“What about the charges levied against us by other organizations?” she asked.
“The nature of the proposed missions are such that joint operations with Orionian and Earth Coalition forces are routine. I am confident agreements can be negotiated.”
“I don’t suppose I can have a moment alone to discuss it with my associate,” Silo said.
“In light of your track record, I have no intention of leaving either of you alone. There will be four armed guards watching you, but I will permit you to discuss the matter for the next twenty-five minutes.”
With that, Paltrowe took her leave. Silo turned to Garotte. Tears had formed in her eyes.
“I told you that scarves were lifesavers, sweetheart,” she said.
“Far more literally than I’d imagined.” He shifted uncomfortably to try to face her. When he failed, she stepped closer. “I’d asked if they would contact you to let you know I was alive… or at least relatively so. Predictably, they were hesitant to acknowledge my existence in any formal way.”
“They say Garotte is dead,” Silo said.
“The sixth codename I’ve had to retire.” He coughed. “People are going to think I’m getting careless.”
Silo brushed her hand through his hair. “So. What do you think of their offer?”
“When presented with life or death as credible options, I choose life. Some full-scale operations will be a refreshing change from our skeleton crew, wouldn’t you say?” He raised his good arm and took her hand. “Tell me. Have they allowed you to access your slidepad?”
“Not yet.”
“As expected. Well, when they do, you’ll find a rather lengthy message from me. It was written mostly while I was inside the barrel of a doomsday cannon, so forgive me if the phrasing seems unduly melodramatic at times, but I assure you, my words are sincere.” He coughed again. “Most of it can wait until you can read it, but in the interest of retiring my old name and selecting a new one, I suppose the operative portion is best shared now.”
He tugged her arm, and she leaned low for him to whisper something in her ear. When he was through, she turned and looked him in the eyes with a warm grin. She kissed him lightly on one of the few exposed portions of his face not being treated.
“You really are a sweetheart, you know that?” she said. “And that’s a nice name. I don’t know why you insist on all the codenames.”
“Well, as I’ve said, I’ve had to abandon six names already. It would be a shame to sully the one my mother gave me.” He yawned, shuddering at the pain associated. “Now at the risk of being rude, I’m rather heavily medicated at present, and staying awake is an effort.”
“Sleep well, hon,” she said. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”
#
On Big Sigma, Ma was busy processing a recent sensor sweep of the debris field, indexing and tagging the network cache, running seventy different simulations on various explosives and mechanical designs, fabricating replacement parts for eighteen subsystems due for maintenance, initiating the cloning process to refresh their supply of funks after several recent mishaps, and preparing the food for the month. The comparatively low workload had left her seeking something to occupy her spare cycles when she received a connection request with Lex’s access signature on it. Pleased, she accepted and was treated to a video feed of Lex seated in his ship while Michella reclined in the passenger seat, idly stroking Squee’s tail as it drifted along her shoulder.
“Greetings, Lex. I am pleased to hear from you. I presume the mission came to a successful completion,” she said.
“Yes and no. We lost Garotte, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen to Silo. She survived but they wouldn’t let us talk to her before we left.”
“That is very unfortunate. Despite our frequent disagreements, Garotte was a valuable ally. While I would not consider him a friend, recent improvements in his behavior had nearly motivated me to completely remove him from my S-List. I shall endeavor to determine the final fate of Silo. If I am able to discover it, shall I contact you?”
“Sure, it’ll be good to know what happened, and if we can help. The Poison Pills worked, though.”
“I am aware, both from the fact that the planet Movi has not been sanitized and the recent contact with TKUR representatives requesting a substantial stockpile of Poison Pills to be kept in storage in the event of another Gen-Mech outbreak. They also had a number of other agreements to discuss.”
“Already? Well, that’s cool I guess. Those pills could use some work though, by the way. We set off an EMP, and I can’t be sure, but I think it disabled them entirely.”
“Interesting. Please complete a standard beta-testing form regarding their usage and faults, and I will discuss the findings with Karter.”
“Will do.”
“I would also like to request that you do the same for the cryoshunts I provided you with prior to your recent departure.”
“Oh, yeah, about those. They kind of blew up. Is that okay?”
“They were intended to be disposable, so their destruction is not only permissible but preferable. Please include the circumstances and description of their destruction.”
“Okay. So anyway, there are two reasons I called, not including the usual catch up. First, as you know, the SOB took a hell of a beating during this mess. It could use some work.”
“Certainly, Lex. I will prepare the lab hangar and the necessary materials.”
“Great, I’ll head over once I drop Mitch off back home.”
“What was the second additional reason for your call?”
“Michella and I had a long chat after we both almost died a few times, and she’s cool with letting me take the racing gig. I already called Preethy, and everything is going to start rolling in about a month. I’m going to be a racer again!”
“That is wonderful news. I applaud you both for coming to a mutually agreeable solution to the matter that has allowed you to continue your relationship while pursuing your respective passions.”
“And the timing couldn’t be better, because what with that unpaid bill Karter’s got hanging around my neck, I’m going to need the money.”
“I would be happy to calculate a payment schedule that works with your budget. Once we have received your cryoshunt and Poison Pill assessment forms, your pending balance will be 854,900 credits.”
“Uh… not that I’m complaining, but that seems like it’s missing a digit.”
“The cryoshunt and Poison Pill testing were both considered extreme risk and earned you a significant testing fee. I also assigned the referral fee regarding the TKUR order to you, and included a small performance reimbursement.”
“The cryoshunt was high-risk, too?”
“It was theorized that the energy absorbed during heat transference could be released catastrophically under some conditions.”
“… And you let me fly around with them attached to my ship?”
“The risk was calculated to be within your observed comfort levels.”
Lex seemed troubled but eventually shrugged. “Eh, it worked out. What’s this about a performance reimbursement? Did I do a particularly good job or something?”
“That is regarding the previously discussed portion of Squee’s memories that were of interest to Karter.”
“Which… wait.” He leaned forward, whispering into the microphone, “You mean Mitch and me in bed?”
“Yes,” she replied at low volume. “I am afraid he proved particularly motivated to uncover and decode that footage. He holds a high opinion of Ms. Modane’s performance, so much so that he has expressed a renewed enthusiasm for ‘amateur stuff.’ I felt a reward was in order. Would it be more appropriate to credit this to Ms. Modane directly?”
“No! No, you did good. I’ll… try to break that to her delicately. I’m pretty sure she’s not going to be happy to know Karter has developed an opinion regarding that particular performance.”
“I shall be discreet on the matter
until you confirm that she has been informed.”
“Much obliged. Anyway, it’s about time to make another jump. See you soon, Ma.”
“Fly safely, Lex. I greatly anticipate your visit.”
Ma disconnected the call and logged the footage, analyzing it to grade her performance and further calibrate her emotional-cue identification algorithms. She was attempting to determine if a certain microexpression was representative of embarrassment or a suppressed sneeze when a new communication request came in. This one was from an unknown location. After diverting the request to an isolated and fortified subsection of the system, she accepted the connection. She was presented with a short coded data stream. Minor analysis expanded the data into a quantum signature, a set of coordinates, and a preauthorized anonymous return connection contact.
It was a simple matter to outfit a probe with the proper detection apparatus and launch it. Once it was in orbit, she directed it to the indicated coordinates. Upon reviewing the resulting data and matching the readings to a likely source, she ran the findings through her recently upgraded database to determine what an appropriate emotional response should be. If her calibrations were correct, she should be feeling something between existential terror and complete panic. She adjusted her mood accordingly, then summarized the findings for Karter. This, she suspected, was something worthy of his attention…
From The Author
Thank you for reading! If you liked this story, or perhaps if you found it lacking, I’d love to hear from you. Below are links to some of the places you can find me online, and if you’d like to be kept in the loop with important new developments and releases, consider joining my newsletter.
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Discover other titles by Joseph R. Lallo:
The Book of Deacon Series:
Book 1: The Book of Deacon
Book 2: The Great Convergence
Book 3: The Battle of Verril
Book 4: The D’Karon Apprentice (Coming Nov. 10th, 2015)
Other stories in the same setting:
Jade
The Rise of the Red Shadow
The Big Sigma Series:
Book 1: Bypass Gemini
Book 2: Unstable Prototypes
Book 3: Artificial Evolution
The Free-Wrench Series:
Book 1: Free-Wrench
Book 2: Skykeep
Collections:
The Book of Deacon Anthology
NaNoWriMo Projects:
The Other Eight
Artificial Evolution Page 52
