Senescence (Jezebel's Ladder Book 5)

by Scott Rhine

  Zeiss entered. “Your mouth to God’s ear, son.” The commander closed the airlock and muted comms so Oleander, Yvette, Sif, Eowyn, Mo, and the smoker couldn’t hear. The smoker was a Somalian who had bypassed the UN training program and committed a large number of offenses such as providing secure communications and laundering money for diamond smugglers. “Kaguya’s halfway through the preflight checklist. She can finish while we talk.”

  “Sir?”

  “No more Gravity Boy stunts. I don’t want my daughter to be a widow. Wait for our diversion to land.”

  Stu had helped to develop the plan, but he repeated his orders from the top. “Yes, sir. We land when all eyes are on you. We use UN credentials to gain access to Koku’s regeneration center. Yvette and Oleander can change into sneak suits to infiltrate. Smokey has skills in Mind-Machine interface and can crack bank security if we have to improvise.” The criminal had agreed to help in exchange for his freedom and a large bonus. “The Chinese will melt parts of Koku’s brain on both the Moon and Earth. From our end, Oleander has the explosives. Mo and Sif will carry the big guns. I’m the nexus, the eyes and ears. While Yvette hooks Kaguya to the machine, the rest of us stand guard in layers. Are you here to give us the dendrite headset?” The device was the only one of its kind on Sanctuary, and humans didn’t have the skill set to produce another.

  “Yvette is carrying the crown of thorns in a cloaked case.”

  “Okay, then when the NERO ship picks us up for the return trip, I’ll set up a time capsule with the data stored in my wrist computer.”

  Zeiss handed Stu a tablet with four sets of coordinates relative to the moon base. “These are for your eyes only.”

  “Different rendezvous locations for our return.”

  “We don’t trust several of our allies, and you may not have radio access on the way back. Your choice of meeting location will tell us what we need to know. Location one tells us you managed a clean escape. Location two means that your ship may be infected or tracked by Koku. Location three indicates someone is forcing you to fly under duress.”

  “And four?”

  Zeiss squeezed the bridge of his nose. “If you’re captured, it’s the one you’ll reveal under torture.”

  Stu committed the digit strings to memory. To him, they were as simple as north, east, west, and south directional vectors. He prayed things didn’t go south. “What if I’m knocked unconscious and Kaguya escapes with my body?”

  “She can use the radio frequency and encryption key we gave her. She can’t be entrusted with sensitive information right now. This list is for you—in case you can’t tell us what’s happening verbally,” Zeiss said. “A few minutes before docking, we’ll send Joan out for a sweep of your ship.”

  “Aye, aye, sir.”

  ****

  In exchange for Mary Smith’s peaceful surrender, the amiable Brazilian President agreed to allow Luca Maurier’s transport from the city hospital to the more advanced air force hospital on Governor’s Island in Guanabara Bay. Both Smith and her accomplice could be held on the base until her trial. Given the dozen medical professionals and well-wishers who wanted to ensure their safe arrival, the government borrowed one of the small ferries that normally plied this route. They placed a handful of guards aboard, but the bulk of the escort consisted of two destroyers and a helicopter gunship. Two shuttles also flew high cover against orbital assault. Jets were on standby. No one would accuse the president of failing to protect his most infamous citizen to guarantee her day in court.

  When Mary recognized two of the guards and the ferry pilot, her mood went from resignation to hope. All the male police indulged in free coffee and doughnuts at the dockside vendor. When she approached the stand, the vendor shook his head and offered her a fortune cookie instead.

  The strip of paper warned of sea sickness and proclaimed a series of lucky numbers.

  Every sense stood at alert. The weather was overcast, but whites stood out in the ultraviolet that leaked through. The flags on the poles cracked and fluttered in a steady breeze. The outboard motors in the flat, ugly boat growled as the ferry awoke, and the crew forced her to don a horrid neon-chartreuse life vest with all the other civilians. Guards forced her into the pilot’s cabin to prevent any suicide attempt.

  “Patient and prisoners secured,” the head police officer in riot gear announced into his lapel. He and a no-nonsense woman in similar gear framed the door. Others paced the deck outside.

  The pilot spoke to the harbormaster in Portuguese. “Request priority clearance. I want to drop this trouble off and get back here before the storm hits.”

  “Radar looks good for a few hours yet, but because of your prisoners, you have the channel all to yourself.”

  The air force liaison with an earbud of his own said, “All fishing vessels have been cleared from shoulder-missile range of the channel. Proceed.”

  The pilot glanced at the police officer licking powdered sugar from his fingers and said, “The jet skis and tour boats are pretty thick, so I’ll have to use kid gloves until we’re past the buoys. You might as well take a seat.” Indeed, she had to halt the boat twice to give larger craft a wide berth.

  Mary put a hand to her stomach and groaned occasionally.

  About a third of the way into the bay, where the seagulls thinned, the pilot said, “Do they really think a cruise ship was going to launch a rocket at us?”

  Soon after, the windsock on deck tried to tear itself apart. Over the radio, the harbormaster said, “You were right about that storm. One popped up out of nowhere. You might want to veer off toward the closest dock.”

  “Negative,” said the air force officer. “We arrive as planned. You can ride out the storm at our facility.”

  The guards outside had disappeared, but the deck was heaving in high waves.

  The pilot reported a string of numbers to the harbormaster that matched those in the fortune cookie.

  Faking a wretch, Mary doubled over.

  The pilot shouted at the head cop, “Get her to the head fast, or you’ll be mopping my bridge.”

  Once she was latched inside the tiny bathroom, the scuffle began. She heard shouts of warning and at least one Taser. The female officer tapped on the door. “Clear.”

  Shaking and a little queasy for real, Mary emerged. “What can I do to help?”

  The pilot gunned the engines. “The drugs took longer to kick in than expected. We’re running behind. Truss those two up in the bright-orange vests and throw them into the lifeboat with the others.”

  The muscular Latina officer stripped out of her uniform top and clipped into a chartreuse vest. “My code name is Beatrice, and I’ll be your guide.” Her gun belt was clearly visible in the small of her back.

  Mary glimpsed the image on radar. “You’re heading into the storm.”

  “Yes, ma’am, and nothing is going to be left of this vessel but matchsticks. I’ll never work in transportation or for the government again.” She smiled warmly. “But the night will be safe.”

  “You could come with us.”

  “Someone has to steer the lifeboat.”

  Without warning, the pilot shut down the engines. The ship bobbed like a child’s toy. “Take her below with the others. I have to abandon ship.”

  As Mary climbed down the stairs, Beatrice said, “The medical team in the ambulance has oxygen masks.”

  Are we climbing onto a submarine? When Mary spotted a strange man in an orange life vest beside the door to the vehicle area, she drew Beatrice’s gun from the back holster. “You’re not Nyx.”

  The door guard raised his hands. “No, senhorita. Nyx didn’t have the manpower, so they asked us for help.”

  This could be another kidnapping. “Who do you work for?”

  “My tribe.”

  Beatrice pushed the gun’s muzzle down. “Diego is with Earth First, a member of one of the displaced tribes.”

  “What?”

  “When you had the sisterhood investigate
their organization a few weeks ago, we found out our organizations had more in common than we realized. We’re pooling resources.” To Diego, Beatrice said, “Don’t worry. You were never in any danger. The gun won’t fire without my fingerprint.”

  Mary handed the weapon back to its owner. “I’m sorry. I don’t go with anyone I don’t know.”

  “He’s wearing orange. That means he’ll be staying with the pilot,” Beatrice explained.

  “Then he can leave now.”

  Beatrice nodded, and Diego sprinted for the lifeboat. Only when the craft was lowered over the side did Mary relax.

  “Come on. We’re late,” Beatrice said.

  A whistling in the sky made Mary look up into the blackness. She grabbed the railing tightly.

  Then the world turned upside down.

  ****

  For many minutes, Mary floated in the churning cold, uncertain where her next breath would come from, but the storm was gone. Eventually, a man in a spacesuit pulled her from the water and carried her to a smooth, dry, enamel-white cave. Doctor Auckland checked her over and said, “That’s the last one. Everyone out and we’ll release the wreckage.”

  Mary clenched his arm so hard she could see her blue fingernails turn white. “Where am I?”

  “Inside Sanctuary’s landing bay. Welcome to your first alien abduction. Your sister scooped you up, ferry and seawater alike.”

  “Mercy masterminded a jailbreak for me?”

  “Officially, the freak storm capsized your ride, and you died at sea,” the doctor explained. “We have a dry outfit inside with your name on it. A lot of people will be glad to see you. When you weren’t with the other invitees, we almost gave up, but Laura told us where to find you.”

  The in-law in question bounced over and wrapped her in a towel. “After orientation, you can stay in our house.” Laura was dressed in green and glowing with joy. “What would you like to do first?”

  “That’s hard to say. I’ve been Mira for so long, I’m not sure what I like anymore. When can I see Mercy?”

  Laura glanced at the doctor. “She’s pretty busy running the ship right now.”

  “The saltwater is going to have to be filtered before we can use it, and all that chlorine is dangerous to handle,” he added.

  “I’ve waited twenty years for her. What’s a few more hours?” Mary said.

  Laura took her arm. “Mira will be waiting for us in Olympus. There’s so much she wants to say to you.”

  Chapter 48 – Lunar Assault

  Stu watched the feed from the Rio weather channel by way of a lunar satellite. There was no direct contact with Earth or Sanctuary from here. When the news reported the anticipated storm, he told his crew, “That’s our cue.” He flew the shuttle over the lunar horizon, into radar view of their target. “Why do they call it Dark Base Seven?”

  From the navigation chair, Eowyn replied, “It’s a joke. Dark side of the Moon, black ops. You know.”

  “There is no dark side of the Moon, just one that faces away from Earth’s surface,” he explained.

  “Is he always this dense?” asked Eowyn.

  Kaguya said, “He’s from another culture. His differences are part of his charm—that and whatever makes Laura scream in the bedroom like she’s running an obstacle course over hot coals … and winning.” She had been prone to inappropriate outbursts of truth and opinion while she adjusted to the Ethics Page. Complete adjustment took up to a week, but they didn’t have time to wait.

  Being in the cockpit with two women with no filters made his cheeks burn for the umpteenth time. “So this place was a top-secret research facility authorized to experiment with nanotechnology. When the subject of its research escaped its bounds, the site fell under UN jurisdiction.”

  “Officially, Seven was an independent hazardous-waste facility with no research staff. The unlicensed scientists were among the first to be eaten,” Eowyn said.

  “Eaten?” Stu repeated.

  Eowyn held a finger to her lips as she broadcast to the secure facility. “Dark Tower Seven, this is Investigator Quinn. We’re delivering a stolen shuttle craft that I recently recovered.”

  “This is Dark Tower Seven,” the shuttle’s radio replied. “Why are you bringing it to the ass end of nowhere?”

  Eowyn smiled in recognition at the voice. “Lieutenant Balfour, this craft visited the alien artifact. We suspect contamination. I’ll need your entire crew to sweep it for evidence. We want to find out where it’s been and why. Compare it against the original specs, and see what they modified.”

  “If we have to remove every bolt. Who’s authorization?”

  “This shuttle isn’t officially here. There is no investigation ID. Am I clear?”

  “Eight by eight. Use this approach vector and velocity. Dark Tower Seven out.”

  A string of numbers appeared on the screen, and Stu adjusted course.

  As if she hadn’t interrupted, Eowyn returned to her description of the disaster. “These nanobots particularly liked transforming the ceramic components of spacesuits and the calcium of our bones. Normally, nano has strict containment protocols. With this batch, the scientists neglected the usual safeguards in favor of titanium oxide.”

  “Sunscreen?” Stu said, incredulous.

  “That’s actually titanium dioxide. I still had some residue on my skin from the beach, or I’d be dead with the others,” the investigator said in all seriousness.

  Stu shook his head. “What? The scientist who developed the variant was a member of a White-supremacy organization? Did he hope to wipe out all the darker races and make the world a better place?”

  Kaguya replied, “Not at all. They designed the self-deploying power grids to stay contained inside the aluminum-rich ilmenite of the crater interior and avoid the titanium ore outside. They even lined the rim with a thin, metal band like a teacup. Didn’t you pay attention to my briefing?”

  “The NERO ship data was much more interesting,” Stu confessed. “I remember the stuff about making solar panels by spinning a layer of fiberglass from the sand and floating the aluminum to the top—the substrate. I shouldn’t walk on that layer because it’s too thin and I could get stuck in the hollow area underneath. I just never heard how any of that related to Koku.”

  Eowyn glanced at Kaguya and made a sound of disgust. “Maybe we should have tattooed the briefing on your daughter’s ass, and he might have paid closer attention.”

  “Substrate is also a biology term,” Kaguya explained patiently. “The self-deploying solar panels are pretty standard. We use those on Earth today. The dangerous component was the circuitry that the silicon and calcium formed underneath. Liquid calcium wiring is a better conductor than copper, but we can’t use it on Earth because of all the oxygen. The scientists at Seven employed biological growth models from both mold and spiders’ webs to spin custom computing resources under the substrate.”

  Eowyn’s voice went flat. “When we tried to open Mori’s lab to examine his illegal experiments, the booby trap splattered my men over half the tunnel … using the calcium spray to expand the prototype. That monster turned them into red cotton candy in order to squeeze into the cracks in the walls. It tunneled a conduit under the ceramics into the main crater. By the time we returned with reinforcements, the genie was well out of the bottle. Containment took months.”

  Stu asked, “Did you bring a few extra tubes of sunscreen for this visit?”

  “Your suit has been sprayed with a titanium compound that should be effective on a wide spectrum of nanos. I also carry a low-power laser to burn off contamination.”

  “Right,” Stu said. “We drop off this shuttle as a Christmas present for your lab geeks and wander off while they’re drooling. ETA six minutes. Anything I can do for you ladies while we wait?”

  Considering for a moment, Eowyn said, “The tent people had a lot to say about camping near your house. Can you explain that grape exercise to Mo? I think my sister would really enjoy shouting encourag
ement until she requires medical attention for her voice.”

  “I made Laura tea with honey, and she was better.”

  “What did she require medical attention for, then?” Eowyn prodded.

  “You’re not allowed to ask that by UN medical rules.”

  “You’re not a UN citizen,” Kaguya countered. “Tell her. We’d both like to know.”

  Stu swallowed hard. “She called the doc for me.”

  Amused, Kaguya toyed with him. “Dehydration? Muscle strain? Leather allergies?”

  “This isn’t the way I wanted to tell you,” Stu said. “Promise you won’t tell anyone else.”

  “That’s not fair,” both women complained.

  He glared at them until they swore secrecy. “I found an unopened pack of condoms in Laura’s flight suit last night and sort of fainted when she told me what they were for.”

  Eowyn put the pieces together and started laughing.

  Kaguya needed more information. “You’ve never seen a condom before. So? Laura has full prevention implants.”

  Stu shook his head. “Not since the pod.”

  “The manipulative witch wanted to get pregnant and didn’t tell him. Classic Mori,” Eowyn said.

  “What did you do?” Kaguya asked.

  “Took her for a walk in the meadow to harvest honey. Picked tea leaves. Taught her how to hang laundry on the line.”

  Both women chuckled at the high-society geneticist doing prairie-style housework. Kaguya said, “I meant about her trying to trick you into a baby.”

  “I abstained until the last moment and let her take a viable sperm sample in a test tube.”

  Eowyn whooped. “In case the first ten tries didn’t take?”

  “Or in case she wants our child to have a sibling. I wish I’d had one growing up.”

  Kaguya unclipped and kissed him on the forehead. “That’s why you were late. You’re a good husband.”