by M. D. Cooper
They stepped into the airlock, cycled it and floated through the umbilical to the Sierra Echo. Once inside, Cheeky looked around and shook her head. “Feels so…sterile. I bet you like that, eh Nance?”
Nance looked around and shook her head. “There’s sterility, and then there’s lacking in any sort of atmosphere whatsoever. This is a place where machines work, not people.”
“I wonder how far off that is,” Jessica replied.
“I think I resent that,” Addie said.
Cheeky glanced at Addie. “Don’t worry, Addie, you have plenty of personality.”
“That’s good, I’m programmed to.”
“I wasn’t arguing that point,” Jessica replied as she walked into the cockpit. “Cheeky, why don’t you do the honors.”
Cheeky sat in the front-left seat and looked over the controls. “Pretty standard stuff for Orion-land.”
“Yeah, not so different from the Sexy,” Jessica replied.
With no discernible feeling whatsoever, the two vessels began to move apart in the never-ending nothingness of the dark layer.
COSTA
STELLAR DATE: 03.22.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Approaching Costa Station, Quera System
REGION: Midway Cluster, Orion Freedom Alliance Space
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Cheeky said as they slotted into their assigned approach lane for Costa Station.
Jessica patted Cheeky on the shoulder. “It’s just nerves. We have a plan, it’ll work.”
“And if it doesn’t, we’ll improvise,” Nance said with a soft laugh. “Like we always do when Jessica’s initial plan doesn’t work.”
“Hey, I put the plan out there for everyone to iterate on. It’s not my fault no one ever offers up their own suggestions.”
Cheeky laughed. “That’s your new callsign. You’re Plan Girl.”
“How come all my nicknames have girl in them?” Jessica asked. “First Retyna Girl, now this.”
“Jessica?” Nance asked, and Jessica turned to see a mischievous grin on the woman’s face. “I think you’re forgetting ‘J-Doll’ from back on Chittering Hawk.”
“Stars…I’ve been trying to scrub that from my memory.”
“J-Doll and Trevor the Annihilator in a c-c-c-caaaage match,” Cheeky intoned.
Jessica couldn’t help but laugh at Cheeky’s impression of the announcer’s voice. “I don’t think they called him Trevor the Annihilator.”
“So what did they call him?” Cheeky asked.
Jessica tried to think back, but the memories were hazy. It wasn’t an event she liked to dwell on. “I have no idea, I was glaring at Camilla at the time, wishing that she’d burst into flame.”
“Huh,” Cheeky said with a furrowed brow. “We call him ‘Mountain Man’ all the time. I wonder if it bothers him.”
Jessica wondered the same thing. She hoped it didn’t; she’d called him that a lot over the years.
The three women chatted idly for the final two hours of their approach into Costa station. Jessica watched the station grow from a single point of light passing around the planet Albis to an oblong rock, a little more than one hundred kilometers in length.
A large docking ring wrapped around the asteroid-moon, and parts of the station protruded from the grey surface as though they were trying to burst free from the rock.
The structure was reminiscent of Vesta, one of the larger asteroids in Sol’s asteroid belt. Jessica had never been there, but Tanis had regaled her with several tales of the days she had been stationed there.
It was where Tanis had received her first AI, if Jessica remembered correctly.
Beyond Costa, lazily drifting around the station, was the jump gate.
It was much smaller than the gate at Grey Wolf, but larger than the one the RHY Dynamics ships had used in the Perry System.
Two small patrol craft drifted near the gate and another pair were visible on the other side of the station. Scan showed another dozen patrol ships, and one destroyer-class vessel docked on Costa’s ring. Otherwise, the system appeared to be entirely devoid of human activity.
“I guess I’d better go get in my pod,” Jessica said as she rose from her seat and walked back into the ship’s central room.
“Don’t want to watch final approach?” Cheeky asked.
“I don’t want them to see me through the front window on this ship,” Jessica replied as she selected the command to open the pod.
Nance stood and approached Jessica. “I’ll tuck you in all snug.”
Jessica laughed and then winked at Nance. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Dammit!”
Jessica climbed into the pod and lay down, calling out before the lid closed. “Oh, and you two! Get your helmets on. If they see your smiling faces through the cockpit window, we’ll be onto plan B in no time.”
The pod sealed shut, and Jessica tapped into the ship’s systems, watching the final approach. The station had assigned them an internal berth within the station proper, not out on the docking ring.
The station’s acting commanding officer, a colonel named Ortaga sent a greeting and informed the Widows that he would meet them at the dock.
As the Sierra Echo passed into its bay and settled into a cradle, Jessica found herself holding her breath. It would all be on Nance now.
* * * * *
Nance settled her helmet into place, grimacing at how it squished her nose.
Nance nodded.
Addie approached Nance. “A103,” Addie said in the creepy ethereal voice of the Widows. “Ready to disembark.”
“Good,” Nance replied. “Remember, A93. You stay with the pod and ensure Jessica has a safe exit. She’ll direct you from there.”
“I understand the mission,” Addie replied in her normal voice. “You forget, this is my main reason for existing.”
Nance nodded slowly. “Sorry, Addie. You’re just eerily good at it.”
“I’ll consider that to be a compliment,” Addie replied.
A vibration ran through the deck beneath their feet as the ship settled into the docking cradle and the inner airlock do
or cycled open.
“Good luck out there,” Cheeky called from the cockpit where they’d decided she’d remain unless needed.
“Stay safe, Cheeks,” Nance called back.
Nance stepped into the airlock first, and Addie followed, pushing the stasis pod forward on its hover pad. The outer lock cycled open and Nance walked down the ramp toward the colonel who waited at its end.
“Widows A103, A93,” Colonel Ortaga said by way of greeting. “Welcome back to Costa, though I must admit I’m surprised to see you back so soon. Where is the ship you were after?”
“We were unable to secure it, but the fleet is in pursuit,” Nance said, the helmet altering her voice to the breathy tones of a Widow. “We did, however, capture Jessica Keller.”
“Keller? I’m not familiar with her,” Colonel Ortaga said, his brow lowering.
“No. Chances are you wouldn’t be,” Nance replied. “However, she is one of Tanis Richard’s closest confidants. There is much she may know about their technology, and plans.”
“So the ship?” the colonel asked.
Nance guessed at the gist of his question and nodded in response. “It was the Sabrina, yes.”
Colonel Ortaga shook his head in disbelief. “And it was out at Naga…how?”
“Jump gate, of course,” Nance replied tersely. “Are we going to stand here all day, or shall we secure this stasis pod. When the fleet comes back with their ship, we’ll need to send her through the gate.”
Colonel Ortaga approached the pod and peered in. “Jessica Keller, you say. She’s very…purple.”
“I’d noticed,” Nance replied, allowing more annoyance to fill her voice.
The colonel glanced up at Nance and seemed to pale slightly, then he looked back at Addie. “We could send her through now. I could have a ship readied.”
Nance shook her head. “No, this is one of the greatest prizes we’ve ever captured. I’ll not send her off on some courier.”
“Yes, of course. Follow me, we’ll make sure she’s secure.”
They began to walk across the bay when Ortaga looked over his shoulder back at the Sierra Echo. “Where’s A45?”
“She’s attending to business.” Nance replied without hesitation.
“Really?” Ortaga asked. “What sort of business?”
Nance didn’t turn her head. “Widow’s business.”
“What—”
She bit her lip, this man had to realize he couldn’t question her, and realize it fast.
Nance took a quick step ahead of Ortaga, spun and put a hand on his chest. “Colonel. You do not have clearance for all our operations. If I tell you she is attending to Widow’s business, you will take that as all of the answer you need.”
Though the colonel was forty centimeters taller than Nance, he swallowed and nodded quickly.
Nance wondered how much of his reaction was because of the Widow’s voice. To her it sounded like she was speaking from beyond the grave.
Nance stood with her hand on the colonel’s chest for a moment longer and then nodded. “Good. Lead on.”
Erin began and then stopped.
Nance bit her lip. She knew. She knew, and it terrified her. Erin was the one who kept her sane. Without Erin in her head, would the remnant just take over? Would it operate her like a puppet?
Nance knew that. She also knew the remnant had work for her in New Canaan. It would fall to her to hunt down the person who had infected her with Myrrdan’s shard—or whatever it was.
The remnant would probably send her after Myrrdan as well.
It was the thing that drove her to support this plan of action. If not, she would have sided with Cheeky. Had that been the case, they may never have risked taking this jump gate.
There was one small hope in the back of Nance’s mind: that when the Intrepid’s technicians removed Erin, they would see something that would alert them to the presence of the remnant.
And then they’d save her from it.
She tried to put it from her mind as they followed Colonel Ortaga through the base. The further in they went, the more deserted it seemed to be.
It made sense. The docking ring could support hundreds of ships, but there was only one destroyer in evidence. Either the entire fleet and all its support ships had left for the Sullus System, or Costa’s use was in decline for some reason.
She looked up the station’s records on the general network which revealed that—for the last century at least—Costa had never even reached full utilization.
Nance pondered it as they took a lift up to the level where Jessica’s stasis pod would be stored.
Erin’s avatar nodded in Nance’s mind.
“Here we are,” Colonel Ortaga said, disrupting Nance and Erin’s conversation. “Secure Lockup C1.”
They stood at a large door at the end of a short corridor. The door was set into a thick frame and didn’t appear to have any visible hinges.
Ortaga stood still for a moment, passing his tokens, and then the security system reached out to Nance and Addie, requesting their tokens.
Finaeus and Iris had worked hard to extract the tokens from the captured Widows. It had taken some time, and he hadn’t gained the assassin’s more secure auths, but with luck the ones the team had would work for anything aboard Costa.
Nance held her breath as the room’s security system ran her tokens. After a few seconds it came back with approval, and the door slowly slid sideways into the bulkhead.
“Very good,” Nance said and walked into the room. A few cases rested against one wall, but
otherwise the room was empty.
a voice—identified as belonging to an AI named Spheria—said over the Link.
“You are not taking possession,” Nance said. “We are simply storing it here. A93 will remain with the pod and ensure it is safe.”
Ortaga glanced back at Addie, who had not yet spoken once since they exited the Sierra Echo.
“Yes. I will remain with the pod,” Addie said.
“Here. In the lockup?” Colonel Ortaga’s voice was flat and disbelieving. “Won’t you need to eat or anything?”
“No,” Addie said.
Ortaga shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
“I will accompany you to the command center,” Nance said. “I have a message to send through the gate.”
Ortaga looked between Nance and Addie, then down at the pod with Jessica within. “Very well. It’s not far.”
Nance nodded and followed the colonel back out of the secure lockup.
Erin replied.
Nance wondered if the Widows had some hidden trigger, or ident code they didn’t know about.
Nance examined the probes Spheria was making over the Link. It took a bit to understand what she was looking at, but it was a repeating pattern. A big one.
Nance ran it against the known Orion codes she’d gathered over the years, but didn’t get any matches. Then she took the pattern from Spheria and ran it through a set of decryption algorithms, using the private keys they’d lifted from the Widows.
