by M. D. Cooper
Hannah strode in and pulled a stack of plates out of a cupboard, handing them to Kylie. “Why don’t you set the table!”
“Oh boy!” Kylie said with mock enthusiasm. “Wouldn’t I just love to?”
“That’s the spirit.” David grabbed a bottle of wine from the refrigeration unit. “I knew you’d fit right in here, baby girl.”
Being safe was best for now. Kylie would watch, listen, and figure out what the hell she was doing there. And then, hopefully, find a way out.
RECUPERATION
STELLAR DATE: 09.26.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Equatorial Valleys, Jericho
REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
Nadine’s eyes flew open.
They’d found an office with a few sleeping rolls in a corner, and had managed a few hours of restful sleep. But the pain in her chest was getting worse; her nano still hadn’t replenished itself and was falling behind.
She needed silicon, and cast her gaze about the room, looking for something that would do the trick. There were some dirty glasses sitting on the desk, and she grabbed two, wrapped them in a blanket, and smashed them with a book.
The sound of the glass breaking wasn’t muffled by the blankets as well as she’d hoped, and she lay back, hoping Rogers and Winter hadn’t heard.
After a minute, when no sounds came from outside the office, she unrolled the blanket and looked at the shards. The silica in the glass would be just what her nano needed.
Of course, she had to get it inside her body.
Hidden beneath the skin of her left forearm was a matter assimilator. It took a lot of energy, but her internal systems still registered enough power to run it.
Normally—if she wasn’t undercover, which she nearly always was—it would be exposed, a simple silver strip on her arm. But in the Inner Stars no one had tech like this—at least not miniaturized and inside their bodies.
Nadine considered that for a moment. It wasn’t necessarily true; Kylie and Lana could likely construct something like her assimilator with the nanotech they carried. It was, after all, the very technology that Tanis Richards had originally sold to S&H Defensive. The tech that had started this whole mess.
She picked up one of the larger pieces of glass and cut into the inside of her forearm, sucking in a long breath as the pain hit her.
The incision was short, just a few centimeters, but it still hurt a lot. She ignored the pain—mostly because it didn’t hurt as much as her chest wound—and began to feed pieces of glass into the assimilator.
Once her body had absorbed all of the silica, she opened up the satchel containing the medical supplies and bandaged her arm. If either of the boys asked about it, she would tell them that she had scratched it during the flight through the forest.
With her nano working overtime on construction new nanobots, she began to feel even more fatigued and gave herself another shot of adrenaline.
Inside the bag were several cylinders of pain suppressants for the hypospray. Once her nano was back up to snuff she wouldn’t need them, but she’d best keep up the impression that she was hurting more than she really was.
She gave herself a shot of the pain medicine and had to admit that it helped take the edge off. She put the applicator back into the bag and rose to her feet.
Nadine stretched and opened the door. The hallway was empty and she walked down its length on the balls of her feet, making as little noise as possible.
When she was almost at the building’s main entrance, she heard voices and peered around the corner to see Rogers and Winter sitting on some bedrolls eating something out of the cans they held.
“You think she’s all right?” Rogers asked.
“I think she’ll be fine. Don’t be a baby.”
Rogers rolled his eyes. “Whatever. You worry about Nadine too.”
“Yeah,” Winter whispered, “true enough, but don’t go telling people that. Shit, it’s bad enough that everyone figured out me and Lana…”
“Well, your shirt was inside out.”
Winters sighed. “Now, you tell me.”
Rogers sucked something off his fork and propped his foot up. “But, that thing in the dark layer…. How’d Nadine know? I mean, she seemed to know what to do. She just about freaked out when I was readying to leave the DL. Like she knew…”
“That if you made the jump that thing that was folding us up like a paper airplane would have come out with us? Yeah, I thought about it too.”
“She’s Nadine,” Rogers said. “Our girl just as much as Kylie is, so I don’t want to speculate, but....”
“She’s from rich folk. Maybe they hear rumors we don’t…know things we don’t.”
“Maybe,” Rogers said and then they went back to eating quietly.
Nadine swallowed hard and let out a relieved breath. Her cover was still secure, for now. But she would have to come up with an answer that would satisfy them. It wasn’t going to be easy, but she had five years of trust built up with these two men. They should believe her, even if what she came up with was farfetched and crazy.
She walked back to the rear of the facility and found a small door leading outside. She needed some fresh air, and pushed the door open to reveal a small patio. The sun had set, and in the darkened valley, all she could make out was the small trees, their leaves rustling in the soft breeze.
She tried to pick up a network signal. If she could get Link access she could tap into Jericho’s comm satellites and access Maverick’s orbital sensor network—something she had hacked years ago.
But there was nothing, no overhead satellites were in range—the equatorial valleys were not places that typically needed communications coverage.
She hoped the tracker had dropped its breadcrumbs, leaving logs in beacons it passed, giving Nadine something to follow now that she’d lost the signal.
Even though everything had gone to shit, Nadine hadn’t forgotten her mission. Get to Peter Rhoads and kill him before he could start his war.
But what happened after that? Nadine didn’t know, but she feared she had already lost Kylie. So why did it matter at all? The mission was the only thing that mattered and that was that.
Her heart disagreed, though. Truth be told, Nadine didn’t want to go back to the Hand for her next mission—a new cover a new set of lies. She liked being aboard the Dauntless, living an honest—more or less—life with Kylie, Winter and Rogers.
Nadine cycled her vision to IR, looking for any wildlife. It wouldn’t pick up the lizards, but she suspected they couldn’t make it this far up the valley walls. It was probably why whoever used this place to stash their goods had chosen it.
The IR picked up some smaller wildlife. Foxes, a cat, a lot of mice. Nothing dangerous. She switched her vision through other mods, looking for anything they could use to get out of there. Didn’t have to be a shuttle, just something that could get them to Montral—or whatever domed city was close enough—would do.
She could make out other buildings in the compound, overgrown pathways connecting them. A few cargo containers with camo nets over them were stacked to the south. But no signs of whoever used this place. No sign of any ships either. If there was anything out there, it would take some searching to find it.
But they couldn’t give up hope. They would run out of canned goods after a few nights. They couldn’t stay here. It was time to press on. She turned and walked back into the building, she should get back to her room—no need to worry anyone.
When she slipped back inside, Nadine glanced back as she walked and nearly slammed into Winter. “Winter,” Nadine smiled. “You scared me.”
He narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “You want to tell me what you were doing out there?”
His eyes ticked to the side. A clear signal that he was sending Rogers a message.
“Well, you did. Freaked him right out. What if those lizards were out there? Or what if they brought their big cousins, huh?”
“I won’t do it again,” Nadine hooked her arm through his and peered up at him with her baby blue eyes, “I promise.”
“Dang, girl, you know I can’t stay mad at you. Just be more careful. We don’t know what’s creeping out there and we ain’t got the supplies for trouble.”
“Why don’t you get some rest? I’ll take next watch.”
Winter laughed as they entered the main lobby. Rogers was sprinting around the corner to join up with the group. “What’s so funny?”
“Other than your run? Nadine wants to take next watch.”
Rogers bent over with his hands on his knees and started laughing. Nadine raised an eyebrow and felt a simmering anger growing in her belly. That’s what she got for playing the damsel in distress so much. Even so, on more than one occasion she had proven to be…competent enough to get them out of tricky situations.
“I hardly think it’s funny. Neither of you will be any good to me or the Dauntless if you don’t get a little sleep. I’m sure I can handle patrolling the building like you, gentlemen.” Nadine swung her arms and stomped her feet like a brute.
Winter scowled. “Who the hell was that supposed to be? Me?”
“If the neanderthal fits…” Nadine said with a sly smile.
“She got you pegged, man. You gotta give her that.”
Winter raised his eyebrows. “A neanderthal, huh? I’ll show you a neanderthal.” He wrapped his arm around Nadine’s neck and rubbed his knuckles on her head.
“Winter!” Nadine shoved at him but the hold was so solid, he barely budged. “You’re messing up my hair! I want to stand watch, not join your boy’s club.”
Rogers and Winter laughed as the latter let her go. “I was just messing with you, Nadine. Sure, you can have next watch.”
Nadine smiled, “Thanks.”
“Just, Rogers is going to do it with you.” Winter winked at them and headed toward the room in which she had woken up.
Nadine shook her head. “Sorry, Rogers. Looks like you’re stuck babysitting me again.”
Rogers sighed as they strolled through the facility. “Nah, it’s not like that. Well, maybe it is like that but I don’t mind.”
“I’m not completely helpless, you know.” Nadine picked up her weapon from the counter and shouldered it. “Kylie taught me how to aim, shoot. I learned defensive techniques, like where you grab a man by his balls and…” she made a crushing motion with her hand, while scrunching up her face tight.
Rogers put his hand on top of hers. “Okay,” he said in an abnormally high voice, “let’s not talk about men’s balls in such a disrespectful way—mine or anyone else’s. Kylie taught you to fight. That’s awesome. We’re all awesome. With your injury, we just don’t want to see you hurt, that’s all.”
There was more to it than that, and Nadine appreciated that he cared. Her cover story had worked too well. These two just couldn’t see her as anything other than helpless. It occurred to Nadine that there may no longer be a reason to keep up the pretense. At this point, her cover might be keeping her from completing her mission. Was she holding onto it because she wanted to reach Kylie, or was it because she didn’t want Rogers and Winter to hate her?
Had their approval grown to mean so much to her? Looking into Rogers’ eyes it was clear what the answer was. What would The Hand say? Sera, Petra, any of them—if they could see her now?
“We need to get off this rock, Rogers. We need to find Kylie. Her father—he’s not what Kylie has told you.”
Rogers shrugged. “I know he has some arcane belief about AIs, that they’ll rise up and enslave us all. So Kylie was raised sort of backward, but she had a cozy upbringing. That’s what she said, anyway.”
“She didn’t tell the whole story. No fault of her own, she just wanted to protect him. Plus there’s parts of the story she doesn’t know. Her father is amassing warships, Rogers. Warships meant to destroy AIs and anyone aligned with them.”
Rogers eyes widened. “How do you know that? Did Kylie know when she was taken?”
Nadine shook her head. “There’s more you don’t know, but the time isn’t really right to tell you everything. We have to go out there and find a ship—before we lose Kylie forever. Her father, he’s aligned himself with—”
She paused at the sound of a door opening down one of the halls. Rogers heard it a second after she did and whipped his head around. He grabbed her shoulder as something flew into the room.
“Flash bang, get down!” Rogers yelled.
Nadine fell to her knees and whipped around, shouldering her rifle, searching for the targets. Their IR was muted—probably by armor—but she could still make them out.
Rogers tapped her on the shoulder and they sprinted away, diving behind a steel counter as shots rang out.
Gas canisters flew through the air and burst around them. Nadine coughed and covered her mouth, her vision blurring. Just when her nano was starting to get her body under control something like this happened.
She blinked slowly, struggling to stay awake. Rogers was coughing too but managed to rise up and returned fire. Nadine rolled onto her knees, propped one leg up and fired, pulling the trigger, firing wildly. Then dizziness overtook her and she fell to the ground. Her vision was blurred, but she managed to see four figures come around the counter. One snatched Rogers’ rifle, and two more grabbed him.
One of the figures stood over her and nudged her with a boot. As her vision began to fade, all Nadine could think was, Not again…so sick of passing out!
VENGEANCE
STELLAR DATE: 09.24.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Emperor’s Tears
REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
Grayson gasped for air as his eyes flew open. His lungs burned and a chain tightened around his neck as a scalpel was plunged into his abdomen. Back and forth, his legs thrusted, now dangling above the ground as he kicked out, trying to push away his tormentor. There was no getting away. There was no escaping anything.
His only hope? Making Tayna angry enough to kill him. No one knew where he was or where he was bound. Not even Grayson knew anything, other than the fact he was bound for Scipio. He’d given up on his plan to save Lana. She was going to die soon too when they took her nanotech. It would all have been for nothing.
“You’re killing him!”
Someone removed the chain choking the life out of him and Grayson was grateful for a brief respite from the agony—though breathing brought new pain. He coughed and spat onto the floor. That it was more blood than saliva didn’t surprise him in the least.
“So, what?” Tayna asked and shoved Micha back. “He’s never going to tell us anything. He’s SSF. He hasn’t said so but I know he is. Just look at him!”
“Core, I’d rather not. You’re turning him into a damn voodoo doll.”
Tayna snorted. “Yeah, I wish. I might have better luck with one of those.”
“If he’s SSF, he can tell us more about them and their inner workings. Codes, secrets, we just have to get him back to Scipio. Once there, they can get past the failsafes in his mind, suck out what we need.”
Tayna snorted. “You’re going soft.”
“And you’ve gone angry. Spiteful and full vengeance. The captain says stop, so you stop.”
She tossed her scalpel down on the ground and strode off, slamming her fist into the bulkhead as
she went.
“Thank you,” Grayson said hoarsely through blood-caked lips.
Micha shook his head and lowered the chains that had Grayson suspended off the ground. Now, at least he could sit—he could even lie down.
“Don’t thank me, Tom Rudy. When we get to where we’re going, you’re going to wish I let her kill you.”
“And where is that exactly?” Grayson asked with what little breath he had left.
Micha laughed. “Nice try.” He turned and walked away.
“Well, can’t blame a guy for asking now, can you?” Grayson called out after him as Micha walked out of the room
Grayson closed his eyes for a moment, trying to get his breathing under control. When he opened them, he noticed a glint of light off something on the deck: the scalpel.
He scooted forward as far as the chains would allow, then stretched out his hand, his fingertips just barely touching the scalpel. Very carefully, he rolled it closer, then when the handle was well within reach, he grabbed the it, holding the blade tightly; his hands shaking from fatigue. The cuffs on his wrists weren’t going to come off easily, but the suppression band around his head was another story. He would have to cut out the skin it was anchored to, but given how much everything hurt right now, he wasn’t certain he’d even notice.
He was wrong.
After several agonizing minutes, he managed to get the band off, and set his nano to infiltrating the locking mechanisms on the cuffs.
It was only a matter of time before he’d be free—a drastic change from twenty minutes ago. Next, he needed a weapon…a real weapon, and the one he had his mind on was in cargo bay one.
His nano had managed to connect to the cuff’s locks, and he was decrypting their codes—something that was a lot harder without an AI handy—when he heard the cargo bay door open. Someone was coming.
He slid the scalpel into his pocket—very carefully and lay his head down. Grayson spotted the band and slipped it onto his head, careful not to activate it, a mere second before a pair of thick black boots came into view.
