by TR Cameron
Jax shook his head. “I don’t think so. From here on out, we have to assume that things could rocket to full speed at any moment. That means time will always be working against us. It makes the most sense to have me and my team go and see what’s up so that if action is required, we can get to it right away.”
The weapons master asked, “Do you have a plan?”
Jax shook his head. “No, but I’m good at improvisation.” The others laughed, and he continued, “Seriously though, we load up the Grace with every piece of gear she can hold to give us maximum flexibility, then we go and react to what we see. We can always pull back or call in reinforcements if we need to, but this way if an opportunity presents itself, we’re already in place and able to act.”
Maarsen shook his head. “I don’t like it, but that could be my conservative streak talking. Does anyone else have an argument to offer for or against?”
Stephenson offered, “It’s a sound strategy, and it’s more or less what Jax is best at. The question is whether the rest of the team is capable of handling it.”
Jax shrugged. “They’ve risen to every challenge so far. I have no doubt they will again. I think they should be fully informed of the danger so that if anyone wants to step aside, they can. Maybe if that happens, we can meet up with some people from the Cronus who coincidentally decide it’s a good time to take leave.”
Stephenson said, “Again, anything involving us carries a serious risk of discovery. I wouldn’t want to do it unless it was essential.”
“I believe they’ll all be on board with the plan. But they should have a choice.”
Maarsen agreed, “Okay, you can ask them. But I won’t authorize Dr. Cray to join you on this particular mission. She’s too valuable to what we do here.”
There were murmurs of assent from around the table, and Jax was secretly in full agreement. “Then you can be the one to tell her, Professor. I’m willing to brave some dangers, but not that one.”
The other man grinned. “It won’t be the first time I’ve frustrated her. Also, we should be sure to pull whatever data we can from Athena before you go, in case something goes terribly wrong.”
What a gentle way to describe our demise, Professor. On the screen, Athena’s avatar nodded decisively. “Of course. We will need to ensure that we fully update the Grace with all the latest information the Academy has, plus the required technology to continue tracking the nanoparticles.”
Maarsen nodded. “It’s done then. We’ll get the ship ready as fast as we can, then you and whichever members of your team want to go along will head out. Hellene and Harrington, it will be up to you to ensure that the new surveillance Arlox and his people have put in place around the castle and the airfield is defeated. Once the Grace jumps, we should be safe from them knowing where the team is headed. We probably can’t hide their departure, but maybe we can keep them from noticing until the ship’s already out of reach.” He locked eyes with Jax. “Are you sure this is how you want to handle this?”
Jax nodded. “Positive. It’s time to move into the final round with this jerk.”
Athena added, “And it’s a fight we’re going to win by knockout. Count on it.”
Chapter Twelve
As expected, every member of his Academy team agreed to participate in the mission, even Trianna. The next morning found them all aboard the Grace, collectively overseeing the loading of a much bigger set of cargo supplies than they’d carried on his previous missions. It took all of them working together to get the crates arranged and strapped to the hardpoints in the floor while the pilots prepped the ship, and there was a sense of seriousness in the operation that was greater than any he’d felt with this group. It’s good that they recognize the danger. I wish I didn’t have to ask them to risk it.
He slapped the button to raise the cargo bay door, then ran forward to check on their timetable. Cia was in the left-hand seat as always, and her quiet copilot was in the right. He asked, “Everything proceeding as planned?”
Cia nodded. “Hellene tells us that they’ve chased off the human surveillance watching the spaceport and taken out any drones for a five-mile radius around it. There’s not much new that we can do about satellites, but I’ve got a little something in mind that should help with the secrecy of our operation.”
Jax put a hand on his chest in feigned shock. “You’re telling me you made plans without running them by me, the rightful commander of this mission?”
She snorted. “Things involving the Grace are my concern, not yours. So how about you head to the back and think about the limitations of your power, you dictator wannabe?”
He sniffed sadly. “You wound me, flygirl.”
“Whatever, jerkwad. Get. We’re lifting off in less than a minute.” She flipped on the ship’s intercom and made the same announcement. He headed for his quarters with a grin, wanting to spend some quiet time thinking through the various hazards that might lie in the future. Jax was a firm believer in visualization, and there was no greater reassurance than entering a difficult situation and knowing what to do because he’d already lived it mentally. While there were too many variables for him to figure out all the possibilities, the more things he ran through the process ahead of time, the better off his team would be in the long run.
He sealed himself into his bunk with his eyes closed and let his mind wander through the paths leading forward from the current moment. It wasn’t quite meditation, but it was as close to it as he was likely to get while on active duty. A smile grew as he remembered the mountaintop with Juno, and it widened at the thought of the remainder of that date.
Athena chided him, “Focus, Jax. I don’t want to die because you’re busy acting like a hormonal, lovestruck teenage boy.”
He shook his head. You’re jealous. Maybe someday you’ll meet another nice AI, and you’ll understand.
“You barely have enough brainpower in here to support me. There’s no way a second could fit.”
He let his mind wander, and it seemed like only moments before the all-clear sounded. He hit the galley for a snack, passed some small talk with the crew, then returned to his cabin and stayed there until they landed on Mars. Visiting the Rearden estate had been part of the plan from the beginning since they needed to pick up some equipment they couldn’t get anywhere else. Plus, Cia wanted to secure reloads for the weapon added to the Grace during a previous visit. That was probably the only reason she’d gone along with the idea of being in proximity to her relatives when it came right down to it.
When the rear cargo door opened, he wasn’t surprised to see Standring waiting there in all his tall, thin perfection. The family butler and overseer of the Rearden estate was in the same black uniform as always, but his normally stern visage softened with a smile at the sight of first Cia, then Jax. He strode forward and shook hands with the other man. “Standring, good to see you again.”
The butler lifted an eyebrow. “And in much better shape than last time you visited, Captain Reese.”
Jax laughed. The previous time he’d been on the planet, he’d arrived inside a cargo container, barely alive. “That’s the understatement of the year. How have you been? How’s the family?”
Standring laced his fingers behind his back. “I am well, and the family is the same as ever. Although, as you can see, some things have changed.” He gestured to the side, and Jax followed the motion to see that Anders Rearden, Cia’s father, had come out to the family’s private landing pad to greet her.
Jax grunted in surprise. “That’s a shocker. I wouldn’t expect him to be here unless he was the one traveling.”
The other man nodded. “It is, in fact, the first time he has greeted an arriving ship in person.”
“Then I guess it’s only appropriate that I go and offer my respects. There’s nothing critical involved with his presence, is there?”
“Even if there were, Captain, it wouldn’t be my place to say.” His tone was light enough that Jax took it to mean there was no
particular concern.
He clapped the butler’s shoulder. “You’re a good man, Standring. Will you coordinate getting the stuff loaded with the crew?”
“Of course.” He turned to walk toward the others, who had gathered outside the ship and were awaiting instruction.
Jax wandered slowly over to the two Reardens and made sure both saw him coming so he didn’t interrupt anything delicate. The older man was the first to speak. “Jackson, good to see you again. Decided to take a more ordinary means of transit this time, eh?”
Jax laughed and spread his hands. “As your daughter likes to say, I can on rare occasions be overly dramatic. But I try not to make a habit of it.”
Cia snorted. “If by that you mean spending at least an hour a day acting like a normal human, or as close as you can get to normal, then that’s true.” She shook her head and turned to her father. “Honestly, the phrase ‘drama queen’ was made for this one.”
The older man laughed. “I remember you saying that about each of your brothers at least once, and several more times about your sister.”
She nodded. “Yeah, but I hadn’t met him yet. Compared to him, they’re strictly amateurs.”
Jax shook his head. “The level of abuse I get from these people is enough to make me want to go back to the Special Forces. Enemies shooting at me on a regular basis is less dangerous than this, psychologically speaking anyway.”
Cia injected a note of baby talk into her voice. “Aww, is Jackson sad? Did the smart people’s insults hurt his little feelings?”
He sighed, the other two laughed, and the conversation turned. Anders became serious. “Are you sure this mission is worth the risk?”
Jax looked at Cia. “You told him?”
She shook her head. “He figured part of it out by himself, based on what I requested. Given that our cargo bay is open and the ship is stuffed to the rafters, we’re clearly heading out for something serious.”
He nodded. “Fair enough. Yes, sir, I’m sure this is the right way to go. Everyone here is a volunteer, and I’ll do my best not to put them at any excessive risk. But the issues at hand are too big, and the danger we’re all in already too high, to delay decisive action any longer.”
The other man nodded. “I’ve been in similar situations in the boardroom rather than the battlefield, and I understand where you’re coming from. I hope the materials we provided help. Know that you can always come back here if you need to. Even other governments would think twice before ticking off a business as large as ours, especially given our extensive connections to the UCCA.”
Jax laughed. “Hell, I’m counting on it. Once we’re wanted criminals throughout the universe, I figured the whole group would move in with you. The house certainly has the space, and we’ll promise not to be too much of a burden. I’ll volunteer Marshall and Sirenno as chaperones for your kids.”
Anders barked a short laugh. “In that circumstance, we would find a way to make it work.” He turned to Cia. “I’ve said this to you before, but I’ll say it again. I think you should consider coming to work with us, at least part-time. You can balance it with the activities you undertake for the Academy. It would be good for you, and good for us. We might even agree to put Jackson on the payroll as your copilot if you negotiated hard enough.”
She rolled her eyes. “Go into business with this guy? Haven’t you heard anything I’ve been saying? I’m hoping to leave him marooned on a planet in some uncharted system halfway across the galaxy so I don’t have to deal with him anymore.” Her tone softened, and she touched her father’s arm. “I hear you. I’ll think about it, really think about it. Truth is, I sort of miss being a part of all this. But there’s no way I’ll take orders from my siblings, even indirectly. So you better figure that if I come back, you’ll need to create an independent division of some kind for me with its own resources and mandate.” She paused for a second, then flashed a wide grin. “Or simply disinherit all of them and put me in charge of everything. That would work, too.”
Anders groaned and shook his head. “I value my life too much to do such a thing. They’ve all grown up to be appropriately vicious businesspeople. In any case, I think your crew has finished loading.”
Jax turned and saw that he was correct. “That’s our cue, I guess. Better get inside. Always good to see you, sir.”
The older man nodded once. “And you, Captain Reese. Be safe.” He didn’t say it out loud, but Jax understood the next part of his message, regardless. And keep your crew, especially my daughter, safe.
“Count on it, sir. You have my word.” He turned and jogged toward the tail of the ship, where he did a little yelling and pointing to make sure everything was properly secured in place.
Jax didn’t see Cia’s return, only knew she was back when a terse “Prepare for liftoff,” came over the intercom. He returned to his cabin, but this time flicked on the display to watch the view from the ship’s nose camera. The Grace lifted off from the opened dome as usual but didn’t climb toward space. Instead, she flew through the atmosphere and spent about forty-five minutes in the air before descending into the largest civilian spaceport facility he’d ever visited.
Once they landed, a tow truck dragged them into a nearby hangar, itself also larger than Jax had ever seen. When they stopped moving, Cia called for everyone to gather in the galley. “My father and I worked up this plan to make our departure a little less visible. I ran it by the Professor, and he agreed. I haven’t mentioned it before now, well, mainly because I didn’t feel like it.” The others laughed. “It was time Jax got a taste of his own medicine, damn secretive bastard.” There were cheers, and Verrand threw a wadded-up napkin she found on the table at him.
The pilot continued, “Right now, people who look a little like us and will pretend to be us are on the way to a nearby hotel, where my family’s business booked rooms in our names. I made a call more or less in the open when we landed to let the company know the ship required some repairs and it would be a couple of days before we were able to leave. That, of course, is a lie. After an hour or two of preparation, we’ll blast out of here and get on with our mission. What I need from you is this.”
She went on to explain what she needed the crew to do. It involved loading the ammunition into the ship’s weapon, uncrating certain supplies so they’d be readily available during their trip, and for a few of them, heading out to assist in disguising the ship. Jax was one of the latter, and he descended the cargo ramp beside Cia and Kimmel. The pilot had a tablet in her hand. She explained, “This is linked up to the ship’s computers. I like to watch this from the outside whenever I can.”
She tapped buttons on the tablet, and hull panels slid and rotated into new positions that altered the ship’s lines dramatically enough that a scan wouldn’t be able to identify it as the Grace. The short wings angled backward, which changed the ship’s width, and sections of the top hull rose and shifted inward to make tall upside-down V-shapes, taking what had been flat and transforming it into a tall spine. The flat cover that hid the weapons system also rose and changed to fit into the arrangement. He shook his head at the ship’s sophistication, and the creativity Cia had put into its design and upgrades.
The color scheme switched from the beautiful metallic sheen it had worn to a mottled, beat-up look that was more reminiscent of the Jigsaw than of the amazing craft Cia took such pride in. The panel with the grace note on the front blanked for a moment before a new image appeared, a line art cleaver with crimson blood dripping from the blade. When the activity was complete, Kimmel strode over and gestured to the hangar crew members, who immediately bustled forward to attach a pair of pods to the underside of each wing, further disguising the ship. Jax asked, “What are those?”
She grinned. “Those are secret, that’s what those are.” She laughed at his scowl. “Okay, I’ll tell you what one of them is. It’s the sensing suite we need to detect the nanoparticles. It made more sense to package it up and connect it this way than to
try to modify the ship’s sensors and code.”
Athena added, “I would have told you, but Cia wanted it to be a secret.”
Traitor. “And the other three?”
The pilot grinned. “A girl has to keep her secrets. Both me and my new ship, Occam’s Cleaver.”
He rolled his eyes. “Really?”
She laughed. “Don’t look at me. The Professor came up with that one.”
Jax threw up his hands in defeat. “Okay, I give up.”
Cia patted him on the shoulder and said in a soothing voice, “There, there. Soon you’ll be back in charge, and the world will seem right again. But for now, since I’m still the commanding officer for the next twenty minutes or so, get your ass on the ship, soldier. We have a mission to begin.”
Chapter Thirteen
They reached their destination in three jumps although they could’ve crossed the distance in fewer. Despite departing Mars under a fictitious name and with an altered ship body and drive signature, Jax had opted to take a less direct route that extended the trip by almost a full day. During the downtime, they continued to analyze the data they had on their enemies’ movements and added two more sets of pings to it. The concentration of dots in the system they were headed toward increased each time, making it clear that they were correct to consider it important.
When Cia announced they were a minute from the end of the jump, Jax strolled to the pilot’s compartment and took a position between the two chairs, one hand on the back of each. She counted down, and real space popped into view when she reached zero. An asteroid field surrounded the system, and they’d decided to jump in behind that barrier. It would put them a reasonable distance away from the clustered nanoparticle dots and lessen the likelihood of detection upon arrival.
She slowed the ship and guided it toward one of the asteroids while adjusting speed and trajectory so the Cleaver moved with the huge rock, ensuring it would hide her from the inside of the ring. She lifted a fist, and Trianna bumped it with hers. The copilot stated, “Excellent piloting.”
