by M. D. Cooper
“That’s because they’ve all been carbon-poly enhanced.”
“Touche.” Sera chuckled, and then turned her gaze back to Roxy. “Look. You’re not exactly a stock human, but that’s OK. Pretty much everyone going—”
“Misha,” Fina interrupted.
“Misha?” Roxy asked.
“The cook,” Sera explained, nodding in agreement with Fina. “Sabrina’s cook is almost entirely unmodded. I suppose a few of Katrina’s crew are closer to the ‘stock human’ end of the spectrum, too.”
Roxy frowned at the two women before her. “Wait. Why does this mission of yours have a cook?”
“Well…I mean the op will take a bit, and I like to eat,” Fina said with a wink.
Sera nodded. “Plus, it seems to have worked for the team quite well in the past—having a cook on covert missions, that is—which makes no sense…I don’t know, whatever.”
“Seriously? Does he actually go on missions?” Roxy asked shaking her head in disbelief.
“Well…he was part of the team that stormed General Garza’s command ship at New Canaan.”
“Seriously?” Fina asked, glancing at Sera. “I gotta admit, I kinda liked Misha. Now he might even be kinda hot.”
“Stars, Fina.” Sera laughed. “Sometimes I think Airtha mixed a bit of Cheeky in with you.”
Roxy’s gaze slid from one woman to the other, marveling at how they seemed completely identical—baring their strong devotion to a specific primary color—yet were so different at the same time.
“I have to ask….” Roxy said the words slowly, uncertain how to phrase the question.
“What it’s like to suddenly get a fully grown annoying kid sister?” Sera asked, saving Roxy from having to voice the words.
“Well…yeah. Something like that.”
Fina knocked her hip against Sera’s “It’s not too bad. Once I convinced her that blue is my color, at least.”
Roxy held up her hand, sapphire skin gleaming. “I still don’t know what to do about my skin. What with it being something he did to me.”
“Do you like it?” Fina asked, tilting her head as she looked Roxy up and down. “If you like it, rock it.”
“I’m going to have to agree with my sister there,” Sera confirmed. “When I got my first skin replacement it wasn’t exactly voluntary.”
“We,” Fina corrected. “We were the same person back then.”
“Right, sorry,” Sera replied.
“What to do about Carmen.” Roxy nodded and pursed her lips. “You were going to say that she can’t pair with me for her penance, because I’m not human anymore.”
Roxy nodded. “I understand that.”
Roxy watched Sera’s eyes grow wide, and then the red woman nodded.
“Well, there was another thing that we need to discuss with you,” Sera said, her voice taking on a more serious tone than it had carried before.
“Jane.” The name fell from Roxy’s lips like lead.
“Yes, I imagine you know why.”
Roxy nodded. “She took advantage of me.”
“Or raped you,” Fina suggested.
“No.” Roxy shook her head vehemently. “She and I talked this over a lot on the trip here. She knew that I couldn’t exactly say no, but she thought I liked it—she thought I’d modded myself to be that way. That’s what Justin had told everyone.”
“Damn.” Fina shook her head in disbelief. “I always thought he did things that were on the edge of unethical, but I guess I’d completely misread him. Guy was a grade-A scumbag.”
Sera pursed her lips and locked eyes with Roxy. “So you really don’t want to press charges against Jane for sexual assault?”
Roxy shook her head. “No…she and Carmen…they’re all I have. Damn. I guess all that means is that I’m totally fucked up, doesn’t it?”
The two women—twins of sorts, Roxy supposed—glanced at one another and shrugged in unison.
“Who’s not?” Sera asked. “Given that you don’t want to press charges, Jen, do you want to present the option—not that it’s really any of our call anyway.”
At first the idea sounded like anathema to Roxy. Carmen was her friend, someone that she wanted to keep close. But then she thought of Jane—who was also dealing with her own demons, and how the three of them could still be together. Different, but together.
“I…I guess it’s not my call either, but I can see why it’s not terrible.”
Sera laughed as she glanced at Fina. “ ‘Not terrible’. Some days that’s the best we can hope for, isn’t it?”
“Seems like it,” the blue woman replied.
“One more thing for you to consider,” Sera said to Roxy.
“Stars,” Roxy muttered. “I think there’s a lot more than just one more thing.”
“Well, this one will add to the list in a big way. You’re a highly skilled operative, from what you’ve remembered about your past life—once one of the best Hand agents in the galaxy. We want you to come on our mission.”
Roxy couldn’t help but grin at the two women before her. “The mission with the cook that has Fina all a titter?”
Fina snorted. “I do not titter.”
“Yeah, the one with the cook,” Sera confirmed.
“What’s the goal of this mysterious mission?”
The words that came from Sera’s lips were spoken with such dead certainty that Roxy knew that there was no way she could say no.
“We’re going to kill Airtha.”
PART 2 – ORION SPACE
SVETLANA
STELLAR DATE: 10.07.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: TSS Cossack’s Sword, Interstellar Dark Layer
REGION: Midway Cluster, Orion Freedom Alliance Space
“So?” Admiral Svetlana asked Command Master Chief Merrick, doing her best to suppress the feeling that she was turning in homework to her father for review. “How does my plan look?”
Her father, the senior noncom in the fleet, glanced up from the holo spreading across the desk and met her eyes.
“If you need me to tell you it’s good enough, then it’s not.”
Svetlana clenched her jaw, refusing to break eye contact with the man. “I’m not asking you to tell me it’s good enough, I’m asking you to point out flaws. Right now, that’s your job. It’s not to be my father, trying to prepare me for the big, bad world.”
For a moment he didn’t respond, other than the further narrowing of his eyes. Then, to her surprise, he pulled his gaze away first, a laugh escaping his lips.
“Well, Admiral.” He glanced at her for a moment before gesturing at the map. “Machete’s going to be a tough nut to crack. I have some ideas about improvements to your strategy, but walk me through your plan first, so I can understand your reasoning.”
“Very well, Command Master Chief.”
“Svetlana. You can call me Merrick.” Her father winked before taking a step back and folding his arms across his chest.
She drew a deep breath and restrained herself from telling him that his mixed signals weren’t helping her find a comfortable working arrangement.
Best t
o just get this over with.
“OK,” she began. “Machete is a semi-autonomous system in the Perseus Expansion Districts—at least they were until the Oggies began massing a fleet there. From what the Hand databases have on the place, it’s pretty backward, founded by refugees from near the Flaming Star Nebula a few thousand years back. Barely anyone has even their low-tech version of the Link.”
“Seems like par for the course out here,” Merrick commented.
“Yeah,” Svetlana agreed. “Anyway, Machete is a triple star system. The main planets orbit the tight binary pair, Hawenneyu and Doyadastethe. The corporations have been doing a lot of asteroid mining in that part of the system, ferrying materials out to the third star, which is currently sixty AU away.”
“Why did the Hand send an agent there, I wonder?” Merrick asked as Svetlana paused.
“The reports I have say there was indication of some advanced medical R&D going on in Machete, but it turned out to be nothing of note. The Hand has been looking for RHY’s new secret R&D facilities since the ISF’s Jessica Keller learned of the bioweapons they were making out in the Perseus Arm.”
“And the agent just stayed?” Merrick asked.
“He was waiting for new orders. Seems like he got lost in the shuffle, what with the civil war and all. He wasn’t sure which Sera to trust, so he sat tight.”
“Not the worst plan when you’re a thousand light years deep in hostile territory.”
“Agreed.” Svetlana nodded. “Another part of his rationale for sticking around was that he began to hear rumblings about shipyards out near the third star, Gendenwitha. I guess one of the corporations set up a backroom deal with the Oggies and has been building ships there for some time. Initially, they were just doing hulls and engines, but now the OG has brought their engineering teams in to bolt on the guns.”
“Best time to hit them, then…well, other than a year or two ago.”
“Right.” Svetlana gestured at the system map laid out before them. “Now, the third star only has one planet in orbit, Sosondowah, and the shipyards are in orbit of its moons. I think that—given this system’s general isolation—we should seize those shipyards and then make off with their ships.”
Her father only grunted in response, and Svetlana went on with her explanation.
“From what intel the Hand agent has, he thinks that we’ll need to make a pretty large strike against the main worlds, if we’re to get the Oggies to move any assets from the third star to protect them. Basically, no one cares about the people on those worlds. We’ll have to put the populace’s ability to supply the raw materials for shipbuilding at risk before the enemy tries to dislodge us.”
“So we hit the mining facilities,” her father replied. “Ignore the worlds.”
“That was my thought; but we still have to stop the corporate militias from coming after us, so I figured we strike the mines while simultaneously bottling up the populace so they can’t work the facilities. Make it look like we plan to stay awhile.”
“And Orion has another large force nearby?” Merrick asked.
“The Hand agent doesn’t think so, but his intel on that front is a bit old. Either way, if the Oggies do bring in another fleet, we cut and run. Even if this strike is only a distraction, it still serves our general purpose.”
Her father, the ancient Command Master Chief, the man she had spent much of her life both respecting and fearing—though the fear had waned over the years—nodded slowly.
“Agreed. Worst-case scenario, we destroy the shipyards and cripple their ability to pull resources from the mines.”
“But I don’t want to strike directly at civilians,” she clarified. “They’re not our targets here.”
“Svetlana. This is war. Civilians are going to die.”
“I know.” She met his eyes with her own level gaze. “We already killed a fair number in the Ferra System. But we only hit them when they’re stationed at legitimate targets. I won’t decimate the people just to create a humanitarian crisis in order to wear the Oggies down. You know that the enemy is just as likely to bail on Machete as give them aid.”
“I agree,” Merrick said after a moment. “Ultimately, if this crazy plan that Krissy and the Tomlinsons have cooked up works, we’ll be the ones to bring these people into the ninetieth century, and it would be nice if they didn’t hate us too much.”
“That’s going to take a miracle,” Svetlana said with a rueful shake of her head.
“Probably, but there have been a few of them lately, so I’ll hold out hope.”
She barked a laugh. “Who are you, and what have you done with my father? I distinctly remember you saying on many occasions that ‘hope is not a plan’.”
Merrick shrugged. “Well, like I said, I’ve seen some things lately that have changed the way I view the universe.”
“It’s a bit surreal, isn’t it?”
“Are you trying to win an award for understatement?” Her father laughed as he spoke, a real laugh. It even seemed happy.
“OK, Dad, what’s going on here?”
“What do you mean?”
“You have a bit of a reputation, with me personally, as well as in the force. You’re not usually so….”
“Agreeable?”
“That’s one way to put it.”
Merrick took a step back and ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I know. I guess I was starting to think that the stalemate with Orion was going to last forever, or it was going to lead to a war of attrition in the Inner Stars that would send them back into another dark age. And at the end of it, we’d all end up at the status quo for another few thousand years.”
“It did seem like the president didn’t have the stomach to do what needed to be done.” Svetlana realized she’d just run her hand through her hair in the same manner as her father, and blushed before shifting to stand arms akimbo.
“Yeah, but now we have Tanis…or Tangel. Whatever she is now. AI merge, ascended being, I don’t care. She’s doing the right stuff with this multi-pronged war, even if the timing hasn’t been great.”
Svetlana chuckled. “That’s an understatement.”
“Which part?”
“All of them, I guess.” She stepped forward and put her hands on the holotable. “I’m in agreement with you. Being out here in OFA space and kicking them in the balls feels right—but it’s a bit desperate, too.”
“A bit?”
“OK, a lot.”
A silence settled between them. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but rather companionable—a feeling Svetlana had not often had with her father.
She was about to bring the conversation back to the Machete plan, when he spoke. His voice was quiet, almost apologetic.
“You know, I had to twist Admiral Krissy’s arm pretty hard to be here with you,” Merrick said, and then coughed a short laugh. “To be honest, I would have punched babies if that’s what it took.”
“Dad! That’s an awful visual.”
Her father snorted and shook his head. “Yeah, well, us noncoms are rough around the edges. I was always glad you went in for OCS. And here you are, an admiral, leading that first major incursion into Orion in over a thousand years.”
“I’m glad you’re here, too, Dad. I’m a little terrified. There’s a lot riding on this. Not just our lives, but the lives of the people at the front. We have to draw the Oggies back. If we don’t, then this is all for nothing.”
Command Master Chief Merrick walked around the table and held open his arms.
Svetlana somehow managed to keep her jaw from falling open as she accepted her father’s embrace.
“It’s a lot on your shoulders, Svetlana. But you’re a strong girl. I know, I had to deal with your obstinance for years as I attempted to raise you. Luckily for everyone in this fleet, you’ve turned into an amazing woman despite my interference in the matter.”
“Because of your interference, Dad, because of it,” Admiral Svetlana whispered as she laid a head on his should
er.
“If you say so,” Merrick whispered. “Damn…I wish your mother was here to see this.”
Svetlana nodded wordlessly, and the two held each other tightly. After a few minutes, her father pulled back and glanced at the holotable.
“OK. So as amazing as I think you are, I do have a few suggestions about your plan….”
The admiral let out a nervous laugh and nodded. “Buttering me up, were you?”
“Never, Svetlana. Never.”
MACHETE
STELLAR DATE: 10.18.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: TSS Cossack’s Sword, approaching Sosondowah
REGION: Machete System, PED 4B, Orion Freedom Alliance
Sosondowah, the lone planet orbiting Gendenwitha, slowly grew larger on the main display as the ship approached—though Svetlana knew it to be only an illusion used to give the bridge crew the feeling of motion.
In all honesty, the battlegroup had been close enough for high-resolution images for over a day now—though the Oggies didn’t know that.
Elsewhere in the Machete System, Rear Admiral Sebastian and the ISF’s Colonel Caldwell were nearly at the world of Iagaentci, the largest population center in orbit around the other stars in the Machete system.
They’d debated hitting the other terraformed planet, a largely agrarian world named Akonwara, but ultimately decided to leave it be. There were no major orbital habitats there, and Svetlana didn’t want to drop troops down into a gravity well.
Iagaentci’s two large stations each held hundreds of millions of inhabitants—engineering feats that harkened back to a time when the people of Machete were far more advanced in both technology and industry than the level they’d fallen to when the OFA absorbed their system.
Admiral Sebastian’s fleet would blockade that world and its stations, while Colonel Caldwell was tasked with hitting the mining facilities in orbit of the world of Geha, where large KPOs were hauled in for refinement before drones utilizing gravitational assists slingshotted the ore around Hawenneyu to the shipyards that Svetlana was closing on.
