The Kassa Gambit

by M. C. Planck

Carefully, she pulled herself back from the edge. She had seen many strange things in her short life. She had learned that appearances can be deceiving, on every level. Kyle Daspar might be exactly what he seemed: a true believer. A person whose soul was given over to a higher power, allowing him to be a man at one moment and a slave at the next, without even noticing the change.

  In this case the higher power would be more odious than most, but in her experience, it never really mattered what you sold your soul to. In the end the result was always the same.

  “What is this situation, Daspar? Are you sure it’s that important?” Rassinger’s voice wrestled with itself. In the space of a single vowel, she could tell the man was annoyed at Kyle’s urbane competence, but unable to find a reason to complain.

  “We have located an anomalous signal, Leader. It’s deep in the arctic circle, and the research staff assures us they have no teams or equipment in that sector. It’s possible that it could be an artifact of the enemy. If so, that would constitute a level-one military goal, which would supersede my current mission. Should I divert from the rescue mission to investigate this signal?”

  The answer was quick—too quick.

  “No, Daspar, do not divert. If it really is a level-one priority, then it supersedes our own mission. I’ll take the Phoenix and investigate. Can you give us a coordinate for that signal?”

  Kyle paused, looked at Prudence. So he was going to let her help. If she played her cards right, uber-leader Rats-ass would not remember her earlier slip, only her useful assistance afterward.

  She leaned over the microphone. “I’m afraid not, sir. Without GPS satellites, we’re operating off of dead reckoning. But I can transmit a solar vector. Your nav officer should be able to get close with that, and we can tell you what frequency to look for once you’re in the area.”

  The pause was brief, but long enough to confirm that Rassinger was no spacer. He was waiting for someone to verify her words.

  “That will be acceptable, Captain. How close to this signal did you get?”

  No pretense, no lure, just a straight-up trap. It was like a hangman tying a noose and casually asking how much you weighed.

  “We’re really pressed for time and resources, sir, and my crew is pulling its fourth straight shift. We just want to bail this research crew out and get some sleep.”

  Only after the weaseling misdirection had left her mouth did she realize how much like Kyle she sounded.

  Rassinger was satisfied. “Understood, Captain. We’ll take care of it.”

  And that was that. The biggest find of human existence, the greatest discovery since fire and the wheel, was out of her hands. Scooped up by a politician who would use it to boost his repulsive career. And she had Kyle Daspar to thank for it.

  So why did she feel so relieved?

  They finished the run in silence. Even Melvin was quiet, speaking only enough to guide her into the research station. It wasn’t entirely due to the subtle menace of the Phoenix and its tyrannical commander. While his authority was frightening, it was also a relief. Let him deal with the alien problem.

  The Ulysses’s mission had been reduced to rescuing the research personnel, and the crew was tired enough to be glad of it.

  “Attention, arctic station, we are coming in for landing,” Prudence announced over the radio. “Please look up and let us know if we’re about to squash anything important.”

  “It’s Station Zebra.” The voice on the other end was difficult, like a child on the edge of a tantrum. Prudence was weary of faceless voices.

  “What the Earth are you talking about? No, don’t tell me, I don’t care. Get outside and walk us in.”

  “Station Zebra. That’s our call sign. It’s a tradition. Arctic stations are always called Station Zebra.”

  What was a zebra? She almost asked, before remembering she didn’t care. “Coming down now. Last chance to back us off.”

  She let the ship drop, perhaps faster than prudence dictated. But only the soft thump of snow crunching under the skids sounded through the ship.

  “Go ahead, Jorgun,” she said over the intercom. He and Kyle were already suited up and waiting at the air lock.

  Flipping to a different channel, she addressed Melvin in his gunnery room. “Melvin, you have the bridge. Don’t let anybody on unless I’m with them.”

  Words she could never have imagined uttering. Turning her ship over to Melvin. It was possibly more unnerving than the discovery of the alien spaceship.

  But nothing grated her nerves as much as Kyle Daspar. She could not fathom his game. That he was playing one was obvious; but every stone she cast into its depths disappeared without a trace. His appearance on the scene had been remarkably well timed, except for the mines that would have killed him. His armband gave him the authority of intimidation, even on Kassa, but he had only used it to create order. And then leading them to the alien ship, only to turn it over to Rassinger.

  She could not make sense of it. That’s why she was crawling into a space suit, following him and Jorgun out into the snow again. To keep an eye on him. Not knowing what to look for, all she could do was watch his every move.

  Outside it was cold, even worse than before. The snow-covered wreck of a building was bleak and sorrowful when it should have promised warmth and safety. She had been outside in space a thousand times and never felt this cold.

  Movement caught her eye. Thankfully the blizzard had not reached here yet, so she could see something other than snowflakes. Jorgun was waving to her.

  Trudging over to the collapsed wall he stood beside, she looked down to see what he had found. A door in the ground. Freshly moved.

  “Kyle went down there,” he said. Somewhat unnecessarily, since two men’s tracks led here, and none led away.

  “Let’s join him,” she suggested.

  “I was waiting for you. I wanted to open the door for you.”

  At some point Jorgun had latched on to this old romanticism, and he used it whenever he could. Jelly had found it ridiculously cute when Jorgun would run ahead to open even automatic doors for her.

  The remembrance pained Prudence. Biting her lip, she could only nod and wait while Jorgun pulled on the heavy steel door.

  Steps down, into a dark basement. She wished she’d brought a gun. Spiders lived underground, in caves and tunnels. What if the pilot of the alien vessel had sought refuge here?

  A flicker of light in the distance, a cry of pain. She started to back up the stairs, and collided with Jorgun coming down.

  “Kyle went ahead,” Jorgun said, his voice booming in the darkness. He stepped past her, moving forward.

  She tugged at his arm. He had walked into danger for her enough times on this run.

  “Jorgun, wait,” she whispered, but he pulled out of her grasp and went on, oblivious.

  “Kyle went ahead,” he repeated, and then he disappeared into the murk.

  More light from across the room: Jorgun’s great frame outlined in the flashes. A woman was sobbing somewhere. Hushed murmurs as the people hiding with her tried to silence her.

  Prudence remembered hiding in the dark, from monsters. Monsters that wore a human face, but were inhumane: once people but now possessed by a foul spirit that had dogged man’s shadow even from Earth, followed men and women into the Out, hiding in their shadows until indifference and contempt gave it form. Creatures of unreason, immune to pity, compassion, or even bribery, who fed their neighbors into the machinery of insanity.

  And Jorgun walked into it, unaware, unheeding. Prudence tried to call out to him but her voice died in her throat, strangled by helplessness, by the certain knowledge that nothing she could do could save anyone but herself. The walls rushed in and Prudence’s world shrank, spinning in shades of black, and the fire at the end of the hall flared hungrily into life, like it always did in her nightmares, again and again and again.

  “Jorgun, grab that corner. Have you got it?”

  The sheer normality in Kyle’s v
oice was disorienting. In her world of madness, upside down and inside out was escape, and she let it wash over her. Blood pounded in her temples, and the vision passed.

  Jorgun was backing up, his arms full. “I can carry her. I’m strong.”

  “Keep the blanket on her. Keep her warm, man! She’s lost too much blood.” The voice from the transmitter, shrill with exhaustion and urgency.

  “It’s a short trip.” Kyle, being reassuring.

  Brilliant light swept the room, disappeared. The beam on Kyle’s helmet, revealing her before he aimed it down to spare her eyes. “Prudence! Come give us a hand.”

  Feeling foolish, she reached up and flicked on her own head lamp. The eerie darkness dissolved into a thoroughly trashed storage room. Jorgun was carrying a woman wrapped in gray cloth. A white-haired man hobbled behind him, cloaked in gray and leaning on Kyle’s shoulder.

  She advanced into the room, met them halfway.

  “There’s three more. We’re coming back for them once we get Dr. Sanders onboard, and can spare these drapes.” Kyle, being in charge, as usual. But then he paused and narrowed his eyes. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.” She was, now. “Just tired. Go on, I’ll watch the others.”

  Grateful for the escape, she turned away and headed into the sheltering alcove at the far side of the room.

  They had built a fire, but it was dead now. Two young women stood, trying not to shiver, while a handsome young man stretched out on the ground and tried to be macho. His leg was bound in strips of clothing. He looked up at Prudence, and flashed a pained smile.

  “No thanks, I’ll wait for the big guy. Looks like a smoother ride.”

  The girls giggled.

  “Thank God you’re here,” said one of the girls. Tall and willowy, with long blond hair and an incongruous tan.

  Prudence pointed at the man’s leg. “What happened?”

  He looked up at her in mild surprise. “A building fell on me. Why, what did you think? A skiing accident?”

  Prudence had still been thinking of giant spiders.

  “Did you see anything?”

  “No,” the other girl said. “We woke up in the middle of the night when the station blew up. We ran to the basement, because it was the only thing not on fire. When we got here, Fletcher noticed Dr. Sanders and Dr. Williams were missing, so he went back up for them.” She was shorter, plumper, and much more composed than the other girl.

  “Did you find Williams?” Prudence was surprised at her own hardness, but the presence of the alien ship made every fact matter.

  “Not until two days later,” Fletcher said. “The radar array was directly above his quarters. The bomb took out the main support column … Well, anyway, we were stripping the meshing from the dishes to make blankets. After the first few layers, we found him.”

  “That’s how Fletcher got hurt.” The blonde again. “Trying to reach Dr. Williams.”

  “I went down after him, but something shifted. Then the building … well, you know that part.” Fletcher grinned, telling his story of danger and sacrifice winsomely.

  The blond girl filled in the heroic details. “Fletcher had to climb out all by himself. With a broken leg. We couldn’t even find a rope to help him. Daphene and I couldn’t do anything but watch.” Her eyes were very earnest. The shorter girl nodded in agreement.

  Fletcher ignored them, his eyes focused on Prudence. “But now the beautiful Captain Falling is here to rescue us. It was quite a morale boost to hear your voice on the radio, Captain.”

  Handsome and cheeky. No doubt he found her exotic, a change of pace from his college-age harem. Although they probably weren’t that much younger than she was. But they had lived sheltered lives. They were still soft and dewy. Unscuffed, like new shoes.

  Well, until now.

  “Are you aware of how bad it is out there?” she asked. Not because she wanted to deflate them. But she was already hiding the truth for Jorgun. That was all the lying she could bear.

  Fletcher winced. “Nobody came looking for us. So we figured it can’t be good.”

  “What about Klakroon? Is it okay? That’s where my parents live. We tried to reach it on the radio but the satellite link was down. It’s just a little village…” The blond girl was trying not to whimper.

  Daphene, the smart one, didn’t ask.

  Prudence sighed, more for their benefit than for hers. She was beyond emotion, but they still needed it. “The whole planet looks like this.” She waved her hand at the wreckage. “I’m sorry.”

  “Who?” Fletcher, steely-eyed. The men always wanted to know who. The women sometimes asked why, but the men always wanted a name. A target to strike back at.

  “Nobody knows,” Prudence said, and winced. For almost two days she had been saying that, but this was the first time it had been a lie.

  Sounds from the entranceway. Kyle and Jorgun were returning. Too late Prudence remembered her strict instructions to Melvin. But the two men were alone, their passengers safely onboard. She could always rely on Melvin to screw up a direct order.

  They came into the little room and distributed the blankets. Fletcher tried to turn his down, but Kyle insisted.

  “You’ve been lucky so far. But if your system takes too much stress, that leg could get infected. It’s a short trip. There are enough blankets to go around. The girls will be fine.”

  The girls were collecting something—data pods. The plastic bulbs were spilling over the ground like jellybeans.

  “For crying out loud, Brenna—don’t lose that one.” Fletcher pointed at a bright blue pod rolling across the ground. “That’s the latest data.” Glancing at Prudence, still trying to impress her, he explained. “Cosmological telemetrics for the last few weeks. Probably the same boring star-stuff we’ve been collecting for years, but who knows? It might have a clue about what happened. We haven’t been able to analyze it yet.” Then Jorgun lifted him, cradling him gently, and Fletcher turned into the scared young kid he really was, forgetting about everything else.

  Prudence understood. Being carried by Jorgun was psychologically debilitating. It made you feel like a baby again.

  “Let me help,” Kyle said, bending down to chase after the little rolling pods. Prudence tucked the blanket around Fletcher, getting him ready for the blast of cold.

  But she saw.

  Out of the corner of her eye. Not the switch, exactly, but the too-casual fluidity of Kyle’s hands. He helped Brenna wrap the pods up in a fold of blanket and squeeze it tight. The bulge was safely sealed for the trip through the snow.

  Yet Prudence knew if she opened it now, the bright blue pod would be missing.

  SIX

  Separations

  Kyle already knew what was on the data pod he’d swiped. Trouble.

  Either it showed something about the aliens, which meant that their human allies would stop at nothing to get it away from Fletcher, or it didn’t, which meant the kid would be wasting people’s time. And Kyle didn’t think anybody was going to be in a forgiving mood for a while.

  So really, he was doing the kid a favor. Not that Fletcher would see it that way. Kids his age never did. Certainly Kyle hadn’t. His father had tried to guide him past the rocks a dozen times, given him sage advice on when to shut up, salute, and look the other way. He’d always ignored it, done things the right way, the direct way. He’d worn the resulting scars like a badge of honor.

  Until one day he’d seen the light. Not the light at the end of the tunnel, but the other one, the bad one. The one you were supposed to go toward. The one that came after your life flashed before your eyes.

  It had started as a simple traffic stop. Being assigned to traffic duty was already punishment, for having pointed out a senior officer’s inability to add two columns of numbers and get the same answer. The officer had been collecting unearned overtime for twenty years; the resulting financial penalty had bankrupted the man and cost him his house. That it was the kind of house a working cop
shouldn’t have been able to afford didn’t really spare Kyle any unpopularity. Everybody likes a straight shooter, from afar. That doesn’t mean you want to work with one.

  So Kyle was driving an unmarked ground car, alone, writing people tickets for driving too fast. For being too eager to get home to their families, or out to nightclubs, or any of the thousand places that people want to get to in a hurry. But he really was a straight shooter, all the way down. He didn’t take his humiliation out on the public. Most of them appreciated that, after they cooled off a bit.

  This one was different. From the start he knew it would be bad. It was one of those ridiculously expensive sports models, making an illegal turn. Kyle flashed his lights, sent the cut-out signal from his car to the other one, causing its engine to cycle down to a whisper and forcing the driver to pull off the road. Walked up to the window, expecting some stuffed-shirt executive or underdressed socialite, and wondered how much they were going to yell at him.

  But the driver was calm and polite. As befitted a man of his station—Veram Dejae, the mayor of Altair’s largest city.

  “What seems to be the problem, officer?”

  Such a simple question. With a simple answer. Kyle explained it all, in simple words. He remembered what came next with jagged clarity.

  “I can’t get a ticket. I can’t … be here. Do you understand, officer?”

  By this point in his career, Kyle had already been in several gunfights. He’d already done undercover stings on mobsters and juicers. He knew what fear felt like, recognized its peculiar tang, the heightening of sensation coupled with the shrinking boundaries of awareness. He knew the smell of death, the look in another man’s eyes when you had crossed a line that could not be uncrossed while one of you was still alive.

  In that moment he was more afraid than he had ever been.

  Dejae was not angry or threatening. The politician was merely … distressed. Uncomfortable with what was going to happen.

  Kyle had known with absolute certainty that Dejae was uncomfortable with what was going to happen to Kyle.

  He had lowered his data tablet. An act of weakness: submission to fear. Even now it gnawed at him, shamed him. It would have destroyed a younger Kyle, shattered his vision of himself. But this Kyle was older and wiser. This Kyle was not prepared to die for a traffic ticket.