Athena's Ashes

by Jamie Grey

  FOUR

  She must have said something right in the debriefing because, two hours later, Dallas stood in her room, taking in the hospital machinery and stark furnishings, the locks on every drawer, the sensors monitoring her every move.

  “You mean to tell me they put you in a holding cell? For five days?” A muscle jumped in his jaw. “Unacceptable.”

  “It’s fine, Major. I understand their caution. I am a thief, after all. And one with an implant that could explode at any moment.” Renna shrugged. “But if you could figure out a way to get them to at least give me a holovid, I’d appreciate it.”

  Dallas shook his head and sat stiffly in the hard plastic chair beside the vitals monitor. “I can do better than that. Admiral Usamov has agreed to send you after Captain Finn and the Athena. Consider this a trial run for your acceptance into MYTH. If you’re successful with this mission, you’ll become a full-fledged member.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. That had been much easier and faster than she’d expected. Interesting. “Did you have something to do with this, Major?”

  He smiled. “I wish I could say yes, but other than vouching for your skills, Admiral Usamov made this decision without my input. However, I believe she made the right one.” Dallas leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “What aren’t you telling us, Renna?”

  Her pulse jumped, but she kept her face expressionless. “I don’t know what you mean, sir.”

  “Renna, I know Finn. I know your history with him. I know he didn’t trust you farther than he could throw you. And he was the one who turned traitor? I don’t buy it.”

  “Your guess is as good as mine, sir.” Renna shook her head. “But you’re right. Finn and I didn’t get along. I don’t know what he was thinking.”

  Dallas studied her long enough that Renna had to glance away, cursing herself for the action. He continued in a low voice. “I know there’s something you’re not telling us. And I will find out. Finn is one of my best men, and if he’s in trouble, I need to help him.”

  Her fingers twitched, and she twisted them together in her lap. He sounded sincere. But then again, she’d sounded sincere earlier, too. She couldn’t risk it. Even if he wasn’t the person who’d ordered the hybrid army and planned to destroy MYTH, trusting the wrong person would put more than herself in danger.

  She smiled reassuringly at Dallas. “Whatever our differences, I admire Captain Finn very much. I promise I will do my best to find him and his crew. You’ll be the first to know the instant I discover something else, Major.”

  Dallas frowned, the lines around his eyes deepening with worry. “Very well. That’s all I can ask. The admiral is looking into giving you a ship and crew to locate Captain Finn and the boy. I assume you know where to start looking?”

  Renna had quite a few ideas, but none of them had to do with finding Finn. The longer he stayed hidden, the safer he’d be. “Actually, sir. If it’s possible, I’d like to start here at headquarters.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She leaned against the edge of the bed and tucked her hands into the pockets of her black leggings. At least they’d let her take off the gods-awful hospital gowns after the first day.

  “I’d like access to the MYTH personnel files. Knowing more about the crew of the Athena may help me figure out where they went or why they ran in the first place.”

  Dallas shifted in his chair, his expression shuttered. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. Only top officials have access to that level of classified information.”

  She knew that look. He was torn between doing his duty and helping her find his captain. “Come, Major. This is MYTH. Anything is possible. You want to find Finn, don’t you? That’s the best place to start.”

  Dallas got to his feet with a heavy sigh. “No promises, Renna, but I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, I’ll have them move you to better quarters. There’s no reason to keep you in the hospital wing any longer.”

  “Thank you, sir. I promise you won’t regret it.”

  He shook his head as he left the room. “Make sure I don’t, my dear.”

  Dallas made good on his word, and Renna was moved to another wing of the facility an hour later. The new room was much nicer, with soft rugs and a large, comfortable bed. There was even a large-screen holovid on one wall.

  Now if they could just get her some new underwear. These army-issued briefs were killing her.

  But at least there were no needles in this room or the constant low hum of the monitors. And no sign of Dr. Samil, either, though that was probably only temporary. Renna’s head still pounded and her mind felt fuzzy. Not a good sign. Especially when combined with the strange data download that had happened in the conference room. She still had no idea what that was all about.

  When Dallas pushed open her door the next morning instead of Samil, Renna hated the relief that flooded through her. Not another test or jab or examination, just the slightly starched major with the graying hair and kind smile.

  “I trust you slept well, my dear?” he asked as he scanned the room. “At least it looks more comfortable than your hospital cell.”

  “It was lovely. Thank you for getting me moved.”

  “Of course. The least I could do.” He glanced back at the door. “You’ll be pleased to know the admiral agreed to give you limited access to the MYTH database to view the Athena’s personnel files.”

  Renna whistled between her teeth. “I’m shocked. But you don’t sound very happy about it, Major.”

  “Renna, I believe you have Myka’s welfare in mind, but I don’t believe you’ve told me everything. Until you do, I cannot help my crew. Please. Tell me what’s going on.”

  She shook her head. “I’m sorry, sir.”

  “So am I.” Dallas opened the door and gestured to the hallway. “Follow me. I’ll take you to the server room.”

  An uncomfortable pressure built in Renna’s chest as they walked through the facility in silence. She risked a glance at the major. Worry had etched lines around his mouth she didn’t remember from the first time they’d met. She wanted to tell him the truth, more than anything, but she couldn’t risk Pallas finding out what she knew. And if Major Dallas was the traitor…

  She shook her head. No sense in thinking like that until she learned more.

  The major stopped in front of a thick, metal door and entered a code into the keypad. The door slid open, revealing a bank of flickering holoscreens. “You should be able to access the MYTH servers from here. I’ll be back in an hour.”

  Renna took a seat in one of the high-backed chairs and used the holo keyboard glowing blue above the long, curved desk. She quickly did a cursory search on the Athena’s crew—Captain Finn, Lieutenant Li Keva, Flight Lieutenant Mark Kojima. Most of the information that came up was the dry, impersonal facts the military had gathered about each of them. She downloaded them to her tablet to skim through later, just in case.

  Then she cracked her knuckles. Now that she’d created a paper trail, she could get to the real reason she’d wanted access to the system. Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she built her own temporary firewall. She needed to make sure no one would catch the hack she was about to install to disable the search tracer on the server.

  When everything was in place, she grinned at the holomonitor. “Time to play, gorgeous,” she muttered. She pulled an optical disk from her pocket and slipped it into one of the drives on the machine. A few more clicks and her hack was installed.

  After that, it was easy to open Level Three security information on all MYTH leadership. She might not know exactly where to start, but she did know Major Larson was up to his eyeballs in something sketchy. He was the best chance she had of finding the answers she needed.

  Renna quickly skimmed through his file. Major William Larson, forty-three years old. Born on Earth. Joined the Coalition military at age eighteen. Married at twenty-four. Joined MYTH at thirty-two. Exemplary record—no blemishes or suspicious activities. The perfect
soldier.

  Renna tapped a finger against her chin. The man’s file was spotless. A little too spotless. She typed in another command, and her hack stripped away the next level of clearance.

  That was better. With Level Two access, Major Larson’s file didn’t look quite so squeaky clean. A reprimand after a mission on Anat where three of his men had been killed suspiciously. A formal complaint lodged by another commanding officer regarding insubordination and excessive violence toward prisoners. A number of written warnings about shirking of duty. A series of tests run by Dr. Samil on his physical state after a mission three years ago.

  It looked like he’d had some sort of health problem, but the medical jargon made her head ache, so she quickly copied over the records to a storage disk and backed out of his file. Nothing that pointed directly to Pallas, but if the man was unhappy with MYTH leadership, he might have been an easy mark.

  One traitor down, one to go. “Pallas, where are you?” she whispered as she typed in a search command. The only thing she knew was that the name itself was a reference from one of the ancient earth myths. She’d looked it up back on the Athena. Pallas had been a Greek Titan. The God of Warcraft. Whoever had picked the name had chosen wisely.

  She rubbed the back of her neck, rolling her shoulders to ease the ache that never seemed to go away now. She was running out of time; the MYTH server scanners had to be getting close to finding her hack. But there was one more level to go. Level One clearance. It was a long shot, but she was running out of options. Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she tried to code a back door into the file structure. The server beeped and the light on the front of the box flashed red.

  Denied.

  Renna frowned and tried again. The server squawked at her a second time. Shit. Why couldn’t she get through? She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was too keyed up; she needed to relax and let herself feel her way into the hack.

  A stab of pain shot through her head, and Renna gasped, the sound echoing through the room. Her eyes flew open, and she felt the same trickle of data seep into her implant as she had in the conference room.

  What the hell?

  A moment later the light on the server flashed green, and she was in. Like her freaking implant had interfaced with the server and found a workaround to the firewall without her help.

  Her pulse raced as she stared at the bank of servers. Gods, the implant was moving so much faster than she’d expected. If this kept up, she’d be a robot in days, not weeks. Cold fingers scraped across her skin, and she swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. She was running out of time. Time to stop Pallas. Time to be with Finn.

  With a huge effort, she pushed her panic away. More importantly, she was running out of time right now with these MYTH servers. Renna ran a quick search, and her stomach flipped as the machine brought back a hit.

  MYTH had a record of a Titan Industries. Based in the Costa system. Planet Crius Beta.

  She grinned at the monitor. Pallas was a Titan. They had to be connected. Someone using that name was too much of a coincidence.

  A quick scan of the files proved useless. The company had been created five years ago as a front for MYTH to get a foothold on the planet to manufacture long-range communication components. Strangely, there was no other record of who’d created the business or how it was connected to MYTH now. Like someone had purposefully kept the information vague.

  Beep.

  Renna jumped in her chair. A red light flashed frantically in one of server banks on the wall, the shrill scream echoing through the room.

  “Shit!” Renna quickly pulled her hack from the system and dismantled the firewall, backing out all traces of her presence. She ran a fast scanner through the server, deleting any searches she might have left behind, then shut down the terminal. If MYTH looked, they’d only have records of her viewing the Athena crew information and nothing more.

  She pulled her data disk from the console. Another beep sounded and she dropped it. It clattered under the desk. “Dammit. Pull yourself together, woman.” She crouched to pick up the disk, then slipped it into her pocket.

  Her gaze fell to the console. If she’d had more time, she could have pulled a lot of data from MYTH’s files, a lot of information she could sell to the highest bidder.

  Her fingers twitched, but she twisted them together. She’d made her choice to throw in her lot with MYTH for now, and thinking like that would only get her in trouble. Betraying this organization would mean betraying Finn. Air left her lungs in a rush at the notion of forsaking his trust. Something she wasn’t ready to do. She’d made a promise after all.

  Renna shook her head and composed herself. Look at her, playing by the rules. Finn would be so proud.

  FIVE

  Someone knocked at her door, and Renna glanced up from the data she’d pulled from the MYTH computers.

  “Come in,” she called, shoving her tablet beneath her pillow. At least they’d finally given her a little privacy.

  Dr. Samil pushed open the door and smiled at her. “Good morning, Renna.” She stepped into the room, a metal-globed med-drone gliding behind her.

  Renna bit back a shudder at the tray of sterile tools the drone carried in its spindly arms. “Not a social visit, I take it?”

  Samil nodded at the floating machine as it hovered near Renna’s head. “Did Monty give it away?”

  “That and the instruments of torture he’s carrying.”

  Samil chuckled and unwrapped a syringe. “Nice to see your flair for the melodramatic is still intact.”

  “Maybe I can start my own robotic acting company once this implant takes over. Shakespeare in the Park: Cyborg-Style.”

  The doctor frowned. “Renna…”

  She shook her head. “It’s fine, Doc. I’m just tired this morning and my brain hurts. Let’s get the probing over with.”

  In silence, Samil drew two vials of blood, checked Renna’s vitals, and listened to her heart. Renna stared at a spot of dust on the wall and tried to ignore her racing pulse and the feel of the doctor’s cool fingers against her skin.

  Finally, the doctor pulled out her ventroscope. “I’m going to examine your vision now, Renna. Hold perfectly still. I promise this won’t hurt a bit.”

  Renna arched an eyebrow. “You know I don’t believe you when you say that.”

  “Would I lie to you?” Samil’s lips twitched, but her face stayed serious. “Now don’t move. This will only take a second.” Samil took the mask-like metal device from the tray and pressed it to Renna’s face.

  Renna’s skin turned icy where it touched, but she only had a moment of wonder before a sharp red light stabbed into her eyes. Searing pain, like someone had taken a scalpel to her eyeballs, shot through her. She curled her hands into fists, nails biting into her palms as the pain subsided.

  “Deep breaths, Renna. Are you all right?” Samil removed the device from Renna’s face and helped her lean back against the pillows on the bed.

  “Damn, Doc. What the hell was that?” Renna asked weakly. She squeezed her eyes shut against the throbbing pain and took a shaky breath.

  “A full neural scan. And it should not have been that painful. I’m worried.”

  “That makes two of us.” Renna wiped a trickle of sweat from her forehead and tried to force her shoulder muscles to unclench. It felt like her whole body had been squeezed through a tiny tube lined with needles.

  Samil muttered something under her breath and pulled Renna’s digital medical records up on her tablet. “I need to run some calculations,” she said, brushing her hair away from her face.

  Renna clasped her hands together, resisting the urge to yank the woman’s ponytail holder out of her hair and weave a tight braid to contain the rogue tendrils. “Whatever you need, Doc. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Actually, that’s not true,” Samil said with a frown. “Major Dallas wants you to meet him in the debriefing room when we’re done here. I’ll let him know it’ll be a while.
You’re in no shape to move right now.”

  No thanks to her. Renna gritted her teeth. What the hell was the doctor doing in the first place? She was supposed to be working on a cure, not playing around with new toys and using Renna as a fucking lab rat.

  “What’s going on?” Renna asked. “Is the degeneration happening faster now?” She already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it from the doctor’s lips.

  “I’m afraid so. If we don’t figure this out, you’re going to run out of time.” Samil chewed her bottom lip as she studied the monitor. “The neural integration has slowed thanks to the drugs, and your body is fighting really hard to keep it that way. But even more interesting is how the implant is adapting to these changes. If I’m not mistaken, it’s establishing its own pathways, creating external networks instead of the internal ones we’d expect.”

  External networks. That had to be how Renna had felt the Athena or how she’d hacked into the servers. But why did it hurt so much?

  “I’m going to adjust the medication we’re working on for you. I think we should have something ready by this afternoon. I’m even more hopeful we’ll have a breakthrough by the end of the week.” Samil tucked her tablet back into her coat pocket. “Get some rest for now. I’ll have Major Dallas call for you later when you’re feeling better.” She patted Renna on the shoulder. “We’re going to solve this, Renna. You’re too important to lose right now.” Dr. Samil smiled and left the room, Monty humming along behind her.

  “Too important to lose right now,” Renna muttered as she let her eyes drift closed. “What happens when I’m not important anymore?”

  A few hours later, Renna rolled over in bed and stretched, feeling her muscles burn and stiffen. Lying around all day wasn’t helping her keep in shape. She needed to get the hell out of here.

  Especially if Samil was right and she was running out of time. The urge to be with Finn burned like a glowing ember in the middle of her chest.