by A. K. DuBoff
“Thank you.”
“With that said, you are still my son, and I’d like to get to know Lexi. I hope we and your mom can all get together soon.”
Jason nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
“Good. Enjoy this final week with your students. It’s really not a goodbye, just moving on to other things for now.”
“I will.”
— — —
A buzz at the door pulled Lexi from the couch. It seemed strange to answer the door of someone else’s residence, but Jason wasn’t around and it would be even weirder to pretend she wasn’t there. After all, the person might be there for her.
She checked the security camera feed and saw Kira outside, tapping her foot impatiently.
Lexi opened the door. “Hey.”
Her friend smiled. “Still staying here with Jason? I take it things are going well?”
Lexi gave her a coy smile. “Yeah. No complaints.”
“Well, I hate to pull you from your romantic bliss, but I need your help.”
“Sure.”
“They’ve given me access to the transit data from all of the planets that were attacked in the Outer Colonies,” Kira explained. “I could use another set of eyes while I sift through it.”
“Yeah, I’m happy to assist.” Anything to help find Leon.
She was also thankful to have a task to pass the time. Jason had a life here at TSS Headquarters, but she needed to find a way to contribute herself.
“I have a room reserved where we can work.”
“One sec.” Lexi jogged over to the coffee table to grab her new TSS-issued handheld, and she turned off the viewscreen. Hopefully, Kira hadn’t noticed the paused sappy romance vid on the screen. There was something about a new relationship that always made her mushy.
“Time to do some real work,” Kira said as they set off down the hall. “The Alliance liked us to look busy, but I don’t think either of us really did much.”
“No, the whole thing was a joke.”
“I’ve become convinced that it was by design,” the soldier continued. “I hate to admit it, but they are masters of deception. They kept so much going on at the surface level that it distracted everyone—including me—from the real work happening behind the scenes.”
“Why even put up that front?”
“Plausible deniability.”
“I’m so sorry Leon got pulled into a real project.”
“If he hadn’t, we might not have learned anything about their larger plans. I know we’ll find him.” Kira’s tone was confident, and it reassured Lexi that there was truth to the words.
The work room had a touchscreen table at its center and a larger viewscreen integrated into the back wall. Compared to the secondhand furnishings found throughout the Alliance office, the room seemed swanky.
“Wow, the TSS has really got it made,” she said.
Kira eased into one of the padded chairs at the table. “I’d always heard that they were posher than the Guard, but stars! Seeing everything firsthand puts it into perspective.”
“I guess having generation after generation of highborn leaders has an impact.”
“Nah, that organizational culture goes back way further than the Sietinens,” Kira said. “They used to report directly to the Priesthood. I hear those robed freaks liked everything all fancy.”
“Probably to distract people from the horrible things they were doing in the shadows.”
“Likely. I’m just happy to be off Duronis. I never expected to stay that long.”
“Me either.” Lexi slumped into her chair. “Now, I’ve gotta see it through.”
“I should have pulled us all out when I realized they were working on something in secret,” Kira murmured. “I didn’t handle it well in the field—way too much waiting around.”
“Isn’t that how deep undercover works? Spend time building trust?”
“Except it didn’t work. And I should have realized months ago that I wasn’t making sufficient progress. They played us, and it got people killed.”
And Leon captured. Lexi picked at the hem of her shirt. “Rehashing what might have been doesn’t help now.”
“That’s right.” Kira activated the tabletop and viewscreen. “Let’s figure out what to do going forward.”
Lexi looked over the information and Kira brought it up on the screen. There were all sorts of transit logs in addition to chronological data about civil disturbances related to the main attacks and subsequent fallout.
“Duronis seems to have had the worst of it,” Kira said. “However, these twenty-one other planets have had their share of disruption over the past year. It all seemed separate until there were these attacks that happened simultaneously.”
“Anything else in common?” Lexi asked.
“There’s no common name or branding to link them.”
“The Alliance customized its campaigns down to the neighborhood level. I’m not surprised there’s nothing connecting the organization world-to-world.”
“The themes are similar, though.” Kira brought up a couple examples on the viewscreen. “The common thread is seeking independence from centralized government. Trust in local representatives to lead.”
“The Coalition wants its own people.”
“No doubt.”
“And all those experts they’ve been recruiting… those are the kind of skills that would help build a new world.”
“Or rebuild.” Kira’s face darkened. “The project Leon was working on was some kind of genetically-keyed weapon. Something like that could wipe out certain life while leaving other things intact.”
Lexi’s gut lurched. “That’s a very disturbing thought.”
“I haven’t told you everything I’ve learned about the Alliance,” Kira revealed. “I do truly view you as a friend, but I had a mission to fulfill. Some information was too critical to trust to a civilian without Command approval.”
“And now?”
“Now we’re out of that infernal place and you know more about it than anyone on our side. I hope you’ll work with me going forward, as full partners, to find Leon and stop the people behind this violence.”
“Yes. Of course, I will. I would have been hesitant to trust someone like me, too.”
“This whole thing has turned out to be much bigger than either of us realized.” Kira looked over the expansive star chart on the holodisplay.
“I never would have joined the Alliance had I realized what was going on. I really thought they were just going to campaign for better wages, or whatever, and my friend would be somewhere on Duronis.”
“Stop trying to justify your actions, Lexi. I get it. In your position, I probably would have joined up, too.”
“Okay. Sorry.”
Kira pointed to the screen, getting down to business. “If you look at all these worlds, they do have a few things in common. Foremost, they’re all developed Outer Colonies planets with thriving interstellar commerce. Secondly, none of them are self-sustaining.”
Lexi caught on. “Which is interesting, because all of the Alliance’s messaging was about complete independence.”
“Right. Get people to withdraw, but they’ll still need to get their necessities from somewhere.”
“Enter the Coalition—standing by to serve as an organizer between the worlds.” That really would be a smart move.
Kira scoffed. “Wouldn’t surprise me in the least to learn that was their plan.”
“We’ve already made a lot of assumptions about what’s going on, but let’s chase that logic. Say they’re planning to swoop in with a solution for these remote worlds that will get them away from centralized Tararian rule. The Coalition itself would need a base of operations.”
“That could be anywhere in the galaxy.” Kira swept her hand over the vast expanse on the holoprojector. “It seems they’re working with black market independent jump drives, so we can’t begin to map out possible locations.”
“All right, m
aybe not for where the leaders might be based, but what about the location of this bioweapons lab? There have to be some factors that would narrow it down.”
“I was thinking that, too. Jasmine and I have been working with CACI to develop a few scenarios. I wanted to see if anything jumped out at you, based on your experience with supply receipts and inventorying.” Kira changed the information on the screen to show several possible flight paths off of Duronis and other worlds.
“Hi, Lexi, I’m Jasmine,” the AI said over the room’s speakers. “Kira has been my voice, but it’s nice to finally speak with you directly.”
“Yes, likewise.” The sudden presence in the room caught Lexi by surprise. She knew Kira had an embedded AI, but it was easy to forget since they’d never interacted directly. It made her wonder how many times Kira had been having conversations inside her head while she appeared to be sitting quietly.
Jasmine continued, “I have cross-referenced the supply shipment logs you were able to share with Kira, which has yielded a partial pattern of supply routes. I have compared that to flight paths recorded with the Duronis ports and the other worlds that were attacked to see if there were any destinations in common.”
“That sounds like a whole lot more than I could do,” Lexi said.
“What I cannot account for is the personal component. That’s why I suggested to Kira that we involve you in this analysis.”
“I also enjoy your company,” Kira added.
Lexi tilted her head, not sure what the AI and her friend wanted. “Is there a specific question in there?”
“These ten planets are the most likely candidates to have clandestine operations going on,” Kira said, bringing up summary briefs on each of them. “Does anything jump out?”
Lexi glanced at the profiles. “No.”
“You could look a little harder.”
“Yeah, but what’s the point? If you’ve already narrowed it down to ten planets, that’s a totally reasonable number to investigate. Can’t you or a few Agents just go down and scope it out?”
“No. We need hard proof and a clear action plan before we can make a move or we might spook them, and then we might lose all leads.”
Lexi examined the profiles again, more closely this time. Still, none of the cursory information jumped out. They were all sparsely inhabited worlds with breathable atmospheres and bio-optimized ecology—nothing that would require specialized equipment that may have passed through her inventory system.
“I’m sorry, Kira. I wish I could help, but I don’t have enough to go on.”
Her friend nodded, her disappointment obvious. “I figured it was a longshot. I still think we might be able to locate something in a manual review of the logs.”
“I’m all yours. Let’s find some answers.”
— — —
Offloading the Coalition investigation to Jason freed up Wil to refocus on the manufacturing and distribution of the new power cores and planetary shields. Jason had set them up for success with that, and the legal representative, Sabrina, had taken the deal with the Lynaedans to the finish line.
Though Wil was grateful to have Jason as the diplomatic face of the efforts, the fact remained that his son hadn’t inherited Wil’s passion for engineering. Whenever Wil tried to get into finer technical details, he could see the moment when Jason’s eyes glazed over—and that was barely beyond Step One. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the intellectual capacity, just no interest.
While Wil knew he probably shouldn’t engage in that kind of detail work as High Commander, designing new tech was his favorite way to spend time aside from being with his family. Participating in hands-on projects was one of the few indulgences he allowed himself, and this work with the power core was no exception.
With a formal manufacturing agreement in place, they now needed to finalize the production design. Wil had offered several possibilities to the team of Lynaeda’s top engineers assigned to the project, and they had countered with their own revisions. He’d glanced at the plans when the message had first landed in his inbox and then promptly tossed it aside to deal with later when he’d seen several erroneous assumptions within the first five seconds of his review. Now, the uncomfortable discussion with the engineers couldn’t be delayed any longer.
Reluctantly, he opened up the faulty core design specs and made a few notes about the things that would need to change before they were ready for production. As prepared as he could be, he put in the call.
The lead engineer on the Lynaedan side, Derik, answered right away; when communications went directly to a neural interface, there weren’t many excuses for missing a call. “High Commander Sietinen, what can I do for you?”
“Hi, I was hoping to go over these engineering plans with you. I’m actually going to be overseeing this project myself.”
“I must say, I never thought I’d have the opportunity to work directly with a living legend.”
We’ll see how long the celebrity adoration lasts once he realizes I want to undo all his work. Wil smiled. “And I’ve been curious to see Lynaedans perform their craft.”
“Well, this core is a little outside my area of expertise. Most of our projects are related to cybernetics.”
Good, so maybe this won’t come as quite so hard a blow. Wil glanced down at his notes. “I’ve been impressed with the recent work on bioelectronic interfacing to mimic telepathy. I hope some of the technology the Aesir have shared with us will one day be available in the lives of our citizens.”
“As do I.”
“In the meantime, this power core has the potential to revolutionize life in a different way. I oversaw the field trials with DGE, and I have some observations that have bearing on the latest design interactions.”
“Yes, I’m happy to go over it,” Derik said.
Wil braced himself. “What you’ve suggested won’t work.”
The engineer exhaled quickly, sounding more surprised than offended. “I didn’t think you telepaths were capable of such bluntness.”
“I hear that’s the Lynaedans’ style. Personally, I prefer a direct approach.”
“Then we’ll get along quite well. Please, explain where I went wrong.”
Wil walked the engineer through the problem. To Derik’s credit, he caught onto the issue quite quickly. The error had been rooted in a single assumption that happened to have far-reaching impacts, so once he understood the original flaw, he immediately set about correcting the other problems.
“I’m embarrassed to have missed this,” he said once they’d gone over the full set of plans.
“Happens to the best of us,” Wil said. “I’m glad it was such a simple fix. I didn’t realize all the issues had stemmed from that one thing.”
“This device has a totally different operating protocol than the other tech I’ve worked with. It’s good you’ve spent more time with it.”
“Threw me off, too, at first. I guess it’s no surprise that aliens would give us an alien design.”
Derik was quiet for a long moment. “You have a lot of plans for this core, considering how new and untested it is.”
“We have tested it. Thoroughly.”
“Yes, as much as can be done in the given amount of time,” the engineer said.
Wil couldn’t refute the statement. He had run it through every test he could think of, but there was no way to replicate a longitudinal study other than to wait years. The only reason he was rushing the implementation was because the hybrid design of the new power cores and the Aesir’s shield tech might be their only viable defense against the Erebus. It didn’t sit right that they were diving in with limited information, but it still seemed like the least-bad alternative.
“Our speed is proportional to importance,” Wil said. “This core will support the largest infrastructure upgrade project the Empire has undertaken in centuries.”
“A sign of the prosperity of present times, I suppose.”
Wil inclined his head. “It’s amaz
ing what we can accomplish when all available resources aren’t being funneled toward an ongoing war.”
Derik studied him through the screen. “But there’s a new conflict brewing, isn’t there? Shields like this aren’t preparations for peace.”
Wil didn’t want to lie. “There’s always one issue or another. We have the opportunity and means to improve safety on a number of worlds, so it seems prudent to take action.”
“A very diplomatic answer.”
“And necessary for someone in my position.”
Derik nodded. “Understood. I’ll make these revisions to the plans and get you updated copies for approval later this afternoon.”
“Thank you. I’m looking forward to working with you.” Wil ended the communication and leaned back in his seat.
The modified plans hadn’t gone entirely unnoticed, it seemed. He didn’t get the feeling that the Lynaedans would spread rumors about a potential ulterior motive for the new technology rollout, but all it would take is one reporter to put the pieces together and there could be major conspiracy accusations floating around. They’d need to keep the project details confidential. Too much was riding on this plan for it to fail.
Chapter 19
Jason’s heart ached at the sight of his students’ disappointed expressions.
“When’s your last day?” Alisha asked.
“Stars, it’s not like I’m moving to another galaxy!” Jason jested. “But this is it, the last class. I do have good news, though. Tom Alric is going to take over as your instructor. He normally only teaches advanced courses, but I told him how amazing you are and he’s agreed to make an exception.”
Their faces brightened at that. It wasn’t every day that students got to train with real war heroes, and Tom’s exploits during the Bakzen War were known to just about anyone who considered themselves half a pilot. His flights had been featured in at least a quarter of the training videos.
“I know you’ll all do great,” Jason continued. “And you can always message me if you ever have a question or issue.”
“It’s been a pleasure working with you, sir,” Bret said.
