by J. N. Chaney
Dressler nodded beside me. “I have to agree with Abigail on this one, Captain. I didn’t do this many in one session.”
I waved their concern away. “Last one. I can do it.”
I activated the device once more and stepped into the metal sheet. When the rest of me reappeared on the other side, I sent Abigail and Dressler the smuggest look I could muster. “See?”
I’d spoken too soon. For one glorious moment my body felt weightless, then it registered that I was falling.
“Ah, shit,” was the last thing I said before everything dropped away into nothing and the world went completely black.
* * *
“Neural activity suggests he is regaining consciousness, Miss Pryar,” a muffled voice said from somewhere in the dark.
I frowned. They sounded familiar, but their identity eluded me. Sig-something. I tried to remember, but it was gone.
“Thank gods. I don’t think we could have hidden this much longer.” Another familiar voice. Female. A gentle pressure on my hand told me that someone was squeezing it, then someone whispered in my ear. “Wake up, idiot.”
Abby.
With her name, everything came crashing back at once. Finding the chamber, phasing in the lab with Dressler and Abigail. Stepping through that big ass piece of metal and coming out the other side feeling like I hadn’t slept in weeks, then nothing but black. Until now.
My lids felt heavy, like they were made of concrete, but I forced them to open. It took a few tries for them to stay that way. I was treated to a close up view of Abigail, blurry around the edges. “That’s no way to speak to your leader, lady,” I mumbled.
“Jace!” She flung her arms around me in an uncharacteristic show of affection. She smelled good.
“What’s all the fuss, woman?” I asked, still a little out of it. “I just took a nap is all.”
“A nap?” Worry pinched her features, setting off alarm bells in my head. “Jace, you’re onboard the Star. In the infirmary.”
“Huh?” I sat up, feeling stronger, and took in my surroundings.
As she’d said, I was in the infirmary. I’d only been in it once before, during my first walkthrough of the ship, and then only given it a cursory glance. Because it was designed to match its predecessor, I still recognized it. The main differences came from the upgraded equipment like the pair of healing pods. Behind Abigail stood Octavia and a full-sized Sigmond, glowing his usual gold.
“You had me brought here because I passed out?”
Abigail looked back at Octavia, who nodded and stepped forward. “Let me take a look at you, Captain, to ease our minds. Then we can explain everything.”
The calm way in which she spoke didn’t reassure me, not by a long shot, but I let her run the tests. She ran scanners over my body, checked all my vitals, and asked me dozens of questions. Weird questions.
Did I know my name? What year was it? Could I name everyone in the room?
By the time she finished, I had a pretty good idea that more than a few hours had passed.
“Sir, I’ve detected a small spike in your vitals,” commented Sigmond. “Are you all right?”
His concern drew Octavia’s gaze to the display. “Maybe I should run the tests again.”
“No,” I snapped. “I want someone to tell me what the hell is going on.”
“Jace, you’ve been in a near catatonic state for the last seventy hours,” Octavia informed me. “We tried to put you in the healing pod, but it couldn’t find anything wrong with you.”
I stared at her for a few seconds, just to make sure I’d heard that right. “Seventy hours?”
She nodded. “Closer to seventy-one, but yes.”
“Sir, it is good to see you awake,” said Sigmond. “We were all quite worried.”
I took a long breath. “I’m not so easy to put down, Siggy. You know that.”
“Indeed, sir,” he replied. “All the same, I’d appreciate it if you took fewer risks.”
“You know you’re pushing yourself too hard if Sigmond starts talking like that,” said Octavia.
“Don’t let him fool you. He’s always been overprotective,” I muttered.
Three days, I mused. Not as bad as I feared, but still not great news. A lot could happen in three days, after all. I was fairly confident that Abigail or Sigmond would have alerted me by now if something major was amiss, even though it had only been seconds since my awakening. A glance at the former nun gave me pause. She smiled at me, but it seemed forced, and her eyes were troubled. Too troubled, and I wagered it wasn’t entirely because of me.
“Abby, is there something going on that I should know about?” I asked.
She hesitated before answering. “I’ve been meeting with Vick and Emissary-Grennet in your place,” she finally said. “They’ve been growing more nervous about your lack of attendance. For now, they believe you’ve been handling a situation on the ground. Since they know about the surveillance situation, I told them it involved that, but I don’t know if they’re buying it.”
“That’s not all of it, though,” I said, eyeing her. “What else happened?”
“There was one incident you’ll want to know about,” she admitted. “It actually does have to do with that foreign signal, ironically.”
I sat up a bit. “What happened?”
She swallowed. “It tried to communicate with us. All of us. Vick and Grennet were both present when the transmission came over the comms on Tartarus.”
My eyes widened, and I paused, trying to imagine what the fallout of this might be. “Is everyone okay?”
“It was a distress call, sir,” Sigmond replied. “It wasn’t hostile.”
“Distress? What kind of distress? Do we know who sent it? Was it the Celestials?” A hundred questions were racing through my mind so fast I could hardly form the words.
“No,” answered the Cognitive. “It was from Athena.”
9
I stared dumbly at the Cognitive’s gold aura, trying to make sense of what he’d just said to me. My brain struggled to process this unexpected new information because it should have been impossible. The Celestials had ripped her data drives from her capsule — I’d seen it for myself. Part of me wanted to believe that the message had come from Athena, but I knew the danger of such a hope and squashed it. “Have you been able to verify if it was actually her?”
Sigmond shook his head apologetically. “The transmission was short. I was, however, able to determine the origin before the message was cut off.”
I swung my legs over the medical bed, causing an outcry from both Abigail and Octavia. Their protests didn’t give me pause, but my lack of clothing did. “Why am I naked?” I balked.
“You were unconscious for three days,” replied Octavia, acting as nonchalant as ever. “You began to smell, so Abigail took the liberty of removing your clothes this morning and—”
“Anyway,” Abigail interjected. “Vick wanted to go immediately. I managed to stall him for nearly a full day, but he eventually grew tired of waiting. He’s on his way to Tartarus as we speak.”
“Siggy, get me Vick on the line now. Audio only,” I instructed.
“Of course, sir.” The Cognitive had the transmission up on a holo display seconds later.
“Well, well, well. I guess you’re alive after all, Hughes.” The Vice Admiral’s sneering voice came over the comm, a touch of surprise behind the greeting.
“That’s right, and I’ll be joining this little expedition, so don’t get any ideas about leaving early,” I told him.
He paused before responding. “I have to say, Hughes, I was beginning to wonder if you were dead.”
I could almost hear the cogs grinding in that little Union brain of his, trying to solve the mystery of what I’d been up to. “Sorry to disappoint,” I said. “My team and I will meet you at the rendezvous. Talk soon.”
The line went dead a moment later.
“You’re not fit to go anywhere, Jace,” Abigail snapped whe
n the transmission ended, stepping in front of me.
Octavia joined her. “Captain Hughes, I have to caution you about trying to do any further strenuous activity. You’ve just woken up from a coma. See reason and accept your own limitations. We have no idea how your body will react if you—”
“Siggy just told me that Athena might be alive, and he has a location,” I said, waving my hand at both of them. “A location that Vick and the Sarkonians also have, if I’m understanding the situation right. I ain’t about to sit here and let them go after her without me. If you don’t want to watch me move my naked ass to the exit, then I suggest you cover your eyes and pretend I’m still asleep.”
Octavia didn’t pale or step back, instead fixing a hard stare of her own on me. She must have seen my resolve because she sighed heavily and shook her head. “Fine. If you want to be stubborn, so be it, but I’m going to insist that Sigmond keep me apprised of your vitals.”
“Fine by me,” I said, leaping off the bed. “Siggy, why don’t you play that distress call for me? I’d like to hear it.”
“Coming right up,” said the Cognitive.
A moment later, Athena’s familiar voice came over the comm. “This is a distress call from Athena of the seed ship Titan to Earth and her allies. My system has been compromiiiiiised.” The audio skipped and warbled, giving her a disembodied quality that was very unpleasant to the ear. “I am unable to protect the data for much longerrrrrr. Please—”
I waited for the rest, but the message cut out with nothing else to follow. “That’s it? What happened to the rest of it?”
Abigail and Octavia exchanged grim looks. Sigmond remained his unflappable self, with only the slightest downward curve of his lips to signify his concern. “I’m afraid there is no more, sir.”
“How sure are we that the message came from Athena?” I asked Sigmond. “Could it be faked?”
“I can verify her speech pattern, as well as her digital signature,” said the Cognitive as he indicated to the holo display where another file had appeared. He overlaid them to demonstrate they were a perfect match. “However, this is not definitive evidence that the Athena we know recorded and sent this. It is possible that the Celestials obtained access to her drives and now have control of her system.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” I said.
“The signal disappeared, too. The one we suspected was listening in on our activity,” informed Abigail. “The moment we received this message, the other one ended.”
None of this made much sense. If the Celestials were behind Athena’s message and were only pretending, then why bother cutting the original signal? On the other hand, if it was Athena who was responsible for the signal and had sent the message, why had she waited over a week to send her distress call? None of it fit, no matter how I tried to turn the information around in my head. Could the two be unrelated? Could the Celestials be responsible for the original signal but not Athena’s? But then, why would they cut it off when hers had gone out? What was the connection between the two?
Something else about what Athena had said was bothering me. “It didn’t sound altogether like the Athena we know,” I said, crossing my arms. “She didn’t address any of us directly. The phrasing reminded me more of something out of a ship’s manual. The kind of automated message you’d hear if she were nothing but an AI reciting pre-written lines.”
There was a pregnant pause as everyone absorbed that, no doubt playing the audio back in their heads and comparing it to our various experiences with the Cognitive.
“Sir, I’ve run a check on the SOS protocols,” Sigmond announced. He smiled kindly at me when I motioned for him to continue. “You are correct in assuming that Athena used a premade message from her base programming. Titan’s system reflects this.”
“So, it could easily be the Celestials trying to lure us into a trap,” said Abigail.
“There’s holes in that theory,” I said, scratching my ankle with my toes. “But we might be missing something. I’m not sure.”
“But what’s the point of them doing this?” asked Octavia. “Let’s say the Celestials are doing this. Then, what? What’s the endgame here?”
“What do you mean?” asked Abigail.
“Think about it,” she said. “We put together a team, send them down to the source of the signal, and—” She raised and swept her hand in the air. “—what? We lose a dozen people to an ambush? There are thousands of other soldiers and personnel on this station. We have hundreds of ships and even more drones in orbit. What good does this serve? It’s so elaborately constructed, and for what?”
“I see what you mean,” said Abigail.
I swept my hand across my chin, noticing the stubble that had grown during my three day nap. “You raise a good point.”
“Maybe Athena doesn’t have the capacity to do more because of her current state,” Abigail said. “Or they are accessing Tartarus’s systems from wherever they went and she found a way to use the signal.”
This was getting us nowhere. Now I understood why Dressler hated making assumptions without hard data. “Look, we can debate this all day,” I continued. “The only way to know for sure is to check it out ourselves. Octavia, I need you to go and catch up with Freddie, wherever he is. I want you two to put a small team together. Make sure they can handle close-quarters combat situations.”
“Now?” she asked.
I nodded at her. “Be ready within the hour. Siggy, send a message to Rackham. Grennet too. Tell them we’re on our way.”
“Yes, sir,” he replied.
“Now,” I said, looking around the room. “Where are my pants?”
* * *
“What did the team end up finding in that workshop chamber?” I asked, suddenly remembering. “I assume you did a follow-up investigation on it.”
“Nothing yet. The boxes were empty,” she explained. “They’re still working on the next set of doors. Sigmond’s scan picked up a stronger signal coming from behind them. The working theory right now is there’s a warehouse of sorts.”
“That sounds ominous,” I told her, recalling the tracks in the ceiling. “If they need a warehouse for that, then I think it’s safe to assume the Celestials were building a weapon.”
Abigail nodded. “I think you’re right. It’s probably why the door is proving harder to open. It’s like they took the time to secure it.”
We came around another corner and reached the rendezvous, right on time. Three distinct teams stood before a large door: Union, Sarkonian, and those of Earth. I was beginning to recognize most of them on sight from working in close proximity, though Rackham and Davon were the only ones I could name. Of course, Vick had delegated Lieutenant Rackham in his stead. The Vice Admiral preferred meetings to being in the field, which was just fine with me.
I didn’t see Grennet with the Sarkonians, which surprised me. One man stood out, however. He wore the colors and bars identifying him as a man of rank. I recognized the authority in the way he held his posture. Davon stood next to him and the two appeared to be talking at length. I recalled the Emperor’s terms that a new expert join us on Tartarus and realized this must be him. The newcomer was slim and all sharp angles, with thin lips and a narrow nose. Something about his bony appearance made me dislike him instantly.
The door didn’t look much different than the rest on the ship, at least the ones that led to larger chambers. No markings adorned it, though I almost wished they did. It would have been nice to see some kind of sign that the place was special, a clue that Athena might be inside, but there was nothing.
All eyes turned on me as we drew closer. It was clear that the suddenness of absence had piqued the curiosity of many. Only my crew knew the truth and were under strict orders not to say anything, not that they ever would.
Octavia was studying me with reproachful eyes, checking for any sign that I might not be up to the task of this mission. I half expected her to chastise me again for being out of bed so soon, but
she said nothing. Dr. Dressler also gave me a once over, though her concern also appeared steeped in scientific curiosity. Besides her, I was the only person who had phased through solid objects. One step further than that, I was the only one to nearly kill myself doing it. I realized that the doc had likely already devised a plan to interrogate me when this was over.
“Welcome back, Captain Hughes!” The excited greeting came from Freddie, who smiled widely at me.
Exuberance aside, I was glad the younger man was here. His vast knowledge of Earth was only rivaled by Hitchens—who wasn’t here—and Dressler. He always had some knowledge to impart, even if it came with a case of the nerves. Freddie didn’t seem as out of sorts today, however, and I wondered if he expected to find Athena behind these doors. I wasn’t of the hopeful variety. Taking in his cheerful smile, I felt bad that I had to set him straight.
“Freddie, don’t relax now. We don’t know what we’re about to walk into. It might be Athena, but assume it isn’t,” I ordered.
His smile faltered and he stood straighter before nodding briskly. “Yes, Captain.” I didn’t mean to dash his hopes, just to re-focus his attention.
I clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s my man.”
Rackham strode over to greet me next, with Davon and the new Sarkonian walking abreast of him. “Hughes. Glad to see you could join us.”
“Glad to be here,” I replied.
The lieutenant’s lips moved slightly, as though he wanted to smile, but didn’t quite make it before Davon stepped forward and waved a ceremonious hand at his companion. “Captain Hughes, it’s wonderful to see you. Please allow me to introduce Major Pascal Sanchez, the Emperor’s other expert on ancient artifacts.”
Sanchez offered a hand, which I took, and he shook it loosely. His bony fingers felt brittle in mine, and slightly clammy. If the time honored tradition was a way to judge, I’d have said my initial assessment held. Our eyes locked briefly. His were dark and they studied me in that moment with a cold, piercing intellect that made me wary. Davon had always reminded me of Dressler. A scientist first, loyal civilian second. An all-around smart guy, but more interested in the artifacts he got to study here than any kind of subterfuge. I got the opposite feeling from the major. He was a man with a purpose and my gut said that purpose was to be the Emperor’s eyes and ears. A silent acknowledgement passed between us in the form of a curt nod, then he dropped my hand.
