by Chogan Swan
In the hall, Charles stared at her, mouth open.
“Mister Bartlett,” she said. “I have something to tell you.” She stepped forward and put her hand on his chest. “I divorce you,” she whispered in his ear.
He began to step back, but she held on to his shirt. “I realize our partnership was probationary, but it is now at an early end. I divorce you.” She put her open hand tight to his chest and—being careful not to accelerate him too quickly—shoved him down the hall to spin across the floor like a dreidel. When he fetched up against the wall thirty meters away, she laughed at the expression on his face. “I divorce you,” she said and turned away.
Assegai waited for her by the stairwell, holding it open, standing at attention and saluting. Una walked through the door and began to climb the stair. Aphrodite waited at the next landing, already holding open the door to the rooms. Una walked through and saw a line of twelve sisters standing against the wall also saluting. Abedabun held open the door to a room in the middle of the hall. Not the one she’d been in before.
“My backpack ….” Una said.
“It’s already secured,” said Assegai. “We will stand watch as you rest. When you’re ready, you can tell us what you want to do.”
Una walked to Abedabun. “Thank you,” she said.
Abedabun motioned with her chin, tilting it up.
Una stepped inside the room to see the two queen-sized beds pushed together. The door to the balcony stood open, letting in a gentle breeze from the west. Aphrodite lay prone in the opening, her bullpup rested on its bipod in sniper position behind three burlap sandbags. Una took off her harness and kilt, dropped them on the floor and sat on the bed. “I may have burned some bridges,” she said.
“Maybe not,” said Abedabun. “Ambrosia and I will take your meeting in the morning. According to our intelligence, your bargaining position might be stronger than you think.”
Una lay down and closed her eyes. “Okay,” she murmured. “But let’s not forget the cautionary tale of Uriah the Hittite,”
“Of course,” said Abedabun. Her breath stirred the air on Una’s cheek, and her lips brushed Una’s then the soft skin of her warm, pulsing neck followed the lips. Una kissed Abedubun’s throat and rested her teeth on the surface to affirm their bond, but took no blood. “I’ll sleep now. Thank you,” she said. “Thank you all.
Abedabun curled up to her back, holding on tight.
And though Una’s sleep was uneasy and filled with strange dreams, by turns her family held her
… all through the night.
CHAPTER 36 – CAPTAIN
Una rolled over and pulled the pillow over her head. “I don’t want to get up, Abedabun. I quit my job last night, and I want a day off before starting something new.”
Abedabun pulled the pillow away and threw it across the room. “I’m sorry, Probationary Recruit Una, but our squadron has accepted a contract for deployment. You’ve been called up. And since you signed the roster, you’re bound by your word of honor to report for duty.”
Una pried open one eye and glared at Abedabun. “You want me to go play computer games?”
Abedabun glared down at her. The smallest Rodriquez sister looked almost imposing from this angle. “If I were, would you really have anything better to do? Hang around your branch-sister’s seat of power and mope, maybe?”
Una sighed and sat up. “Fine, give me a minute to process my dreams, would you mind?”
“Here’s your breakfast,” Abedabun said, rolling a tray in front of her. “We need to leave in thirty minutes to make it to the airport on time to report.”
She turned and marched into the bathroom. The shower turned on a moment later. “If you hurry, you can probably still get some warm water,” she called.
Una lifted the silver cover from the tray and looked at her breakfast: cheese, olives, green persimmons, goat’s milk and cereal. Next to the plate was a fresh packet of the chewable supplements the one’s Assegai called ‘cummy bears’. Keeping secrets from the Rodriguez sisters was impossible as far as Una could tell. They knew her dietary requirements as well as she did herself.
She poured the milk over the cereal, opened the package and dumped the contents into her palm. She sighed again.
Cummy bears … It’s probably better this way … more efficient.
Plenty of cucumbers in the garden, girl. Now eat your cummy bears and roll out. Today we fly. Jumpship Pilot Tiana urged.
Una swallowed the supplements whole. She had no desire to experience the burn of subsuming them in her mouth, but the soft candy still left a track of warmth all the way to her belly.
It’s just fuel.
She worked her way through the tray with efficiency, trying to beat down her ‘out of sorts’ feeling.
Abedabun came out of the bathroom drying her close-cut, wiry hair with one of the fluffy, white towels. Her wiry body rippled with muscle, and she seemed to float as she sauntered to the clothes she’d laid out on the bed. “Ambrosia says I need to brief you on our meeting this morning with Jonah and the XYMBI legal team. We’re giving XYMBI a 30-day probationary contract for fighter-drone air support both for air-to-air and air-to-ground-and-sea. Since you have an—”
Una held up a hand to stop her. “So we aren’t playing computer games?”
“No. It’s for fighter-drone support—as I just said.” Abedabun cocked her head, waiting.
Una nodded. Flying drones from an armored bunker was at least safer than what they’d been doing.
“Since you have an inherited rank of Captain in the Federation Navy, we’re offering you squadron command within Team Rocket. If you accept your promotion, your share of the contract will be 6 million Euros with half deposited in your bank account today and the remainder at the end of thirty days.”
Una held up her hand again. “How much is the contract for the entire team?”
“100 million Euros.”
“Why is the Federation willing to pay that much for sixteen fighter pilots in a low-risk assignment?”
“Because of what they have to lose and how much we have to offer. Una, when you instructed us in multi-dimensional warfare back when we started the squadron training program, not only did it send us to the top of XYMBI’s pilot rankings, but it saved us 5 calendar years of tactical experience that we didn’t have to work out for ourselves. And that was just the 3D-plus-time aspect. That’s seventy-five years of our subjective experience that you contributed to Team Rocket LLC. That’s why we can do what we do now. Without that, we would still be the best team they have available, but we wouldn’t be nearly as effective.”
“Abedabun, what I am trying to understand is why they need the protection so much, right now.”
Abedabun’s eyes narrowed and she nodded. “It is 98% likely that the Nii Federation will not find a diplomatic solution to the current conflict. The US military has sent a fast-attack submarine to destroy the Valishnu before it reaches port. The Valishnu managed to reach port, and XYMBI is trying to hide her. ShwydH hacked the submarine and rerouted it back to base. XYMBI intel says the US Air Force will be scrambling sometime tomorrow. The nii outpost on Earth is at war.”
Una stood up, draining the last of the goat’s milk. “I guess we’d better get moving then,” she said on her way to the shower.
CHAPTER 37 – BRIEFING
The air was calm and warm, but El Salvador’s decks scurried with activity. At 4 am, the sky was still dark even in the east, but Kest had been up for an hour along with the rest of the crew, anchoring the barge where Valishnu had rested all during the long voyage from the South Atlantic. The pumps were still running at full speed to fill the ballast tanks, but the job was almost 90% complete now and the barge had settled again to its usual draft.
His headset chimed, and he toggled the earpiece. “Kest here.”
“Come on, Kest. It’s time to board the launch for shore.” Amber’s voice was quiet, as though she were on patrol. He could understand her mindset. Ev
erything they were doing needed to remain a secret, and it might be some time before that changed. But he doubted speaking above a whisper on deck would jeopardize anything.
Still, loose lips sink ships.
He shrugged. The dark and the secrets concealed by it made a compelling emotional argument for silence.
“Coming,” he said. But he finished tying off the line he was working with before nodding to the crew chief and hustling down the deck toward the stern where the ship’s tender waited.
A few minutes later, he was at the prow of the tender, sandwiched between Amber and Ayleana. The dark waves ahead of them threw up spray to either side as they ploughed along toward the shore where the lights of the port beckoned.
Kest heard soft voices behind them, speaking in Nii. He couldn’t make out every word, but ShwydH had something to say that he felt was critical, and HumanaH wasn’t arguing. Kest hoped the two of them had everything under control. It felt as though today a great many things could go wrong in a great many ways.
“Mind if I join you?” Calypso’s voice lilted in his ear. “It’s chilly with all this water splashin’ ‘round.” She must have received a ‘come ahead’ from Amber because a moment later the four of them were all huddled together behind the splash screen in the prow. It just wasn’t right. Literally surrounded by beautiful women, all he could think about was what lay ahead of them.
The submarine had been returned to base yesterday, but the XYMBI intelligence sources in Texas confirmed a mission had launched 30 minutes ago from Corpus Christi. A flight of eight Gray Eagle Extended-Range Hunter-Killer drones had just taken off from an airport in south Texas on course for Vera Cruz.
Their target, of course, was Valishnu. Three of the Nii Federation’s Falcon fighter drones had already scrambled to intercept them using their automatic takeoff and pilot features, but the only remote-control pilots who knew how to use them in combat—and were close enough to get to the ground command stations in time to fight with them—were still here on the boat.
Kest’s headset chimed in his right ear with the tone of the general frequency, and soft echoes from Ayleana’s, Amber’s and Caly’s headsets sounded in his left. HumanaH’s quiet voice followed the chime “We should be at the dock in twenty minutes. Please gather with me in the passenger section for a mission briefing. We won’t have time to fit one in when we get to shore.”
When they had all gathered in the central deck-level room out of the wind and spray, HumanaH began speaking. “Except for the three technicians who have been finishing the setup of the ground control stations since yesterday, the people in this room are the entire flight team currently available for piloting the Falcons. We are working on brining other qualified teams online as fast as possible, but right now, you all are it.”
Caly raised her hand, and HumanaH nodded to her.
“I’ve only reached level three in the Falcon simulation games, and I’ve never even piloted an actual aircraft. What can I possibly do?”
“Thank you, Caly,” HumanaH said. “I understand your concern. Along with Kaitlin and Amber, your assignments will be the co-pilot slots. You know enough to read the sensors and you can report details on them to the pilots when relevant. It’s easy for a pilot to be overwhelmed when multiple issues are happening at once. You’ll be there as another set of eyes to help with that. The primary pilot slots will be filled by Ayleana, Kestrel and ShwydH. Caly, you’ll be working with ShwydH. Amber, you are seconding Kestrel. Kaitlin, you’re working with Ayleana. I’ll be the onsite mission commander, and will take a pilot spot in the event of an emergency.”
She paused and looked at them one at a time. “Kest, you have a concern?”
Kest nodded. “I can’t speak for Aylie or ShwydH, but here is my concern. We were under blackout for a long time, and I’ve only had the stand-alone version of the flight simulator to work with for most of the time we’ve been at sea. That means most of my current experience with the controls since I turned eighteen haven’t been in team settings with real people. I’ve never flown in a squadron flight with real aircraft before. My rankings in the sim competitions since we came online again are anything but stellar, even on solo flight. Where are all the pilots now at the top of the leader board?”
“Thanks for bringing that up, Kest. You’ve flown plenty of simulated team missions. Most simulator pilots with your level of aptitude find the switch to remote reality flight … even in team settings … seamless. The pilots who have the most trouble with the transition are the one’s used to sitting in a human aircraft without inertial dampening. They are always expecting G-force changes that will never happen in this format. As to your rankings….”
She smiled. “Our organization happens to be blessed with some talented pilots who have learned quickly. We are trying to get them to the fight as fast as possible, believe me. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve had hundreds of years of experience in combat flight. But I’m still only at number 19 on the leader board for single combat. With a bit more practice, you might give me a challenge in a direct matchup.”
“What about the AI teams on the board? Couldn’t they be doing this?”
“Kest, I assure you … our AI is getting better all the time, but the leader board has no artificial intelligence players.”
Kest realized a moment later that his mouth was hanging open. He shut it and paused for a moment to make sure he didn’t stammer. “You mean the Rocket teams aren’t ….”
HumanaH chuckled. “No. To steal a phrase, I believe they put their underwear on one foot at a time too, unless they’re already sitting down. Then, of course, all bets are off.”
Kest shook his head and exchanged looks with Ayleana and Amber. Ayleana had a thoughtful expression and Amber just shrugged with one shoulder. Together in the last two weeks, Kest and Ayleana had teamed up for three online encounters with Team Rocket, all of which had been embarrassingly short. They’d also watched some replays of other air combat encounters from the losing teams’ perspectives and both of them had concluded that Team Rocket was a code name for a high functioning AI like Alex that had been learning air combat as part of its primary mission.
“You should know that ShwydH and Ayleana have mixed it up with Team Rocket members individually and won on occasion, but we won’t be fighting against them today. Does that make you feel better?”
Kest nodded at the same time Ayleana had tilted her chin up to signify agreement.
CHAPTER 38 – AIR SUPERIORITY
The sounds of footsteps running down the pier behind him urged Kest to greater speed on legs that hadn’t been on solid ground for almost a year. When he reached the parking lot at the end, he piled into the back of the armored van right behind Amber, steadying himself with a hand on her back. The van had no windows in the rear compartment aside from a top bubble for observation, and Kaitlin was already occupying that spot. HumanaH had assigned that task to her during the briefing. Apparently, she’d had some experience running the threat-assessment program that supported it.
“Don’t expect much from this thing,” she muttered on her way into the bubble.
Amber laughed. “That system’s project was always the red-headed stepchild of the security division,” she said.
Kaitlin snorted, and her voice echoed down from the bubble. “On behalf of the red-headed stepchild community, I can assure you that comparison is a compliment this thing does not deserve. Sometime y’all can ask me how it almost got me killed.”
Kest dropped next to Amber onto the padded bench along the starboard side of the van and fastened his seatbelt.
You’re not at sea anymore. It’s just the right side when you’re on land.
He smiled at his reluctance to abandon nautical directions. They were just so much clearer. After all, right and left changed depending on the viewer.
But how do you orient yourself in space when up and down become relative.
He’d have to ask Aylie what the galactic convention was. He managed
to distract himself thinking about that for a few minutes. Then there was the jeans-covered curve of Kaitlin’s bottom where it met her leg. That was distracting too, but it was also uncomfortable. He deflected from that to where HumanaH sat across from him. Of course, she wasn’t wearing much at all.
Have I always been this focused on female anatomy? Maybe I should ask Aylie if she can make my hormones less intrusive. Or I suppose I could try meditating.
He closed his eyes.
That’s better.
He woke with his head on Amber’s shoulder when the van stopped and someone opened the back door. He stumbled to his feet and ducked on his way out to keep his head from hitting the doorframe.
At the briefing, HumanaH had showed them where the ground control modules were set up, so he knew they were on the outskirts of the city near the international airport. He looked around.
