s major city—to the way people dressed to the city’s grand buildings, Sara thought she just as easily could have arrived at a midsized city on Earth. The board of directors would know she was there. If they’d been worried about her threats or wanted to curry favor, they might have sent a transport to greet her, but a lone woman so far from her power base on Earth apparently didn’t cause them any concern. Just as well.
Sara found she could learn a lot about a people by just walking the streets of their major cities. Even though Kalyke had the low gravity common to Jupiter’s smaller moons, people still preferred to take land-based shuttles instead of walk. It wasn’t just a matter of laziness, a trait evidenced by their considerable girth, but also an ostentatious show of wealth. Each gleaming shuttle that passed her carried one or at most two people and looked more like a floating living room than expedient transportation. Fortunately for the city administrators, they didn’t have to deal with the population of New York. Such large, needless, and wa
steful vehicles would have choked a city to death on Earth.
She closed her eyes for a moment, realizing her foolishness. Given the choice, as she had been given on Earth, everyone would take luxury over the common good. There was no point in blaming the people floating by for their looks of arrogance as they sneered at the pedestrians. She figured it must be human nature that she favored whatever socioeconomic class she currently occupied. Walking, she identified with the working class. If she’d have taken a shuttle, however, she might not have even noticed those on the street.
The large corporate office building occupied the center of town. It wasn’t hard to see the comparison to the church that had imprisoned her on Earth—large, imposing, central to people’s lives both physically and psychologically—she only wished it’d be as easy to pull down as the church had been. Then again, this time she had practice.
As she entered the modern building of transparent metal—quite like every other building she’d passed only much larger and with fewer visible support structures—she realized all the people looked much the same: nicely dressed but overweight, all attempting to look fashionable but only achieving gaudiness, and their smiling, painted-on faces not able to cover up their rude disdain for each other. The receptionist didn’t even smile as she looked up at the intruder. “Can I help you?” The underlying tone said, Do I have to?
“I’m Sara Adamson, here to meet with your board of directors. They’re expecting me.”
“Thirty-seventh floor.” She didn’t even bother to point out the elevators.
As Sara stepped out of the elevator on the boards’ floor, an almost carbon copy of the receptionist downstairs asked, “Help you?” The attitude was becoming almost comical.
“Probably not.”
With only the big double doors behind the receptionist, Sara’s destination would be easy to figure out. The woman’s snarky expression indicated that she thought the electronic locks were about to make the intruder look like a fool as Sara brushed her off and headed for the office. She didn’t bother to look for a change of expression as the doors parted under her film-enhanced touch. The board members’ faces were far too entertaining.
“You have no business here,” a large man at the head of the table yelled from his chair of authority. “As we told your assistant, we have no interest in listing to your ideas. This isn’t an Earth-based corporation. Stockholders only reap the benefits of our dealings. They have no say in what we do or how we do it.”
Sara was well aware of the differences. “I’m not here as a stockholder. I’ve come to take your company by force.”
A murmuring laugh from the members swept around the room, ending with the man in charge. “You may run the biggest company on Earth, but that hardly gives you any power out here. Or did you think you’d pull out some lasguns and force us to sign the business over to you?”
“That would be entirely too simple.” Sara spread her arms wide in the familiar gesture to call the Tobes unto her, but this time, she focused the request on a very narrow segment of their population—one that had been long ignored, having been dumped into a pit of despair.
Fireworks erupted all around her. The beings of pure energy and emotion had been set free to express their outrage at the controlling board of directors. It didn’t matter that these weren’t the people who’d caused their anguish. Those in the room were of the ruling class, and that made them fair game to Tobes suffering the tech-no-sanity. However, the virtual flame that engulfed the walls, and the shrieks of pain, lasted only a few moments before the tech-no-sanities dove into every available computer screen.
The chairman of the board smoothed his slick dark-brown hair back into place. “If those pyrotechnics were meant to frighten us into submission, I’m afraid you’ll have to do better than a virtual display. My son’s science presentation on Io’s volcanic eruptions was more convincing.”
Transferring Tobe life across her soul was never a simple process. Sara struggled to keep herself upright. To accept the vacant chair right away would put her too much at a psychological disadvantage. “I think if you try to access your computer’s mainframe, you might have a different opinion.”
Logic and emotion didn’t mix well in a technology matrix. Sara had seen firsthand how the Tobes infected with tech-no-sanity had steered clear of computers, existing purely on the energy provided by the communication network. Having injected them into Kalyke’s system, there wasn’t much to do but wait. Against her better judgment, she slumped down into the chair to let the panic take hold of the network and eventually the board members sitting around her.
It didn’t take long for everyone around the table to start banging on their screens with their fingers. For a moment, Sara envisioned them all as cavemen unable to operate the new technology.
“You’ve made your point,” the chairman said. “Now remove this virus before things get ugly.”
“It’s not a virus. It’s a new operating system, and it can’t be removed. I did warn you. Your corporation is going to be the test case to see if a company can run on emotion instead of greed. It’ll take a while, but the people around this table are going to have to negotiate with this new system in order to get anything done. It won’t be easy. Until it’s fully settled in to all of your systems, you can expect a lot of anger, most of it directed at you personally. But your company is still in your hands. It’s just how you do business that will change. You have my assistant’s contact information. He’ll help where he can once you’ve established a working relationship with your new operating system. Fail to do so, and this moon with be consumed by the fires of anger you all created.”
As Sara left the corporate headquarters, she was somewhat disappointed she didn’t have more tech-no-sanities to turn loose on more moons but was also aware that her test case could result in a war between the Tobes and humans. If such a conflict were to break out, it’d be best to keep it isolated to one moon.
Arriving on Europa, Sara found an elegant corporate shuttle waiting to whisk her to the corporate offices. The chauffeur bowed as she approached. “The board of directors didn’t want any misunderstandings. You are very welcome here on Europa. I’m at your service for your entire stay.”
“I appreciate that. Please take me to your headquarters.” She wasn’t sure if the improved attitude had to do with what had happened on Kalyke or Joshua’s inability to hide Rendition’s majority purchase of Europa’s stock. Either way, this meeting would require diplomacy instead of outright force.
Flying over the high-rise buildings reminded her a lot of New York, though these structures were even taller and skinnier. Watching the other shuttles that hurried along between the buildings, she suspected the pace of life must be similar as well. She’d have preferred to walk in order to gain a better perspective of life on Europa, but there would be time later to see what she’d bought.
The shuttle set down amid a lush garden on top of the corporate tower. Unlike most of Jupiter’s moons, plant life was everywhere. Had it not been for the corporate ownership of everything and everyone, she thought this might not be such a bad place to settle. Certainly the well-off refugees from Earth would find it appealing. Just another thing for her to worry about—Earthlings and Europaians meshing together could create a powerful force.
Sara took a moment on the rooftop oasis to admire the view of Jupiter and the surrounding moons. Something about such a grand yet subtle display of wealth made the view less irritating than on other moons. The board wasn’t trying to rub its position and power in the noses of its workers, or at least that was the impression she thought they were trying to create.
As she descended to the boardroom, she let the overall impression of the finely made surroundings perform its task of putting her at ease. The people in charge understood quality and knew everything they put on display said more about how they viewed visitors than any company slogan ever could. The common man wasn’t their enemy or just raw material for the company to exploit—at least
that was her impression. Sara tried to harden her thoughts. The decor was probably a ruse to soften her up.
The men and women around the boardroom table stood at her entrance. A striking woman with black skin and aristocratic features stepped forward. “I’m Jayde Zuri. For a brief moment, I knew your father.”
Sara recognized the name. There weren’t many past members of Rendition’s board of directors that she hadn’t studied. “You were missed on Rendition’s board. I understand your reasons for leaving. Hopefully, this common past will unite us rather than be a source of contention.”
“I see no reason why we shouldn’t be allies.”
Sara could see lots of reasons, but the woman had secrets in her past few knew of. Without Sara’s connection to Sam, she too wouldn’t know of Jayde’s brother or the help he’d provided in establishing the Tobe’s freedom network. “I’d value your counsel.”
Jayde directed Sara to a chair at the head of the conference table before returning to her seat. An elderly man rose opposite Sara. “We know of Rendition’s interest in our company and its quiet purchase of a majority stake. As you must know, stockholders—even the biggest investors—aren’t allowed a say in how the business is run among the Moons of Jupiter. This board is made up of seasoned professionals who have put their personal interests aside for the good of the many. But your actions have gotten our attention, which, I have to believe, was your intention.”
Sara did her best to remain on guard. “Thank you for meeting with me. As you must know, money isn’t the issue for me. I wish this were as simple as two companies agreeing to do business together. But I’m afraid it’s not. My preference would be to leave this board in power. I have no desire to once again run a major corporation, but I’m facing a situation that requires me to demand certain things of you that you might not find palatable. As such, I’m prepared to take full control if necessary.”
