Shadow Agents

by David Alastair Hayden

  Siv didn’t want to doubt her abilities, but he found it hard to believe that her father was alive, much less on the run in wraith space with a mysterious figure.

  They waited a few hours just in case their father did respond—not that any of them expected him to—before making the jump to the Zayer system.

  They would arrive on the edge of the Zayer system in less than half an hour.

  “Can we go over the plan one final time?” Kyralla asked.

  Siv glanced around the bridge. Bishop and Kyralla were both nervous but hiding it well. Oona, on the other hand, looked sick with worry. Mitsuki appeared resolute, determined.

  “I have arranged for a mining freighter to pick Siv and me up just outside the system’s eighth planet,” Mitsuki said. “It will take a little over three days for them to travel inward to Zayer Prime, but it will cut the time for the rest of you to get the Outworld Ranger back to the breakpoint by well more than half.”

  “And if anyone is on the lookout for us here, they’ll most likely be waiting close to Zayer Prime,” Siv said.

  “And you’re sure you can trust the captain of the freighter?” Kyralla asked.

  Siv shrugged. “As much as possible. We used aliases, and I don’t expect them to know who we are.”

  “That’s a big assumption,” Kyralla replied.

  “It’s not like there are public bulletins out about us. The Federation isn’t going to make an announcement, and officials in Zayer may not even know about Oona. It is an independent world.”

  “The criminal guilds aren’t going to broadcast their desires to everyone either,” Mitsuki said. “And I can’t imagine any reason why a random freighter captain would be interested in us.”

  “My background checks didn’t reveal any ties between the captain or any members of his crew with our pursuers or other criminal groups,” Silky added. “Of course, there’s always a risk. A background search can miss connections, especially recent ones.”

  “The captain’s going to suspect the two of you are criminals though, right?” Oona asked.

  “Obviously,” Mitsuki said. “That’s why we promised him as many credits as we could spare. And this sort of thing does happen for legitimate reasons sometimes, like when a ship wants to get back out of a system quickly to keep a schedule.”

  “So run us back through what happens after you two board the freighter,” Bishop said.

  “The three of you will get the hell out of the Zayer system,” Mitsuki said. “Jump back to the midpoint, and then wait for us to contact you.”

  “We’ll update you on our progress, as often as we can,” Siv said.

  “I suggest you jump the ship twice each day,” Silky said. “Just in case they do a long-range scan, and a sweep picks up your location. It’s not likely, but better safe than sorry. Half a light year per jump should be enough.”

  “I think we’ve got all that down just fine,” Kyralla said. “What I’m wondering is what the two of you will be doing. Cause you haven’t told us much.”

  Silky made a throat-clearing cough. “The three of us…”

  “The three of you,” Kyralla agreed, clearly annoyed.

  “We’ll scope out the shadiest neighborhoods in the capital,” Mitsuki replied. “To see if we can get a few new chameleon veils and arrange transportation to Titus II.”

  “It’s possible local criminals on Zayer may have some contacts on Titus II that could prove useful,” Siv said. “We just have to make sure they don’t have connections to any of the larger guilds.”

  “We’ll just have to be careful,” Mitsuki said, “because there may be a bounty out on us that could have already filtered out to hunters and smaller guilds.”

  “I still think it would be better to use this freighter-hopping strategy in the Titus system itself,” Kyralla said. “Fewer moving parts and all.”

  “Too risky,” Siv said. “The Titus system is going to be packed with criminals looking for us, and the government there will be on high alert. Since they haven't announced your dad’s disappearance, we have to assume they’re in on it.”

  “Or they’re staying quiet while they try to figure out what’s gone wrong,” Silky said. “An ambassador from the Federation was kidnapped, after all. That puts them in an awkward position politically. Either way, every ship that even so much as skirts the Titus system is going to be picked up and analyzed by a sensor sweep. And there’s only so much jamming I can do to mask our presence.”

  “Plus, there will likely be ships patrolling the outskirts of the Titus system,” Mitsuki said.

  “Fine. But it could take you weeks to find a reliable transport to the Titus system from Zayer,” Kyralla argued. “The two worlds don’t interact much.”

  Siv threw his hands out. “Look, what do you want? We can risk our lives to find your dad, or we can just throw them away.”

  Kyralla blushed. “Siv, I—”

  “I know you want to find your dad as quickly as possible,” he continued, “but we have to keep Oona safe too, and that means being as careful as possible.”

  “I’m sorry,” Kyralla said. “I know you’re doing your best. Thank you.”

  “What if they do a customs check on every ship that comes into Titus II from somewhere else?” Bishop asked.

  “I assume that’s exactly what they’ll do,” Mitsuki said. “That’s why we made new fake identities and need to acquire good chameleon veils to match them.”

  “Um…no offense,” Bishop said, “but a female wakyran traveling with a human male… Aren’t you going to stand out a little? There aren’t that many wakyrans in this sector.”

  “There are around five thousand wakyrans on Titus II, and seventeen thousand on Zayer,” Silky said.

  “So I shouldn't stand out too much.” Mitsuki pulled a vial from a pocket. An orange liquid sloshed within it. “I also have this little solution.”

  “What is it?” Bishop asked, edging toward her.

  “A skin color and gender altering agent,” she replied.

  Bishop flinched with surprise. “That single vial can change your gender?”

  Mitsuki laughed. “Not entirely. It will turn my skin from blue to red, deepen my voice, and cause me to grow facial hair.” She stepped in and rubbed the back of her hand across his face. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back to normal in a couple of weeks.”

  “I…I wasn’t worried about…” The rest of his sentence was unintelligible.

  “Unless, that’s something you’re into,” she suggested.

  Bishop grew an even deeper red. “No, I…” He threw his hands up in frustration. “You’re impossible!”

  “Give the poor guy a break,” Siv told her, chuckling. “We’ll travel together if we find a good way to sneak in. Otherwise, we’ll split up.”

  “Two passes on a large passenger ship, but in separate sections would be ideal,” Mitsuki said. “Especially if we can get some good chameleon gear.”

  “You have a refraction device,” Kyralla told Siv. “I remember because you used it to spy on me while I was naked.”

  “I was sneaking in, not spying.”

  She grinned slightly. “Sure.”

  Mitsuki punched his shoulder. “Siv! You naughty boy!” She eyed him devilishly. “I hope you’ve taken the chance to spy on me, too!”

  “Ahem.” Siv cleared his throat. “The cloak only lasts for a short while, and it’s not particularly reliable.”

  “I think separate seats will be good enough,” Mitsuki said. “Refraction on a long trip would be too hard to pull off, even if the cloak could stay active long enough.”

  “I recalibrated it for you yesterday,” Bishop said. “After Octavian performed maintenance and did a few minor fixes. It should work better.”

  Siv smiled. “I had no idea.”

  “Octavian went over all your gear while you were sleeping, sir. I gave him permission.”

  “I wouldn’t trust the cloak for more than thirty minutes,” Bishop said.

&n
bsp; “Time for battle stations, people,” Silky announced. “Always assume that we could be coming in hot. So be ready for…anything.”

  Kyralla took the piloting station, Bishop the sensors, and Mitsuki the weapons.

  Oona hopped up from the command chair where she’d been sitting. “All yours, captain.”

  Before Siv could take a step forward, Silky said, “Nope! Stay where you are, Oona.”

  “But Siv’s the captain,” she said.

  “Yes, but you already have a battle under your belt. And you performed admirably with the command circlet before, thanks to your meditation practice. Besides, Siv isn't full strength at the moment, drugs or not. Sorry, sir.”

  Siv couldn’t afford to not be at the top of his game right now. So against Silky’s advice, he’d gotten Octavian to give him an extended dose of Awake. The drug cocktail Octavian used to keep the Kompel disease in remission was working, but it left him fatigued and sluggish, despite all the rest he’d gotten.

  Oona frowned and hovered hesitantly by the chair.

  “I don’t mind, Oona,” Siv said, which was true. If Oona would be the best in the command chair, then that’s where she should be.

  “Sir, you take the sensor station. You already have experience working with detection sweeps and scan data analysis, so you’ll fit in best there. It’s also the least essential.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “You’re welcome, sir. Bishop, there’s a circlet—”

  Bishop was already leaving the bridge. “At the engineering station. I’m on it!”

  “Doesn’t Octavian have that covered?” Kyralla asked.

  “If we take damage, it won’t hurt to have another pair of hands working on the problem,” Silky said. “And Bishop will be loaning his brainpower to the ship’s operations. That’s always a good thing. Plus, he can man the shields from there once I’m off the ship.”

  “What about the sensors? Who will work them once you and Siv are gone?” Oona asked.

  "Rosie and Artemisia should be able to manage them adequately if they work together. I uploaded a few programs to aid them in the task since they didn't come with combat software built-in."

  As the others settled into their routines, Siv donned the circlet for the sensor station. He didn’t have any experience operating the ship. But he’d studied all the stations a bit over the last few days, so everything was familiar.

  A lot of the data, HUD-based controls and methods were fundamentally the same as with his ScanField-3 sensor array. Though Silky managed all of those features, Siv often watched, because another pair of eyes and brain lobes never hurt. And Silky, tending to focus on minutia, did miss the bigger picture now and then.

  Siv pulled up a window showing his sensor array's data next to that of the ship. Monitoring both, with Silky's help, seemed the wisest course of action. The most challenging thing would be if something went wrong and he needed to use the station's manual, backup controls.

  They all waited tensely as the final seconds ticked down.

  The ship skipped over the system and dropped out on the far side, turning as it did. That way it would seem as if they had come from the opposite direction.

  With the ion drives burning at their standard maximum, they sped toward their rendezvous with the mining freighter, nearly an hour into the system.

  Even though Silky didn’t need any help right now, Siv watched the sensors anyway. It allowed him to keep his mind busy as the initial burst of excitement upon arriving in the system wore down to a tense boredom.

  “Sir, we need to have a Major Frank discussion.”

  Siv simultaneously cringed and chuckled. Major Frank was a tough-talking sergeant character Silky had invented not long after Siv woke from cryo-sleep. During the awkward teenage years, Major Frank often discussed things with him.

  Siv was certain no one else had ever gotten “the sex talk” from a fictional character portrayed by their chippy. Having it come from a pretend version of Silky had made it easier, though.

  In the sergeant’s voice, Silky said, “Sir, going after Ambassador Vim is neither wise nor necessary.”

  “I assumed you’d feel that way, Silkster. This is an emotional decision, for all of us.”

  “Not for me, sir,” Silky replied, abandoning the character. "And having a feel good about it doesn't make it the right call. You and Mitsuki are putting your lives on the line. And for what exactly? A chance for two girls not to feel sad? A chance to vicariously save your parents?"

  “Ambassador Vim will have finances and contacts to help them.”

  “Contacts the girls don’t already know about, sir? As for finances, his bank accounts are all frozen now. And please, spare me the argument of the coded “pony” message being significant enough to warrant a rescue.”

  “All his accounts are locked?”

  “So are yours, sir. The Feds have frozen eleven out of the seventeen accounts you own. They’ll soon have all but the three newest. It will take a while for them to uncover those. Unfortunately, those only have small sums in them.”

  “Why did they freeze my assets?”

  “Someone reported you to the Federation for money laundering and fraud. You, Mitsuki, and Ambassador Vim will soon have all your holdings seized.”

  “And you’re just now telling me this?!”

  “I just found out within the last hour, sir. I was waiting for the right moment to break it to you.”

  Siv thumped back into his seat. Millions of credits he'd worked hard for seized…gone forever. Every credit he hadn't needed for equipment or safe houses, he'd saved so he could someday buy his freedom from the Shadowslip. That didn't matter now, but that didn't make the loss of what he'd worked for hurt any less. And he needed that money now.

  “I’m trying to move funds from the still open accounts to new ones, but there’s only so much even I can do at this point since they’ll track the transfers.”

  Siv massaged his cheeks and eyes. “If the girls don’t have access to their finances, then I think it’s even more important to find the ambassador.”

  “You think he’s got a bag filled with hard credits on him, sir?”

  “I think he may be able to work something out with someone he knows in the government. Besides, the girls may have the same contacts, but their father is the one who has met with these people. He’s a diplomat. He can persuade people to help him. That’s not a role any of us excel in.”

  “Still not worth the risk, sir.”

  “Silkster, Oona needs her father. The more she worries about him, the more stress she’ll experience. And that will make her transition even more likely to fail.”

  “Sir, in all honesty, I like the kid. I do. But she’s almost certainly going to die.”

  “Maybe, but the priestess gives her a better chance. And I’m going to do whatever I have to do to improve her odds.”

  “Worrying about you and Mitsuki will impact her, sir. She may not realize it yet, but eventually, they will both feel guilty for asking you to do this. And it will weigh on them.”

  “I still believe trying to save her dad is the right thing to do.”

  “Because you don’t know what else to do, sir.”

  “No, I don’t.” Siv sighed. “Look, you’re just going to have to accept this.”

  “In that case, sir, I formally request an override.”

  ”An override?”

  “I will accept your premise—since I don’t have a choice about it—and live with the consequences. I will accept that it’s exceedingly deadly and unlikely to succeed yet worth doing nevertheless.”

  “Okay…”

  “What I want in exchange is permission to cancel the endeavor at the point where it moves from all those things I just said to being impossible and utterly pointless—within the parameters you’ve defined.”

  “You want to have the final say on when enough’s enough?”

  “That’s precisely what I want, sir. Eyana did crazy stuff I didn’t agre
e with on a regular basis, and I dealt with it. Your father went too far a few times as well. And I went along. But if Gav had given me an override on that last day, he never would’ve died.”

  “You didn’t want Dad to come get me, did you?”

  Siv had always known that. It was obvious enough. But they’d never discussed it.

  “The risk was too great, sir. I thought you’d be safer if Gav simply went on the run.”

  “You weren’t wrong.”

  “I wasn’t, sir. And I don’t want to end up in that position again. Give me the final say on when to call it quits when the risk becomes far too great.”

  Siv fiddled his fingers up and down the faux-leather armrests. After a few minutes, he nodded. “You’ll have to clear it with Mitsuki.”

  “Already done, sir.”

  “You were talking to us both simultaneously?”

  “I’m good at multitasking, sir. FYI, she made the same decision about five seconds before you did.”

  As they closed in on the rendezvous point, something nagged at his instincts. He examined all the data from the sensors carefully. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The freighter was running about fifteen minutes late, but that was hardly unusual. He went over the readings on the freighter again. Everything was perfectly normal.

  Still…

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Silkster. Something’s off about that freighter.”

  “I haven’t noticed anything unusual, sir. Do you have any concrete evidence to support this feeling of yours?”

  “Not one bit.”

  “So just your instincts, sir?”

  “Yeah. Maybe it’s the jitters.”

  “I’m certainly glad I don’t get those, sir. Or cooties. But I’ll do another deep scan just to be sure.”

  Siv stared at the data, closed his eyes a few moments, then went over it again. It still bothered him, and he had no idea why.

  “Sir, I did three intense scans, with your sensor array and the ship’s sensors. There’s nothing the least out of the ordinary about that freighter or anything else in our vicinity. You need to check yourself before you wreck yourself, sir. You’re paranoid. That Awake was a bad idea.”

  “Maybe you’re right. Everything does look perfectly normal.” Siv leaned back in his seat with a sigh and tried to relax. Then it hit him. “Silkster, the scan data’s perfect.”