by M. D. Cooper
Katrina didn’t speak. Jessica knew that the former Luminescent often held her tongue. Having been a spy, she had suspicion in her blood and saw Jessica’s point of view more often than not. But being married to the Victorian governor required her to support him, not the Edeners.
“It certainly sounds like you are,” Markus frowned. “We can’t cast suspicion at the rig crew when there is no indication of wrong-doing.”
Jessica rubbed her temples. This was going to give her a headache. What she wouldn’t give for the level of physical control Tanis had—even with what came along with it.
“That’s not how police-work works, Markus. We have to look at every event as though it may have been felonious. If not, how will we ever find the acts that are? Too often people confuse the investigatory process with accusation—it’s not, its people trying to serve the greater good doing their jobs.”
“Then—.” Markus raised his voice and a few heads in the CIC turned toward him. He stopped and took a deep breath. “Then why did I get a report from Sarah just now that Tanis showed up with Marines at the dig site and started throwing accusations.”
If there was one thing Jessica disliked about her current role, it was the tunnels. Growing up in Athabasca she had nothing but blue sky overhead. High Terra had some unpleasant sections, but there was always the surface level with its open spaces and the jewel of Earth hanging overhead.
Heck, the Intrepid’s crew areas had more open space than the tunnels of Landfall.
Once she got the academy up and running with some experienced police and detectives in place she would be able to get off Victoria and back to the Intrepid, or maybe Joe’s military academy, where there were portholes and stars.
“You know Tanis,” Jessica said, bringing her mind back to the conversation at hand. “She may be impulsive, but only when faced with imminent danger. She knows who is behind this and it’s not your rig crew. Sarah has a habit of taking everything personally, which you also know all too well.”
Markus sighed and nodded slowly. Over the last few years they had often discussed the members of the former militia who effected the rebellion and exodus from Sirius.
Most happily returned to their former lives, the fighting in the bays and corridors of the Hyperion far from happy memories. A few found they had a taste for violence, or command—or both.
Sarah wasn’t necessarily violent, but her temperament certainly skewed toward confrontation. Jessica knew that finding a place for the woman was tricky at best. She didn’t have the patience for a true leadership position, but as one of the foremost leaders of the rebellion she couldn’t be swept under the rug either.
“Yesterday’s solutions are always today’s problems,” Markus said and shook his head slowly—obviously on the same train of thought.
“More than anything,” Jessica said quietly. “This is our fault, if I had caught him back on High Terra, or Mars… none of this would be happening.”
Markus’s expression softened. “Jessica… I’m sorry. I know this is hard for you. The day’s stresses have worn on my patience.”
Katrina placed a hand on Markus’s shoulder—apparently she knew he would come around without her having to speak.
“You must keep in mind, Jessica, that while we owe the Intrepid—and more specifically Tanis and the Andromeda our lives, that gratitude will eventually expire as an excuse for behavior that is perceived as heavy-handed.”
“I know… we’re going to fight against people’s memories for some time,” Jessica nodded.
“Don’t forget a new generation of entitled…people,” Markus added.
Just four more decades, Jessica thought to herself.
BREACH
STELLAR DATE: 3283375 / 06.23.4277 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: ISS Andromeda, High orbit over Tara
REGION: Victorian Space Federation, Kapteyn’s Star System
36 years later
Jessica entered the Andromeda’s bridge and took her observer’s station for the return journey to Victoria. She looked at Joe and could tell he was having a serious conversation over the Link. His brow furrowed and he sat straighter on his chair.
She checked the reports streaming in from the crews managing the cleanup after the year’s war games. Nothing stood out—nothing to give Joe that extra-worried expression he currently wore.
The rest of the bridge crew was casting glances Joes way as well, and Jessica pinged Trist.
Joe was still deep in his conversation so Jessica busied herself with completing her judging reports. Many of the fleet’s ships had already left for their home ports and patrol sectors and she forwarded their final grades over the new stellar communication network.
She heard Joe take a deep breath and settle back into his chair.
“What’s up?” Jessica asked.
“We’re going to have to make a short detour,” Joe began. “The sensor net picked up a blip and then lost it again, we’re going to do a physical equipment check and then deploy our array for a deeper sweep.”
“I guess I’ll be observing for a little while longer,” Jessica said from her seat.
“Not that you mind,” Trist said with a smile from her position at the weapon’s console.
Jessica cast an eye toward Joe who appeared to be pretending to not have heard Trist’s comment. It was one of the dangers of being on a military ship where most of the command crew were friends. Things got a bit too chummy.
Trist’s proficiency with a starship’s weapon systems—skills enhanced by her augmented physical abilities—made her the best weapons officer in the fleet. Even though she was an undisciplined subordinate, every captain vied for her skills during the yearly exercises.
Joe was no exception, and though her flippancy marred the discipline of an otherwise by-the-book bridge, he tolerated it if it meant he would win.
It had initially surprised Jessica to find that Joe liked a more formal atmosphere when he was in charge. Maybe he felt like it was part of his responsibilities—or that every commander, especially Tanis, he had worked under had run a very tight ship.
Of course, having Jessica around didn’t help. Playing by the rules had never been her strength either. The fact that the two women had been partners for several years added fodder for some rather intimate conversations to boot.
“Coordinates, Sir?” the helm officer asked.
“Not quite yet,” Joe said while flipping through a virtual display only he could see. “This mission just got classified Omega. All non-essential personnel are comfined to crew areas and net access is to be restricted.”
A hush fell over the bridge as the seven officers present glanced at one another and back at Joe who let slip one of his grins.
“Since I let the cat out of the bag and you’re all in the know, you’re read in. Section heads are notifying their teams in case any of the crew or observers wish to stay in stasis for the duration.”
“What do you expect the duration to be?” Jessica asked.
“I don’t think this should take more than a f
ew weeks, maybe a month,” Joe replied.
Jessica sighed. So much for the vacation she had planned with Trist after the exercises.
An hour later, Joe addressed the crew from the bridge.
“As you know, this mission has an Omega classification. As such not all of you will know what we’re doing, but you cannot discuss any aspect of this mission with anyone, ever. Alternate logs and records are being established, including your activities for the duration of this event.
“All non-essential personnel are required to remain in quarters or approved crew areas when not on duty. When off-duty, no aspect of this mission shall be discussed with any other crew member. Corsia will be monitoring all channels during the duration of this mission.
“Your section heads will give you the details as they are necessary for your job function.”
Joe waved his hand and changed his audience to the command crew, section heads and senior officers.
“Data shows we have a blip from the direction of Sirius,” he said.
“We’re to travel beyond the system and deploy a scanning array. Fab will need to produce the additional nodes to create an array the size Corsia calculated we’ll need. Astro-nav has also plotted a course that will take us in a wide arc around the Kap and hide us behind Perseus where we’ll go dark for several AU before picking up and boosting out to our ultimate destination.”
“We don’t know for sure,” Joe replied. “It was only caught for a moment. But close, maybe only a year or two out.”
“Shiiiit,” Trist said softly. “We’re not ready yet for that.”
Joe cast her a quelling glance.
“We’ll assess and inform Fleetcom of the threat, if any.”
“That’s need to know, Commander,” Joe replied. “Eventually it will all come out, but at present the General has her reasons.”
Jessica knew why. There was evidence that Myrrdan had reached out to the Sirians. If this was their main force, or even a scouting party, the more they could do without Myrrdan knowing the better.
It amazed Jessica that after all this time he was still able to hide. Although the growing population and extensive settlements across the Kap system were making it easier and easier for him all the time.
Through careful leaks, Jessica and Tanis had released information and misinformation at various levels. On several occasions they saw action based on knowledge to which only high-level officers and officials on the Intrepid had access.
It made her skin crawl, to think that she could be friends with someone who may actually be that diabolical fiend—or at the least, someone in league with him.
The level of patience Myrrdan exhibited was astounding. Back in Sol he rarely went more than a few years without committing some atrocity. At least that is what Jessica suspected. Many things she believed Myrrdan responsible for were never offically attributed to him.
By her count he had at least half a million dead to his name. If he got his hands on the picotech that count would seem like a drop in the bucket.
Sometimes Jessica thought they should destroy the tech to keep it from falling into the wrong hands, but then Earnest would tell her his dreams of how it would change everything, of how it would erase all inequality through ready availability of any resource or technology desired.
Jessica wasn’t so sure that was a good thing, but when she listened to him it was hard to argue.
At the very least it would give humanity some breathing room. Right now Sol was growing close to reaching a resource tipping point. Even if thousands of colony ships left each year it wouldn’t measurably reduce the population—and it certainly wouldn’t help the resource scarcity.
Not to mention the fact that there were not thousands of stars nearby that could support humans—at least not with the level of technology they were accustomed to.
The crew and colonists of the Intrepid were different. They were adventurers, people who were less interested in the creature comforts of modern civilization; eager to see what was around the next unknown corner.
Jessica couldn’t imagine the run-of-the-mill folks on High Terra or the Cho surviving out here where real work was required to survive.
Stars knew it took some adjustment on her part.
It was one of the things that drew her to Trist. Neither of them signed up for a place on the Intrepid, though Trist had more warning that she would be leaving Sol than Jessica did.
At times like this her mind went to her family in Athabasca. She hadn’t spoken to them much after joining the TBI.
It wasn’t that they were so old-fashioned that they found fault with her body mods or sexual appetites, they couldn’t understand why someone would want to leave Earth and their family for “space living,” as they called it.
After so long amongst the stars, Jessica did pine for living on a planet, feeling solid earth beneath her feet and endless sky above her—so long as it wasn’t in a tunnel. But she couldn’t imagine staying there forever.
Maybe it was that after the amazing adventures she had experienced on the Intrepid, the thought of being little ole Jess in Athabasca seemed too small, like she would be a shadow of herself.
And there was zero chance she would ever had met Trist.
She smiled to herself at the thought. Jessica knew that she was a contradiction. An over-sexed law enforcement officer who had been thrown out of more places than she could remember. Mostly for coming on to, or copulating, with people she shouldn’t have.
Perhaps then, the fact that she would end up with an ex-criminal like Trist wasn’t so surprising, but to her it still was.
Trist, for all her attitude, was more reserved than most would suspect. It was one of the things that Jessica found irresistible—not to mention that since much of her body consisted of biological silicon she could do some really interesting moves.
Her unintended alterations were one of the things that first caused Jessica’s friendship with Trist to blossom. Unbeknownst to many, Jessica’s physical alterations were not entirely elective, nor, unlike Tanis’s, were they done voluntarily in the line of duty.
It slipped out one night by the beach on the Intrepid when she and Trist had stayed late around the fire after everyone else had left.
They both had drank more than they should have, and Jessica had elected not to have her nano scrub her blood clean; rather, she was enjoying the high.
Trist appeared to have done the same and before long they were sharing stories from their pasts.
Jessica had never visited the Cho, but had always wanted to. Trist’s descriptions of humanities’ greatest engineering marvel were nothing like she had heard before. The former thief had been on every ring and seen corners of the structure Jessica had never heard of.
The story invariably led to Trist telling of her encounter with Trent in the warehouse.
Jessica had read the report, but never heard it from Trist directly, never knew the pain she still felt from the loss of her friend that day.
After hearing Trist’s tale she felt compelled to tell hers. It wasn’t one she shared often—heck it was a sealed record in the TBI archives—but Trist seemed like the right person to tell it to.
The rest, as they say, was history.
“Hey, space cadet, you there?” Trist’s voice snapped Jessica back into the world around her.
“Eh? Yeah, just lost in thought.”
Trist smiled. “Oh yeah? What about?”
Jessica laughed and gave their standard answer. “You, of course.”
“I doubt you heard, but we have three weeks to kill before we get to the fun part of this mission. What should we do?”
Jessica grinned. “Are you kidding? Three weeks here with no responsibility? That is the fun part.”
THE GAME’S UP
STELLAR DATE: 3283395 / 07.13.4277 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: ISS Andromeda
REGION: Interstellar Space, Outside Kapteyn’s Heliopause
The intervening weeks had passed uneventfully and Jessica now waited with the rest of the bridge crew at their stations while the helm officer executed his final maneuvers, bringing the ship into position to deploy the sensors.
The sensor net consisted of a hundred small probes which would spread out over several hundred thousand kilometers and form a massive antenna.
They could have used the system’s stellar sensor to scan for the Sirians, but hiding the results from the Victorians, and especially Myrrdan, would be impossible.
Fleetcom was certain Myrrdan had hooks into the stellar sensor array—otherwise it would have picked up the Sirians years earlier. Better to make him think his alterations had worked.
These sensors would only report to the Andromeda.
“We’re in position,” helm reported.
“Very good,” Joe said with a nod. “Trist, launch the probes.”
Trist nodded and emptied the ship’s missile tubes.
Joe brought up the departing projectiles on the bridge’s main holo. It showed the missiles arching away from the Andromeda, boosting hard to bring the probes to their final destinations. At pre-configured coordinates the missiles released their cargo and the probes began to spread out to their final locations.
Half an hour later, the probes were in their final positions and began to scan the region of space where the blip had been spotted. Joe flipped the main holo from displaying positions of the probes to the results of their scan, tossing the probe visual to a secondary projector.
Small objects flickered in and out as the array detected asteroids and comets in the Kap’s stellar halo. Corsia examined them all, checking vector and composition, removing each as they proved to be nothing more than ice and rock.
The array slowly panned through hundreds of millions of square kilometers of space, looking for heat, reflections, or radiation.
