by Darren Beyer
Feeling relieved, Mandi again took a quick look around the corner. Her relief immediately dissipated. There was no question now: the lower fan had slowed nearly to a stop.
She turned back to the masked man. “They’re coming.”
Chapter 26: Eridani
The folded, off-white suit landed heavily on the table where Grae tossed it. Ivey looked up at him as he entered the ready room. He wore a matching one.
“You’ll want to put that on,” he said.
Ivey looked Grae over, top to bottom. His suit was identical. “What’s this all about?” she asked.
“That’s a SCoUT suit.”
“I don’t mean the suit.” Ivey frowned. “I mean you. What are you doing here?”
“The target sites are closer to New Reyk and Coalition positions than we’ve been. We have no idea what we might run into. You’re a good pilot, but…”
“But I’m not a combat pilot.”
Grae nodded.
“Okay. Well, you’re not ready to fly.”
Grae smiled. “That’s not what Doc put in his report when he cleared me.”
Ivey scowled. “Did you write it for him?”
Grae ignored her and picked up the suit by the shoulders, letting it fall open. “The SCoUT suit— Subversive Combat Uni-operative Trooper.” He grinned. “It’s not a pressure suit, so it can’t be used in all environments, but what it does do is provide highly effective active camouflage.” He activated his own suit, and instantly he took on the color and patterns of the wall behind him.
Ivey’s eyes went wide. “You’re almost invisible—at least up to your head.”
“It’s like the military uses, but better. I had Gisela build these for me. It also masks body heat.”
“It’s impressive, but why do I need one?”
“What was it you said? Something about log files and a decoder ring?”
Ivey looked away abashedly.
“Well, you were right. That’s why we both need to do this. I’ll get you there, you get in and find what we need, and then I’ll get us the hell out. But you’re not going to break into anything from inside the skimmer. And when you’re outside, you’re vulnerable. So we take the suits.”
Grae handed the suit to Ivey, who held it against herself.
“It’s not quite my size.”
“It’ll fit. It’s made of nanoweave, smart fabric. It will shrink.” Grae looked at the suit, then at Ivey’s small frame. “Mostly.”
Ignoring her narrowed eyes, he walked to the weapons locker and unlocked it with his pass code. Inside was an abundance of small arms. He considered the powder-based, rugged forty-caliber pistol designed for law enforcement and military, but it wasn’t exactly her size. Neither was the four point seven millimeter caseless assault rifle. The forty would have to do. He removed one of the holstered pistols and handed it to Ivey.
Ivey recoiled, and one of her eyebrows went up. “What the hell is that for?”
“There’s a chance we run into hostiles. That means we go in armed. Since you’re a spacer, you probably haven’t fired one of these since basic. It’ll come back.” Grae pushed the weapon closer.
Ivey still didn’t take it.
“I never went through basic training. And I don’t like firearms.”
“Oh, Jesus.” Grae frowned. “At least you didn’t call it a gun.”
Ivey shrugged. “AIC isn’t the military. I came in as an engineer.”
Gray removed the pistol from its holster and picked up a full magazine.
“Pistol,” he said, holding up the weapon. “Magazine.” He raised it in his other hand. “You load the weapon by inserting the magazine here.” He put the mag into the pistol’s grip. “Until it clicks in.” He held the pistol so Ivey could see its side. “This is the safety. The white ‘S’ means it’s on, and the weapon won’t fire. Keep it on at all times unless you plan to shoot.” Grae flipped it. “The red ‘F’ and dot means the weapon will fire if you have a round in the chamber and pull the trigger. You chamber a round by pulling the slide all the way back and letting it go.” After re-engaging the safety, Grae demonstrated the action by chambering a round. “Got it?”
“I think so.”
Grae removed the magazine and lightly pulled back the slide to retrieve the chambered round. He placed it standing up on the table.
“Show me,” he said, handing both the pistol and magazine to Ivey.
Ivey frowned as she took the them. The weapon looked huge in her hands.
“Safety on?” she asked timidly. She showed the lever to Grae, who nodded in response.
Then with a smile and a quick flash of movement, Ivey slammed the magazine into the grip, and pulled and released the slide like a pro. She presented the pistol to Grae. His eyes went wide. She pulled the weapon back, dropped the magazine, and placed it on the table. As she pulled back the slide, the chambered round flew high into the air. In a blur, she placed the pistol on the table, picked up the discarded magazine, caught the round before it fell, and deftly replaced it in the mag.
“I don’t like firearms,” Ivey said. She placed the magazine neatly next to the pistol. “I never said I don’t know how to use them.”
“Law enforcement?”
Ivey nodded. “Not for long. I decided engineering was more my thing.”
The serious look on her face told Grae now was not the time to press for details.
“Fair enough.”
Turning back to the weapons locker, he reached for a familiar friend. Grasping the forestock of a long, heavy rifle featuring the latest in digital scopes, he pulled out the advanced weapon and placed it on the table.
“That’s the same rifle you had at the m-base,” Ivey said. “Wouldn’t something capable of throwing a little more lead be more useful in a firefight?”
“Maybe.”
Grae reached back into the locker and retrieved two of the rifle’s heavy battery packs. The table shook as he all but dropped them on top of it, and the single pistol round he’d placed there fell on its side, rolling a few centimeters until it curved to a stop.
“But we don’t want to be in a firefight.” He reached back into the locker to retrieve three of the rifle’s square magazines. “We don’t want to be found out at all. Comm platforms are in the open and tend to be high up, which means we should be able to see anyone we might want to shoot from a long way off. This rifle fires caseless ammo, using hyperium tech to propel it down the barrel. That means there’s no muzzle flash, no bang—nothing to give away position. The only sound it makes is the mini sonic boom of the bullet as it splits the air. At full power, it’ll push a three-forty-four, three hundred- grain bullet to hypersonic. I can put one on target two klicks—”
Grae stopped when he caught the uncomfortable expression on Ivey’s face. He put the rifle down and picked up the single forty-caliber pistol round he had put on the table. He stared at it for a few moments, then handed it to Ivey.
“If you are faced with an enemy…”
Ivey took the round, topped off the magazine, and slammed it back into the pistol. “I’ll do what I have to.”
A low layer of clouds obscured the planet Ascension from view as Grae piloted the skimmer through the starless night. Only a dull glow high off his right winglet betrayed the presence of the bright gas giant. In every other direction, pure blackness engulfed the skimmer—sky and ground with no distinction, a shroud of darkness. Relying solely on instruments, Grae sped along the terrain, mere meters above the surface.
“Still nothing on the passives,” Ivey said from the back seat. “How likely is it we’ll run into something out here?”
“We’re staying low. The terrain will scatter radar. And with our mass dampeners on, they’d have to be right on top of us to get us on sensors. We’re most vulnerable to a look-down system, but that would mean either something in orbit, or aircraft like a Sky Sentry. I don’t think they have too many of either to spare. And we’re aerodynamic—no grav assist. So they
won’t pick us up on visual.”
“How much farther do we have?”
“See that ridgeline up ahead?”
“Umm. No.”
“Switch one of your displays over to the 3D map.”
“Got it.”
“There’s a shallow valley just beyond, and then the peak that has our first candidate.”
Grae hugged the side of the hill, skimming by rock outcroppings, over watersheds, and into gullies. As he rode the hill’s shoulder to the crest, he increased speed to minimize his exposure at the crown, and to put some distance between the skimmer and the terrain.
“We’re gaining a lot of altitude,” Ivey said, sounding concerned.
“You haven’t done much mountain flying, have you?”
As they crested the hilltop, the craft shook violently. The nose dropped, and the skimmer dove toward the rocky ground. Only Grae’s quick reaction in applying full power to the grav pods kept them from becoming a black scar on an Eridanian hillside.
“Holy shit! The ground’s right there!”
Grae caught brief glances of shadows cast by the skimmer’s grav pods against the crags and boulders along the hill.
“We’re good.” He swallowed.
The turbulence ebbed as the skimmer dropped into the valley below. In moments they had crossed the floor and were racing up the slope of the opposite mountainside. Before long, the first rattle of mountain turbulence hit them. The higher they went, the more violent it became.
“Get the comm gear ready.” Grae fought to keep his voice steady through the jolts. “Remember, we’re only going for the initial handshake—and at low power. Don’t let it connect, or we’ll give ourselves away.”
“Affirmative.”
“And you’ve got one pass—we can’t show ourselves for a second.”
With the skimmer enduring the random blows of the mountain currents, Grae circled the target area around the peak. When he’d completed the perimeter, he banked hard and vectored away.
“I take it you aren’t keeping quiet just to surprise me,” he said.
“No. I didn’t get a return. It’s not here.”
“Well, we’ve got two more to go.”
Into the late-night hours, Ivey and Grae repeated the exercise at the other two target locations. Both came up empty.
Grae’s head pounded, and he was weary from long hours of flying through the chop of turbulence and enduring the stress of blind instrument flight. Ivey sounded just as tired.
“What now?” she asked.
“I’d like nothing more than to set down somewhere and catch an hour or two of sleep, but we still have time before the sun comes up, and one more possible target to look at.”
“The hills? I thought you said it wasn’t a good spot for a comm platform.”
Grae activated the location in the navigation system and angled the skimmer toward it. “It’s not, but it’s the next most likely one. It’s also toward the end of the cone of possible locations. I’m thinking we check it out, then hightail it home. On the way out, we’ll turn up the power on our equipment and run the entire length of the cone. If we get a hit, we’ll come back another day.”
With the time to sunup dwindling, Grae checked the skimmer’s fuel and pushed the throttles forward. Keeping the skimmer subsonic, he weaved through the rough landscape. Even with the assistance of the navigation system, the low-level flight through mountainous terrain taxed his mental endurance. By the time they’d closed to within a hundred kilometers, the entire top of Grae’s head felt as if a dozen nails had been hammered into it.
“We’re here, and we’re not sticking around long,” he said. “Get your gear ready.”
“I’ve been watching nav. I’m good to go.”
Grae pulled back on the controls, causing the skimmer to rise above the terrain. Before they’d even come within range, a warning indicator flashed.
“I’m picking up low-level signals.” Ivey was suddenly alert, her voice sharp.
“Nails?”
“What are nails?”
“Sensor or radar signals.”
“Negative. It’s all comm traffic in the UHF range. Wait—now some higher frequency… microwave comms. It’s all low power. Looks like local traffic. This is more than just a comm platform.”
“Vector?”
“It’s at our twelve o’clock. Should we run our gear?”
“Negative.” Grae slowed the skimmer and turned ninety degrees off their route of flight. “I’m making a run along the periphery. We’ll triangulate in on the signal.”
It didn’t take long to lock in on the origin of the signals. Something was in the valley near what Grae had previously considered a low-probability target for their search.
“I hate to sound like a broken record,” Ivey said, “but what now?”
Grae took a moment to consider their options. “Sensors are still clear?”
“Nothing on passives. No active defensive systems.”
“All right then. Let’s set down, then see what they’re hiding.”
Chapter 27: Ouricscen Station
Help him down the passage,” the masked man said to Mandi. “Give me the pistol, and I’ll hold them off. I can catch up.”
“No way. Without you, we’re dead. You go, I’ll stay. Get him out of here.”
“Mandi—” Jans caught himself using her real name and stopped.
The masked man’s eyes darted between them.
Mandi pushed him toward Jans. “Go!”
Even through the mask, Mandi saw a look of approval in his eyes. He held her gaze for a moment before leaning over to help Jans to his feet. Using the man for support, Jans limped down the maintenance tunnel with surprising speed. Perhaps it was the low gravity, or perhaps the razor-tipped darts were so sharp that, once removed, the lasting pain was low.
As she’d done before, Mandi briefly ducked her head around the corner. There they were, not even halfway down the tunnel, crouching and moving forward cautiously. When they saw her, they fired, and she had to jerk her head back to safety. Again, whispering death flew by her, the flutter giving way to the ticks of ricochets and light thuds. She knew she should return fire, but as close as they were, even just sticking the pistol around the corner would likely get her hand shredded.
As she leaned against the wall behind her, trying to think of a way out, her eyes were drawn to a warning sign next to a valve on one of the pipes. She’d seen the placard plastered next to valves spaced every ten meters or so in the maintenance tunnel. It hadn’t meant much then, but now the words “Caution: Hot” were of definite interest.
She moved a few meters down the tunnel, away from the valve, so she wasn’t directly across from it. Then she raised the pistol, took awkward aim at the valve, and pulled the trigger repeatedly, as fast as she could.
Flashes and booms filled the tunnel as bullets ricocheted in all directions; subconsciously, Mandi squinted and hunched her shoulders. Just as she thought she was wasting her valuable ammunition, the valve erupted in a powerful spray of scalding water and steam. The valve handle shot across the tunnel and slammed into the wall next to her head. Without even looking back, she turned and fled in the direction Jans and the masked man had gone.
In the low gravity, it was an awkward, silly sprint, and she found she needed to lean far forward to avoid hitting the ceiling during any particularly forceful stride. When she rounded the corner that she’d seen the masked man take, she found she couldn’t control her momentum, and she crashed into some pipes along the wall. Pushing herself off, she again moved ahead. She worried about knowing the way. Would the masked man have left an indication as to which way they’d gone? But fortunately she encountered no intersections, though the tunnel still took its share of turns.
At one of the turns, rather than slow, she decided to let her momentum take her straight to the opposite wall, and she raised her foot to kick off and maintain her movement. But just as she was about to congratulate herself on he
r maneuver, she realized her mistake. In front of her, eyes wide, both Jans and the masked man stood staring at her in alarm. They had no chance to get clear. Mandi slammed into them, and the pistol flew from her hand and skittered across the grated floor. Her momentum carried them all into a closed door, where they all fell into a tangled heap.
“Shit! Sorry.” Mandi rolled away and slowly stood. “Where are we?”
Jans groaned as he rolled onto his back.
“We are under the cargo section,” the masked man said, rising to his feet. “This tunnel follows the main corridor.”
They were at a major junction. In addition to the tunnel they’d come through, eight other small tubes led off from this spot, four to either side of the door. They looked barely wide enough to crawl through, and each contained pipes and conduit.
The masked man spoke into his comm in his language. Where he had spoken with calm and quiet before, now his voice rose in both volume and tension. He stepped to the door and pressed his hands against it in frustration.
“What’s wrong?” Mandi asked.
“My people hacked into the complex’s primary systems. That’s how we got this far—full access to cameras, door locks, everything. Our controller set off the fire suppression system, unlocked the door for you—and the fans. But… they got him. I heard it through the comm. They got him.”
“Oh, no.”
The man put his back against the door, slid to the floor, pulled off his mask, and brushed his longish black hair aside, giving Mandi her first view of his face. He had sharp, Middle- Eastern features and a well-groomed, close-cut beard. The beard gave him a sophisticated look, even as the lines of his face betrayed a certain hardness.
He looked up at Mandi with piercing brown eyes. “Are they coming?” Despair carried on his voice.
“I slowed them down a bit.” Mandi leaned over and rubbed her knee, sore from hitting something during the collision. “But they won’t be far behind.”
“Who are they?” Jans asked as he struggled to his feet.
“I have some guesses, but I don’t know. They arrived maybe fifteen days ago. They had the proper procedure to initiate contact, so we met with them. But we’re very careful about who we trust, which is why we also demanded encoded comm protocols. And when we scanned their comms for the encryption keys, they weren’t complete. They were missing certain sequences we put in place to detect if the keys have been copied.” The man became sullen. “We lost two people that day. Since then we’ve been waiting and watching, unsure if this was an operation to ferret us out, or something else.”
