by M. D. Cooper
Tanis leaned back on her bed, running through scenarios.
CHAPTER 29
STELLAR DATE: 3227327 / 01.09.4124 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: District BX9, Ring 19C, Callisto Orbital Habitat (Cho)
REGION: Jovian Combine, Sol Space Federation
Tanis stretched as consciousness slowly crept over her. The clock informed her that it was 0500; nine hours until the Intrepid would dock at Callisto. A review of her day’s schedule confirmed that it was full, but not so full that she couldn’t enjoy just a few more minutes under the soft covers.
She mentally ran through the post-docking schedule: the four days to load cargo—five at the outside, plus two days of VIP parties and ceremonies, put departure on 3227337 at the latest.
Departure.
It seemed like it would never come and now that it was here these last few days would be agony. With luck she would be so busy the time would fly past.
Curious about the ship’s status, she reached out to the TSF comm net and requested bandwidth to the Intrepid. It was granted and her queries flew across the void to the ship’s general net.
Amanda was there waiting for her.
Amanda laughed. Her voice was silvery and smooth and echoed just a touch.
She disconnected and drew back into herself. Taking a deep breath, she rose and entered the san unit. Her tight schedule coupled with her new armor would provide no opportunity to visit a restroom for at least the next twenty hours. She set the unit for a thorough cleaning and grimaced as it did its work.
Once done she stepped back into her small room and pulled out the small case containing the new armor. Setting it on the desk she opened it and loaded the control system.
Once the software was loaded, Tanis stripped down and stood naked. The next step was promised by both the salesperson and the manual to be somewhat odd. Some people reported feeling very claustrophobic during the process.
“Can’t believe I spent that much money on this thing.” Tanis held up the canister.
Tanis nodded absently as she placed the canister against her chest. The bottom dissolved and a clear liquid flowed out across her body. It started by moving down and covering her torso, legs, and then feet. From there it flowed up over her breasts, down her arms and covered her hands. A signal flashed on Tanis’s HUD telling her to take a deep breath and close her eyes. She followed the instructions and the liquid flowed up over her face.
It ran a countdown on her HUD, letting her know when it would be safe to breathe and look around. She felt tingles in her skin as the armor smoothed out and matched the shape of her body. When the countdown flashed zero she opened her eyes and examined the holo projection of herself.
Apart from a slight sheen to her skin it was impossible to tell that the armor was there at all. Upon close inspection a person might be able to notice a thin cover over her eyes, and that the first few millimeters of her hair appeared to be ridged, but other than that, she looked like a normal person…though somewhat naked at present.
Tanis pulled on her dress whites, somewhat disconcerted by the fact that the armor muted her sense of touch to a degree. She deployed a nano field that would assist the armor in detecting incoming weapons fire and with a cursory check of her quarters, exited into the corridor.
Tanis made her way to the officer’s mess, which contained a smattering of lieutenants and commanders getting ready for the day. Commander Yau was there; he appeared to be going over his company’s duties for the upcoming arrival of the Intrepid.
Eight hours and twenty-seven minutes.
“Glad this is nearly over, I bet.” Tanis sat across from him with her tray of fruit and oatmeal.
“Not as much as you are, I imagine.” He grinned.
“You have no idea. The waiting is killing me.”
“The CIA has all sorts of flags popping up on their net. Have you seen their latest sec feeds?”
Tanis hadn’t, and mentally chastised herself for not checking it first thing. The anticipation must really be preoccupying her.
“There have been some monitored individuals making their way onto Cho, and a few of them have slipped past surveillance,” Yau said.
Tanis checked the lists, summoning a holo display in front of her and the captain. “None look too serious, oh…well, except for her.”
“Yeah, Herris Santos. She’s known to have caused no small ruckus in her time.”
Tanis leaned back, bringing up the woman’s history. Born on Europa to a wealthy family, she had left the life of privilege at age thirty. From there she joined Tomas’s Marauders, a semi-legit private army that hired itself out to local governments to protect trade routes and natural resources. A rapid rise through the ranks ensued until a falling-out with the command forced her out of the organization.
From that time on it appeared she had been operating as a freelance assassin. Several jobs on Venus, a high profile hit on an Earth politician, and a string of probable killings on Vestra, Ceres and the Hildas asteroids.
“Never worked in the Jovian sphere though,” Tanis mused.
“That we know of—the JSF doesn’t exactly share everything with us.”
“It’s entirely possible that she’s here on some other task.”
Yau cast Tanis an appraising look and the major sighed. “I know, I know—that would just be too handily coincidental. Though with Cho’s population, that sort of coincidence is a bit more acceptable.”
Tanis nodded. “Your logic is irrefutable. I assume TSF intel and the Callisto Intel Agency are both looking for her.”
“You assume correctly. I’ve set up our tactical net to alert us if there is any news.”
“I’d really thought that Strang had gotten over this whole assassination thing.”
“He could be going after another target: Terrance or Captain Andrews.”
“I don’t know…at this stage, killing either of them wouldn’t set the mission back by much at all. Strang strikes me as the complete-at-all-costs sort of guy, not get-final-petty-revenge type.”
“Maybe he’s both.”
They went over the general plans for the day before leaving the mess to attend to their various duties. Tanis walked to her temporary office and on the way scheduled the pickup of her effects and their transfer to the Intrepid after it had docked. She also went over the security clearances for the caterers and general staff who would be at the docking ceremony. Everything seemed to be in order, but something still nagged at her. Her gut hadn’t told her to buy and slather on this armor for nothing; somewhere a thread was loose, and she was going to find it and pull.
It was just before noon when an anomaly in a shipping manifest caught her eye. A series of containers which were destined to arrive at the Intrepid’s berth tomorrow had arrived today. Rather than holding them and delivering on schedule, the courier had delivered them to one of the warehouses just off the main dock. That in itself wasn’t particularly odd; however, they had been inspected twice. The inspection logs and timestamps were backwards—it was either a system error, or someone had opened the record to fake an entry at the same time someone had it open to enter a valid entry.
Feeling restless, Tanis decided to look into it herself. Checking the Marines’ assignments, she realized that none of them were available to go with her. Trist was also off gathering information on a different ring. No matter, the dock wasn’t far, just a twenty-minute walk. It would give her time to stretch her legs and get a bit of exercise.
Two hours and fifteen minutes.
The halls were relatively empty as most of the local staff was at the mess getting the noon meal out of the way before the final preparations for the Intrepid’s arrival began. The corridor widened as she came to the storage area just off the dock. A worker strolled by pushing a hover pallet and gave her an appreciative look. Tanis couldn’t imagine why. In the last two thousand years, no Space Force dress uniform sported a cut that flattered a woman’s body. Maybe it was the hair; she had grown it out rapidly since her trip to Cruithne and it was just past her shoulders now. She hadn’t had long hair in decades and was determined to keep the indulgence since her remaining time in the military was short.
She arrived at her destination and stopped outside the door. The portal to the storage area was sealed and in order; she transmitted the override codes to its pad. After a moment the indicator flashed green. Tanis grasped the handle and stepped inside, scanning the room for the cargo she was looking for.
She took one step past the door and felt her scalp squeezed slightly as the armor, normally pliant, solidified around her head. A warning on her HUD indicated that she had been struck by a blow to the base of her skull. The kinetic force spread down to her shoulders and they solidified as well, spreading out the force of the impact. Unused to the effect, Tanis tried to face her attacker, but her instincts conflicted with the armor’s efforts to protect her and Tanis lost her balance and fell to the deck.
The impact caused the armor to freeze entirely and Tanis made a mental note to do some more fine-tuning. In the second after she landed, Tanis decided that since she was down, playing unconscious might be a good way to identify her ambusher. She closed her eyes and switched her vision to the feed from her ever-present nanoprobes.
Not surprisingly, the figure that stepped out from the shadows was Herris Santos. Her face was twisted in what Tanis assumed was the woman’s approximation of a smile, and in her hand she hefted a thick pipe. A short bark of a laugh escaped her lips as she leaned over Tanis’s body.
“The great and mighty Tanis Richards. You don’t seem particularly tough to me. Didn’t take much at all to knock you down. I’d better seal you up, though. Your AI may be rebooting from the blow; once it’s back online I’m certain I’ll have some company.”
Great, a soliloquizer, Tanis thought. She hadn’t run into one of those in a while.
She had determined to see where this would go but suddenly regretted the decision to play dead when she felt a dampening net being thrown over her. Immediately she and Angela felt their Link cut off and all contact with her nano cloud ceased.
Tanis felt the net suddenly constrict and seal itself around her body.
Tanis felt her body being lifted and placed into a container. The hum of a hover unit sounded followed by the sensation of motion.
They were silent after that, but Angela was building up a map of where they were going and inserting it into Tanis’s mind. It was based off the shifts and jolts they felt inside the container and net; the result may not have been entirely accurate, but it should be close. After all, it did have to conform to the area’s layout, and with luck their destination wouldn’t be too far away.
One hour and fifty-three minutes.
CHAPTER 30
STELLAR DATE: 3227347 / 01.29.4124 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: District QR7, Ring 19C, Callisto Orbital Habitat (Cho)
REGION: Jovian Combine, Sol Space Federation
The feeling of motion continued for roughly twenty minutes. Angela’s readout indicated nearly a kilometer had been covered in that time.
The container was opened and Tanis looked up, directing a bland stare at the face looming over her. Well, at least it was a one hundred percent positive ID on Herris Santos; so much for coincidence.
“I see you’re awake. I hope you don’t mind your little bit of relocation. My employer wanted to bring you somewhere nicer for our little chat.”
Tanis didn’t speak. There was nothing to say—giving in to the enemy’s banter never got you anywhere.
“Well, I suppose I should make you marginally presentable; I doubt that Mr. Strang is going to want to look down at you in this container.”
Angela commented.
Herris reached in and lifted Tanis out and set her on a chair. She couldn’t help but notice how easy it was. Their captor must have some serious strength mods, since she didn’t really look that built.
“Any chance you could loosen this net? I have this wicked cramp.” Tanis gave a benign smile. “I
promise, I won’t mess up whatever the next step in this adventure is.”
“They never said anything about a weak sense of humor, or weak attempts to get information. I was hired to capture you, and I’ve done so. I’ll collect my pay and be gone.” Herris’ smile was wicked. “Unless they want to pay me a bonus for some extra work.”
Tanis nodded inside the net. “I hope for your sake that he doesn’t do to you what he’ll do to me.”
“I don’t think you know what he’s going to do to you.”
“I have a pretty good idea. It’s going to suck.”
Herris laughed. “I imagine you’ve got that part right.”
Tanis had taken the time during their conversation to look over her surroundings. They were in a conference room; it was ten by twenty meters and had a large wooden table occupying most of the room’s center. She and Herris were at the end furthest from the double doors. After a few minutes the doors opened and two men stepped in.
They gave off the bored appearance that was typical of corporate security, but Tanis could tell by their movements that they were likely ex-military. They looked the room over slowly, deploying their probes and checking for leaks and traces. She noticed them casting Herris as many cautious glances as they did to her. A glance at the assassin told her that Herris had noticed their caution and was amused by it. Once they were satisfied, several more security types came in, followed by Arlen Strang.
“Good work Miss Santos, you’ve done what many others failed to do.”
“You should have called me from the beginning—I would have saved you a world of trouble.”
Strang rubbed his jaw and smiled. “I believe I may do that the next time I need such services.” He looked down at Tanis wrapped in the suppression net and gave her a winning smile. “So good to meet you, Major Richards. We’ve been on each other’s minds so much I don’t doubt that we are both finding this a bit anticlimactic.”
Tanis slowly looked up at him, her eyes simmering with rage. “You realize that you have gone from simple legal penalties, to death. You won’t survive this encounter.”
