by M. D. Cooper
HIDEY HOLE
STELLAR DATE: 09.21.8947 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Dauntless, approaching Maverick’s Secret Base
REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
“It doesn’t look like much,” Winter commented as they approached the seven-kilometer-long asteroid. It was shaped somewhat like an extra lumpy potato, and rotated once every minute on its longest axis.
“Beacon says it’s the property of some company called Sirra Co.,” Rogers added.
“Well, it’s the coordinates he gave us,” Kylie said. “I see a comm antenna on the near side of the thing. Gotta be someone listening.”
Rogers looked back at Kylie. “Not really. Could just be a relay.”
“Then someone’s listening on the far side of the relay,” Kylie said with a frown. “Either way, this is where Mav sent us.”
“Should I hail them?” Lana asked from the comm console. “That’s what we do right? Hail?”
Kylie shook her head. “I’ll do it. You just watch scan to see if anything crazy turns up.”
Kylie sent a standard docking request hail to the asteroid. Maverick said they would be expecting the Dauntless, so she didn’t feel the need to bring up his name.
“Nothing on scan,” Lana said. “Nothing around at all.”
“Good thing, too,” Rogers said. “Glad to see none of the larger ships we spotted on the long-range scopes turned out to be SSF ships in pursuit.”
“They still could be,” Kylie said her tone worried. “If they’re coming right at us, they’ll be hard to spot.”
“Thanks, Captain. Real encouraging,” Rogers replied.
“Got a reply!” Kylie said, “they’ve sent us coordinates on the asteroid.”
“I’ve gotta land on that thing?” Rogers asked as he fired the Dauntless’s attitude control thrusters and brought the ship around to one of the asteroid’s ends.
As he did, a narrow sliver of rock folded out, then another, followed by another. Before long a section of asteroid—large enough to fly the Dauntless into—had opened up.
“Nice little secret base Maverick has there,” Rogers said.
Winter grunted. “Wonder how many of these he has?”
“Why is it black in there?” Lana asked.
“It’s probably not,” Kylie replied. “They’re just blocking any electromagnetic radiation from getting out. Otherwise opening that bay would be like shining a flashlight into space.
“Well, I guess I’ll take us in. Wish me luck. Our girl’s seen better days,” Rogers said. They didn’t provide any sort of docking procedure, did they?”
Kylie shook her head. “Nope. I suspect it’s something like ‘slow and careful’.”
“I don’t like this,” Winter said. “Something feels wrong.”
Kylie had to agree. Still, if Maverick wanted to get her killed, he had ample opportunity already.
Kylie laughed in her mind.
Kylie blanched.
While she had been discussing their possible doom with Marge, Rogers had matched the asteroid’s rotation and was about to ease them inside.
“Here goes nothing,” he said.
The forward view turned black, and then the most unlikely of visuals appeared.
“Is this…is this correct?” Kylie asked.
“Straight feed of the external cameras,” Winter replied.
The inside of the asteroid was hollowed out, which made sense given its spin. However, instead of some sort of dark cavern full of supplies and ships, the interior of the asteroid was covered in greenery.
A forest covered the far end of the space, and over several kilometers, gave way to grass lands. Flowing across the low hills of the grassland was a lazy river, which fell over a steep cliff near the entrance, where the water pooled in a small lake—presumably before being pumped back up to the far end of the asteroid.
On the left side of the river lay a series of low buildings alongside ten docking cradles. Two had ships in them, and as Rogers pulled the Dauntless toward them with the grav drive, the landing lights on one of the cradles came on.
“I guess that’s our spot,” Kylie said.
“Looks like,” Rogers replied. “I kinda want to set her down right next to the waterfall. That’d be damn cool. Although the way the attitude thrusters are working, I’d probably put us under the waterfall.”
“Not what I expected Maverick’s secret hideout to look like at all,” Winter said.
Kylie nodded. Perhaps Maverick was more complex than she’d given him credit for.
A minute later, the Dauntless settled onto the cradle, and Kylie remote-cycled the starboard airlock open.
“Winter. Grab a pair of pistols and meet me at the starboard lock. Rogers, Lana, you stay aboard. Lana, if they come aboard, I especially want you out of sight. In fact, you should probably go to your quarters now.”
“What? Am I some sort of prisoner? I wanted to check out the waterfall, I’ve never seen one on a hab before.”
“Once we ensure that things here are on the up and up, we’ll see if we can all get out to stretch our legs a bit,” Kylie said.
* * * * *
Five minutes later, Kylie and Winter stepped off the Dauntless. No one was around, and she began to wonder if there were any people in the asteroid at all.
Then a door in one of the low buildings opened, and a woman walked out. Kylie hooked her thumbs on the inside of her belt and resisted the urge to let out a low whistle.
The woman was big. Her fat rolls appeared to have fat rolls and her hair was a spirally mess. Was it possible she liked looking like that and chose it? Even the simplest of med nano could deal with obesity in a matter of weeks. Kylie could practically hear Nadine saying, “It takes all kinds, darling.”
Kylie held out her hand as the woman approached. “Kylie Rhoads. It’s a pleasure, Ma’am. Miss. Sorry.”
The woman laughed, the sound light and feminine. Kylie did her best to hide her surprise, she had been expecting the woman to sound much coarser.
“Well, well, Maverick’s special girl? Welcome to Persfanay. Here I thought I was meeting some junker scum, but you’re pretty cute.”
“We are junker scum,” Winter said.
The rotund woman gave Winter the once over. “Oh, you’re even prettier than she is. Hello, darling. You can call me Sylvia. Or Beth. Or Thomas.” She giggled. “Call me anything you want as long as you call me, okay?” She sidled up beside Winter and bumped her hip against his, causing what color there was left in his pale face to drain out completely.
Kylie smiled. Who knew this place would be so much fun? “Did Maverick tell you why we were coming?”
“You know it, honey, and my boys are on standby. Ready to help you out.”
“We have a crew member on lock down in our medbay. There was some trouble. We’ll need your people to steer clear of that.”
“Oh, how exciting. We won’t disturb whatever you have going on the side.” Sylvia winked.
“It’s not like that, really. But…do you have
any neurotechs? I have an AI that needs to be removed. Sensitive. It can’t be reused. It’ll…”
“Have to be destroyed?” Sylvia’s lips drew together. “Well, that’s a serious subject matter, Captain Rhoads. Is it yours or the aforementioned crew member on lockdown?”
“Lockdown. It’s been dangerous to me, my crew, and our ship. If you can find a way to help us.”
“It can be negotiated.” Sylvia’s shoulders rounded and she let out a hearty laugh that sounded strange in her airy voice. “Everything can be, sweetheart.” She threw her arm around Kylie and led her away. “C’mon, you must need something to eat or drink. Look at you, you’re all skin and bones.”
Kylie glanced over her shoulder to Winter.
He was going to pay for that.
* * * * *
It wasn’t every day that Kylie got to luxuriate in a steam shower. Stars, the Dauntless only had one water shower, and it was limited to a two-minute run.
She spent so much time under the warm spray and soothing steam that she started to wonder if any limit was enforced at all on Persephone—which is what she had learned the asteroid was named. ‘Persfanay’ was just how Sylvia said it in her lilting voice.
After thirty minutes, she started to feel guilty and stepped out of the shower. She let the air-dry whisk away all moisture before lightly spraying a cream moisturizer over her body.
Kylie sighed and put it out of her mind. She dressed in fresh clothes as the smell of a spring meadow blew in through the open window.
It was hard to be angry in a place like this. Maybe that’s why Maverick had it—maybe he should spend more time here.
Kylie laughed to himself at the thought of Maverick walking through the fields with two of his over-sexed guards following him.
She stood at the window as she buttoned her shirt. It was a scene ripped right from her dreams, rolling fields, flowers swaying in the breeze, the gurgling sound of the river running over a series of rocks before it tumbled over the waterfall.
It certainly was the type of place you went to to get away from it all. The complete opposite of her life over the last few weeks.
Kylie forced herself to turn away from the view and walked to the suite’s door, beside which stood her boots. She slipped her feet into them and touched the top of each, which signaled them to tighten up.
The vista still visible on her left, brought back memories of growing up on Sidon with her family—back before her father began taking her on his ‘mission trips’, as he called them.
Back then she didn’t even know things like boots that auto tightened without laces or buckles existed—let alone the millions of other advances that made life so much easier.
And AI…
AI were monsters hell-bent on destroying humanity, on turning them into a slave race.
She exited the suite and walked down the green and yellow hall to a lift. She sent a command to it over Persephone’s general net and it began to descend into the asteroid’s shell.
Her time with Marge had made her think that maybe AI were not so bad, that they could co-exist with humanity. An imagined utopia that had been destroyed by what Jerrod had done to Grayson.
Kylie didn’t think she’d ever get the image of Grayson’s dead eyes staring into hers as Jerrod had used her former husband’s hands to choke the life out of her.
She didn’t know how she’d ever look at Grayson again without seeing that.
The lift doors opened and she walked down the corridor to the observation room. The surgery had been going on for hours, and Kylie had taken a break—not that she had watched most of it anyway. Observing Grayson’s head being cut open was not her idea of a good time.
She would have much rather been back on the Dauntless, overseeing its refit…but she owed it to Grayson to be here. To at least make sure he stayed safe.
As she entered the observation room, Kylie saw Sylvia there, staring down into the operating theatre.
“They’re still working at pulling out its neural net. It had grown quite intertwined with his own,” the large woman said, her voice more compassionate than Kylie would have expected.
“It’s a military AI, you know.”
Sylvia smiled at her. Her face somehow still beautiful, even with the rolls and wrinkles. “You’ve told me several times, sugar. If you’re worried that he might not pull through…”
Kylie snorted. “A junker never worries about anything.” No attachments, no caring, wasn’t that the junkers slogan?
“Nice try girl. Good bravado. Don’t worry, though, we’ve dealt with military tech before. My boys and girls are the best. Your friend will be just fine. You don’t have to watch, though. I don’t care. Whatever makes it easier for you to stomach.” She gave Kylie a sympathetic smile.
“We were married once,” Kylie admitted. “Wasn’t perfect. Far from it, but the passion and the heat…. Stars, we used to set the air on fire.”
Sylvia leaned in. “Tell me more. No, I really mean it. Tell me.”
Kylie shook her head and crossed her arms. “It went bad. Maybe it was meant to, right from the start. He said things, I said things, and then I walked out. I’d always expected he’d chase after me.” She shook her head. “He didn’t.”
“They can be so stubborn, can’t they? Seems you’ve both found your way back. Manner of speaking.”
Kylie didn’t know if it was true. If Nadine hadn’t been kidnapped, if Grayson hadn’t been ordered to hunt her down, how many more years would it had been before she’d even thought about him again? Life could be a cruel mistress.
“Oh!” Kylie said. “I meant to mention this sooner. His AI had control of our ship for a while. It knew where we were going…”
Sylvia patted her shoulder. “Honey, this isn’t our first time taking in strays. Do you really think we’d just sit out in plain sight after taking in a ship that the SSF and the Black Crow is after?”
“Uhh…” Kylie supposed not, but that didn’t make her feel better. They were in an asteroid, where were they going to go?
“We transitioned into the dark layer an hour ago,” Sylvia said. “We kicked out a rock for the SSF gunners to shoot at in case they do show up.”
“So, this whole place is in the dark layer?” Kylie asked.
“Quick on the uptake, I like it,” Sylvia said with a wink. “We can’t stay long, takes running the reactors hot to stay in, and there’s nowhere to vent heat. But it’ll be long enough.”
Kylie let out a relieved sigh. “I can’t tell you how glad I am that you’re doing all this.”
“My place is your place, do what you need to.” With a wobble, she turned and walked out of the room, leaving Kylie alone with her own thoughts—and Marge.
Was it really that simple? Kylie thought before responding to Marge.
Kylie blinked in surprise.
Marge said.
The thought of AI trading complex mathematical insults struck Kylie, and took her mind off whether or not Grayson had held a flame for her all these years—years during which she had all but forgotten about him.
Kylie finally thought.
Kylie couldn’t think of anything worse.
At that moment, her HUD lit up with a ping from Rogers.
Lana waved her fingers at Kylie, while wearing a meek expression.
Kylie chuckled as Lana stepped closer to Kylie and placed her hand on the glass, not taking her eyes off Grayson.
