by Max Jager
"Now please see your destiny through."
And then she was gone.
Jameson and Madeira stood quietly among the orchards of fruit trees for a moment longer.
Madeira was the first to break the silence. "Well, we have places to be. Time to get moving."
Jameson followed almost numbly as she led them down the rest of the row, back to the edge of the farm where they had hidden the jetbike.
"You really think she came from the future?"
Jameson shrugged. "I don't know what is real anymore."
"Well we know one thing for sure," Madeira said, mounting the bike behind Jameson. She put her arms around his middle tightly as the engine kicked on. "Axus is even more dangerous than you ever thought. And he's going to turn the whole galaxy into a war zone if we don't stop him."
Jameson kicked the throttle into gear. They rocketed off across the dirt road, back towards Chino.
"You two dated, didn't you," Madeira said, her voice coming through Jameson's comms.
Jameson chuckled. "Yeah. But that was before I knew she was a time traveler keeping tabs on a soon-to-be galactic terrorist and war criminal."
"And that changes things?"
"Well, yes. I could never date a girl like that," he jested. "I prefer a girlfriend who will just stick by my side no matter what."
He felt Madeira squeeze him a little tighter around the middle.
Jameson couldn't help but glance over his shoulder again towards the fruit farm. He had found a lot more there than he bargained for, and a lot of it he still didn't understand.
But he knew this much; the Axus that had wronged him was now on the Capitol world of Gibraltar, planning to destroy his nation and kill millions of innocents.
And it was up to him and Madeira to stop him.
Stratagem
Chapter 22
Stratagem
* * *
Gibraltar space
En Route to Andorra Star System
* * *
Jameson watched Grade roll over in his sleep.
Sometimes, in the dead of night when Jameson awoke from sleep, it looked unusual to see Grade lying casually on the ceiling. Somewhere deep in Jameson's brain was the old wiring that came with humans having spent millennia living planetside, where gravity always distinguished between up and down. He wondered how Madeira was adapting to the relative artificial gravity.
In truth, Jameson hadn't really fallen asleep. They were two weeks into their rushed flight back to Gibraltar space and still a few days out from reaching Andorra. Jameson had hoped the long flight would take his mind off the uncomfortable things they had learned at Kraven.
It hadn't.
Now he found himself lying awake in the darkness of his cabin, watching Grade's sleep patterns. Grade obviously had little to keep him awake at night.
Jameson exhaled, rolling onto his side, trying to make the pillow more comfortable. It was hard to keep his focus on his hatred for Axus and understand why he was doing the things he had done. Yes, in a twisted, perverted way it made sense. But Jameson would never be able to forgive Axus for going to the extremes he had gone to.
For the extremes he was about to go to.
Rolling over a few more times, Jameson finally pushed up from his bed and started out across the cold floor. Grade didn't bother stirring above him. He knew there was nothing worth following Jameson over. It was still too late for both their internal clocks.
Jameson padded out of his cabin and down the central corridor. As he neared the ladder up to the main deck, he spied the end cabin empty. That was where Madeira had set up, but the door was left open and her bed covers cast aside. Was she awake, too?
Feeling too lazy to climb the ladder, Jameson kicked off sharply from the floor and floated up the short passage to the main deck. Here he was greeted by faint light streaming through the galley further up the corridor. Madeira was inside, reclining at one of the tables and typing away absently on a tablet in hand. The wall length window across the room showed streaks of stars winking by, distorted by the warping Lauritzen field that propelled them through space.
Madeira glanced up as Jameson walked in. "Can't sleep, either?" Her tone was too chipper for this late at night.
"Yes, but I don't think for the same reasons." He grabbed a beverage from the dispensary and joined her at the table. "What are you working on?"
"Just writing a quick letter home," she replied, her finger still working away on the digital keyboard. "Letting my friends and family know I'm all right."
She paused, glancing up over top of the screen. There was something dancing in her intense eyes. "Well…I've also been looking up some pics of Andorra." She flipped the tablet around, showing one of the immaculate magenta beaches near the Capitol.
Jameson smirked. "Nice. You're ready to get back in the water, huh?"
"More than just that," she replied excitedly. "I mean, yes, I'm dying to go for a dip, especially on a new world. But there's so much to see. If we have time, there's half a dozen places around the city we need to visit."
"Well you'll certainly have the time," a disembodied voice added.
Jameson blinked, briefly surprised to hear Mathison chiming in. It took his brain a moment to remember that Mathison never slept. "Oh?" Jameson replied.
"'Fraid so," the AI replied glumly. "I've spent the last two weeks going over as much archived security footage as possible and I still can't find Axus. Not a single pattern is cropping up. And I can't figure out how he's cloaked himself from Gibraltar security so well."
Jameson shifted his jaw. "He's there somewhere."
"There is some good news," Mathison continued. "I'm running a hard search on my own processing power. If we can get permission from Capitol authorities, I might be able to get some of their mainframe MATHISONs to run a networked search. Axus's good, but he's not invisible. He's an extra person on that planet that should not be there; we'll find him. Eventually."
Jameson returned his gaze to Madeira. "Well…guess you'll be getting your dip in the ocean sooner than you expected."
Madeira shrugged, grinning. "I'm not complaining." Then her expression hardened. "But the moment you get a hit on this guy, you let me know. I don't want you to take him on by yourself. Not like last time."
Jameson nodded to reassure her. Though deep down he wasn't sure how exactly it would play out. They might spend weeks on Andorra. And if Madeira was somewhere deep underwater off the coast when the hit came in…there wouldn't be much time.
But was it worth going in solo again if it meant Jameson still wasn't prepared to take Axus down? The thought wasn't very comforting.
"We'll do it together," Jameson finally voiced aloud. "Whenever we find him."
"There is some more good news," Mathison added. "Gibraltar command received your message about the prisoner handoff."
The thought made Jameson think of the six traitors frozen rock solid in his cryo-tubes two decks down in the Crimson's hull. It would be nice to finally get them sent on their way to true justice.
"So someone will be waiting for us when we arrive in system?"
"Not just anyone," said Mathison. "An old friend of yours. Commander Torik Sharr."
0.0.0
* * *
Gibraltar space
Andorra Star System, Planet Andorra
Crimson Night in Orbit
* * *
The view looking down from orbit was gorgeous.
A unique bacterium grew in the sands on Andorra. It leached a bright magenta color that left relatively dull streaks in the sandy shores. But as soon as it touched water, it exploded with color. All along the network of continents and island chains, the water was a mixture of magenta oozing out in smudges through the crystal blue waters. It was the densest near land, where the bacteria preferred to grow. The effect left the planet a swirl of stunning colors, with bluer further out to sea, and pinker closer to land.
There was a reason Andorra was the jewel of the repu
blic.
Jameson reclined in his chair on the Crimson's bridge, taking in the scenery from their position in high orbit. Set against the backdrop of the colorful world, he could also see Diamond Station, one of the biggest Space Habitats ever built. It was a series of four gargantuan rings, lined with interconnecting arms and tunnels. Countless ships swarmed around it like a beehive; some headed down to the surface, while others docked with other starships in orbit.
The Crimson's skiff jetted by, disappearing into the swarm of activity as it headed down for the surface. As Jameson watched it become indistinguishable, Madeira's voice flooded the bridge comm system.
"You'll be sorry you missed out when I send you my pics."
Jameson barked a short laugh. "You're the water girl, not me."
"Yeah. You're not a very pretty girl at that."
It was Mathison's turn to chuckle. "Honestly, Jameson. You could use the break. Even when you're finished handing off the prisoners, I could have a shuttle booked to take you down to Spaniard Cove in a heartbeat."
"See?" Madeira added. "You need a vacation. Besides, it's going to take me about a day to re-grow my tail. That's more than enough time for you to get your ass down here."
"Meh, I don't need to come back from that colored bright pink."
Madeira made some kind of sound that was probably her blowing a raspberry. "That's half the fun! And it's not like it doesn't wash off…"
Truth be told, Jameson was more than tempted to follow along after her once he was done with business aboard the Crimson. The last few days of flight still hadn't seen any luck on pinpointing Axus's location. Jameson had to fight back the gnawing fear that they were too late. That Strange hadn't pointed them in the right direction in time.
But they were here now, and there was a beautiful girl in his skiff headed down to the beaches without him. Did it matter if he scoured the planet's database alongside Mathison when they didn't have any leads? Besides, it would be fun to spend some alone time with Madeira…
"Maybe next time," Jameson breathed in defeat. "We're running on a clock. I need to at least confirm Axus is still in-system."
"Well, if you ever get bored, just remember that the beaches are always still here…"
A proximity light started winking on Jameson's console. He glanced up at the forward view screen, watching as a Gibraltar patrol ship sidled up next to the Crimson. "Gotta go," Jameson said, leaping to his feet. "Company just arrived."
"All right," Madeira replied, a laugh in her voice. "Bye for now, Jameson."
Jameson quickly covered the distance from the bridge to the main airlock. A trill of apprehension gathered in his gut. He had sent and received a few letters back from friends in the beginning when he first became a bounty hunter. But this was the first time in years he was seeing any of the old faces.
It brought back painful emotions.
Jameson consciously made the effort to keep his faceplate up as the airlock opened, revealing Torik on the other side. He was still all smiles. "Hey, old buddy."
The uniform was the same; the maroon colors and insignia of some command post. The face had grown a little more narrow in the intervening years, though; the eyes a little more sunken in. He wasn't keeping the same level of detail to his hair style, either. Torik Sharr definitely looked the part of an older, experience laden officer.
And yet neither of them had come close to surpassing their thirties.
His eyes flashed with a mixture of surprise and realization as he swept over Jameson's features. Jameson couldn't remember if they had said any parting words after his cybernetics had healed. The time they had first chatted, Jameson was still covered in more bandages than an old Earth mummy. This may have been the first time he had truly seen Jameson with a scarred up face and missing one eye. Too bad his custom armor hid the rest of the augmentations.
Torik smiled politely, stepping forward with several lax soldiers on his flank—they didn't seem too interested in being there. But at least one thing about Torik hadn't changed; he never seemed to be without his friendly smile. Even if this time it seemed forced.
Instead of shaking his hand, he pulled Jameson into a quick hug. "It's good to see you again."
Jameson exhaled, trying to keep his mind from wandering back to the faces that hadn't made it out of the Station with Torik. "Glad to see you again, too," he finally said. "I guess we should get to work."
Jameson helped as Torik's security detachment began moving the cryogenics tubes. But they knew what they were doing, so he stuck back and watched with Torik.
"Wow…" Torik breathed, watching as the frozen faces went by. "Hard to believe we used to be contemporaries with these…traitors."
Jameson knew he was trying to be conversational. And there was something odd about the two of them standing together with these old faces going by.
But if Torik wanted to be conversational, it was time to tease out some information. And Jameson knew exactly how to bait him. "They transferred you to the Capitol," he grunted, changing the subject. "You must be a Fleet Commander now."
Torik pressed his lips together in a tight line, a look of disconcertment crossing his face. Jameson knew that look. "What does the Fleet have you do beside assist on the Council?" said Jameson.
"You know I can't really talk about that."
"Why, because I'm not in the Fleet anymore?"
"That's exactly why. You're…you're a bounty hunter." The title almost seemed to be a curse on his lips; Torik clearly didn't approve. "We're not allowed to talk about Fleet operations. Maybe if you had simply retired, but we can't really talk about it."
Jameson raised an eyebrow. "We? More of the old friends here in Andorra I should know about?"
Torik shook his head no. "Kaitlin isn't even here anymore. Not since she took her new command post."
There it was. The question was what new command post? Was the Fleet building Peacemaker again?
"There's something you should know," said Jameson. "Something Kaitlin might need to know at her new command post. Axus is here." He gave the condensed version of everything he had learned from Aquarius and Strange. He also kept those specific details to a minimum. "So," Jameson finished, "is there something here that Axus might be after?"
Torik sighed. "There are…other "assets" the Fleet is pursuing. If Axus is here, he's probably looking to track them down and do what he did to Peacemaker."
Bingo. And Jameson had no doubt the rest of their old friends were heading up each of these "assets." Kaitlin apparently, but probably also Rappel, Kurtz…and well, anyone not yet slaughtered by Axus.
"But none of that is here," Torik continued. "If Axus is in system, what could he be doing besides trying to track things down?"
Jameson grunted. "I'll tell you exactly what he's doing here; he's planning to sabotage the Gibraltar Strategic Grid. He's giving Draconia a reluctant window for a strategic first strike."
Torik stood quietly processing this, the two watching as the security crew hauled away another tube. When they were alone, he said, "Axus could never pull that off. He had plenty of turncoats in the Fleet six years ago, but he has no one today."
"I don't know how he's going to do it, but he's going to try. My sources very specifically led me here. There can be no doubt what he's attempting." Again, he didn't say anything about Strange. He doubted Gibraltar would believe she was still alive. And if they did…what would they do with that information? "Axus is here," Jameson pressed. "Somewhere. And I need to find him before he does any damage."
Torik thought for a moment in silence. The security crew was done. Suddenly the cryo bay was empty after four years of filling it with traitors. They started back up in silence towards the airlock.
Torik didn't believe him; maybe he believed that Axus was here on Andorra, but he didn't believe he was a threat. Jameson couldn't afford to think that way. Axus was now more a threat than ever, if what Strange said was true. He had info from the future that could give him an edge. There was
no telling what he could do even working by himself somewhere on the planet below.
"I don't know if this will help," Torik began, hesitating on the threshold, "but I can set you up in a suite in the Capitol."
"New Madrid?" Jameson said, arching an eyebrow.
Torik nodded. "I can even get you some access codes to low-security Fleet MATHISON networks. You do have the clearance for those, especially since you're under Gibraltar contract to bring in Axus. If you're sources are right about him being here on this planet…" Torik shrugged, and his old familiar smile returned. It sent waves of memories through Jameson. "At least I can give you an edge in tracking him down."
