Книга: Decisive Action

DECISIVE ACTION

PERILOUS ALLIANCE

BOOK 3.5

BY M. D. COOPER

& CHRIS J. PIKE

Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Readers

Version 1.0

Cover Art by Andrew Dobell

Editing by Jen McDonnell, Bird’s Eye Books

Aeon 14 & M. D. Cooper are registered trademarks of Mal Cooper

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

PREVIOUSLY…

CLEAR AND PRESENT

HARD DAY’S NIGHT

AID

ATMO TOWER

MEANWHILE, IN HEAVEN

THE SHADE

WELCOME TO HELL

AN UPGRADE

MAN WITH A MISSION

OUTSIDE

THE PINCER

TO GROUND

STRAND

AN OLD FRIEND

TOWER DEFENSE

CRASH AND BURN

FINAL FAREWELL

THE BOOKS OF AEON 14

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

FOREWORD

I’ve wanted write this story for some time, to come back to Montral and spend some time on its dark and gritty streets.

Gedri is an interesting star system. A large, orange star, with a low-mass red dwarf named Townsend orbiting it. The planets are spaced widely enough that Townsend is tucked in amongst them, making the star more like a planet.

And in orbit of Townsend, we find Jericho. A planet that had been—mostly—terraformed in the past, but due to a poor foundation and neglect, has regressed back into a near-lifeless rock.

The surface cities have been domed over, and few people live beyond their protective shielding.

Ancient riverbeds, crevasses, and canyons are the only places on Jericho where life remains, hardy species of plants engineered to thrive even in thinner atmosphere. We encountered one of these in Collision Course when the Dauntless crashed on Jericho.

I spent a lot of time crafting this setting, and I have a strong urge to write more stories here. We’re going to meet some new characters in this book, denizens of Montral, the capital city on Jericho, and perhaps we’ll see some of them get their own books. Maybe a gritty noir detective type of story…

We’ll just have to see where the characters take us.

M. D. Cooper

Danvers, 2019

PREVIOUSLY…

Decisive Action takes place roughly in the middle of the Perilous Alliance series, directly following the events of Strike Vector and Collision Course.

If you recall, at the end of Strike Vector, Kylie was forced to help Maverick become president of the Gedri Freedom Alliance (the local government in the Gedri System). Upon receiving the title, Maverick promptly declared Gedri’s independence from the Silstrand Alliance and declared war on Silstrand.

Though the Silstrand Space Force had a fleet present in the Gedri System, many of those ships were recalled to the Silstrand System to defend the capital against the Revolution Fleet, led by Kylie’s father.

A few SSF ships remained in Gedri, falling back to a half-dozen stations that were far enough from Freemont and Jericho—Maverick’s two major power bases.

Unbeknownst to Maverick, the SSF—along with help from the Intrepid Space Force—defeated the Revolution Fleet at Silstrand, and joined Tanis Richards’ alliance. The Transcend’s Field Marshal has mandated that Silstrand take control of the Fringe systems between Scipio and the ASN. If Gedri falls to chaos, then the SSF will have no hope in securing the Fringe.

Tanis knows this, and tasks two of her ISF destroyers to escort a fleet of ships into the Gedri System to take control of the situation there before it devolves further into chaos.

After his exemplary performance—and aided by Tanis’s recommendation—Colonel Grayson is given command of the SSF fleet, a command he is all too eager to have, for one reason only: it puts President Maverick squarely in his crosshairs.

But Maverick has an ace up his sleeve. Grayson’s former AI, Jerrod, has been shackled and placed in Maverick’s mind, giving him direct access to everything he could ever want to know about the Silstrand Space Force….

CLEAR AND PRESENT

STELLAR DATE: 09.26.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: GFS Satisfaction, en route to Jericho

REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

“Francis!” Maverick called out from the low couch where he sipped his wine while watching the slow-motion dance still unfolding around Freemont and The Futz.

The battle with the SSF and the opposition forces was over—for the most part. A few ships were still taking potshots at one another, a lot more were looting any hull not capable of putting up a defense, and still others were chasing off the remaining Silstrand Space Force ships, hoping to disable and capture one of the military cruisers.

Idiots, Maverick thought with a laugh.

There were few ships in Gedri capable of going toe-to-toe with a Silstrand Space Force cruiser while it was surrounded by a destroyer escort. The scavengers chasing after the SSF fleet would only meet with destruction.

The time isn’t ripe yet to make that sort of strike.

Of course, the composition of the pursuers was entirely of his design. The ships he’d sent to chase the enemy out of Silstrand all belonged to interests that he wished to weaken. Everything was a game, every faction, ship, and even person in Gedri a pawn for him to move about the board.

“Yes, Mister President?” Francis gasped breathlessly as she appeared in the room’s entrance.

“What the hell took you so long?” Maverick asked in annoyance, not bothering to glance at the collared woman.

“I’m sorry,” her eyes were cast downward as she walked forward slowly. “I was just coming back down from the bridge. Captain Lawrence says we’re on time for our rendezvous with the Icapus.”

“Good,” Maverick replied. “And Sylvia is aboard? With the package?”

“Yes, Mister President. I confirmed it personally.”

He nodded, flicking his gaze to her for a moment, taking in her lithe body. She was—for the moment, at least—his favorite girl, which meant that she ruled his brood of women. It was a task to which she was well-suited, though it also made her dangerous.

He’d watched how effectively Francis commanded and corralled his other slaves, yet she could turn those airs off in a moment and be totally subservient to him—which meant her obedience was an act. She was biding her time, waiting until the perfect moment to strike out at him.

That, as much as anything else, was what made her his favorite.

Today, she wore a skintight, pink bodysheath that complemented her lavender hair. Her feet were perched on heels that held her feet en pointe, and the collar around her neck held her head high. The corset she wore drew her waist down to a circumference he could almost wrap his hands around, the restriction causing her to constantly be out of breath.

It was also impossible for her to sit down in the outfit, though she could perch on stools and the edge of tables. Not that he ever let her do so in his presence.

Another part of the game. Let her rise up above his other slaves, but remind her at every turn that she was his creature. She would never be free—not until he was done with her. Then death would be her final release.

She’d reached his side, standing on the tips of her toes with expert precision as she waited his pleasure. Years ago, when he’d first forced her to wear shoes that held her feet that way, Francis had barely been able to walk, often crying from the pain as she minced about.

But over time, she’d gotten used to it, and now lorded her ability to walk on her toes over the other slaves. He suspected that she’d bribed someone for surgery at some point to re-enforce her toes, but he didn’t care enough to investigate. If she’d managed that, then it was a small enough reward that he’d let it slide.

She’d proven herself useful enough for that.

Thoughts of useful slaves brought to mind Harken and Kylie, two women who had once held positions similar to Francis’s. He’d made the mistake of uncollaring both of them, removing his ability to inflict instant and excruciating pain.

He regretted granting either of them any measure of freedom. Both had ultimately rebelled, a testament to the mistake of granting any woman freedom.

Grasping creatures.

While Harken was dead, Kylie still lived. Somewhere out there, she was hiding, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. How the bitch could be so ungrateful was beyond him, but when the time came, she’d beg to be granted a fraction of the mercy he showed Francis.

As he thought of her, the woman at his side shifted, and the rage he felt at Kylie intensified, needing an outlet.

“Why can’t you stand still, bitch?” he muttered, glancing at the pink-clad legs that were now frozen half a meter away. “Should I just cut those things off? Put you on a little hover board?”

Francis sucked in a breath and shook her head. “No, Mav—Mister President. Please. It would impact my ability to carry out your orders.”

He snorted. “You always say that about everything I propose. Still, it’s about time I reminded you who’s in charge around here. I can’t have you getting a big head.”

The slave didn’t respond, though he could see her knuckles whiten as she clasped her hands tightly together.

“Maybe I should take your voice?” he suggested. “Seal your lips shut. You can use the Link to talk.”

“If you wish,” Francis nodded as much as her collar would allow. “Though not all of your servants and slaves have the Link. How would I instruct them?”

He snorted a laugh. “I’ll give you a little voice box. Make sure it sounds robotic. What do you think of that?”

Her lips pursed for a moment, but she replied dutifully, “If you wish.”

“I mean,” he continued as though she hadn’t responded, “I could take your eyes, but I really like the way they glint with rage when I beat you.”

At his words, her gaze shifted, darting from the floor to his face, and he saw the anger she’d been working to hide.

“Yes, just like that. I certainly wouldn’t want to deprive myself of that final spark of freedom you have.”

Her stance shifted, widening slightly, and he snapped his fingers. “Of course! I know what would be perfect. You pride yourself in turning my punishment into a victory, the way you can now walk on your toes. I wonder how well you’ll manage if you can no longer bend your knees? That should be fun to watch.”

“My knees, sir?” she stammered. “What are you going to do?”

“I’ll have them fused. I can only imagine what your strut will look like then. Maybe we’ll do your elbows, too. You’ll look like some sort of malfunctioning automaton.”

A ragged sigh escaped Francis’s throat. “As you wish, Maverick. Should I report to the autodoc?”

Coarse laughter filled the room as Maverick rose and strode toward Francis. “Yes, but not until after the Icapus docks with the Satisfaction. I want you mobile—as much as you are—until then.”

He stopped centimeters from her and placed his hands on her shoulders, running them down her sides to wrap around her waist and then cup her ass, pulling her close.

“And then I’m going to beat you every day for being too slow. How do you like the sound of that?”

“I love it,” she said, her voice a perfect mixture of obedience and fear. “I love everything you do to me, Maverick.”

He stepped back. “Of course you do. Speaking of things I do to people, is Mercedes finished with her procedure?”

“Soon,” Francis replied. “The collar is fitted, now the doctors are working on splicing the control systems into her pain receptors. Then she’ll be fully under your control, like she should be.”

“Good.” Maverick turned and walked back to the couch, collapsing onto the cushions. “Then we’ll find out if she shared everything she knew of the former president’s plans. I still think she might be a plant from Scipio. If that’s the case, she’ll be exceptionally useful.” He glanced at Francis. “Maybe more useful than you.”

She paled slightly, but nodded. “If that is your wish.”

“Don’t presume to know my wishes,” he said, waving a hand at her in dismissal. “Now get the fuck out of here. Let me know if there are any delays with the Icapus.”

“Yes, Mister President.”

With the woman out of the room, Maverick began drawing up orders to disperse amongst his ship captains. Their time as rag-tag pirates and privateers was over. Gedri’s space force would require order and discipline if they were to hold out against Silstrand in the long run.

* * * * *

Francis sagged against the bulkhead, her breath coming in shuddering gasps that were fueled by a mixture of fear and rage. That Maverick would inflict more torture and humiliation on her after all she’d done for him was enough to make her see red.

She’d hoped that by proving to be indispensable, she could earn the same freedoms he had granted the others, and then she’d be able to escape his sickening clutches.

That hope was dying a slow death.

He’d achieved one of his greatest goals—to be president of the Gedri Freedom Alliance. He controlled the entire star system…in no small part to her work behind the scenes.

And this is how he rewards me?

Despite her rage, Francis knew that she had few options but to obey Maverick. Though he appeared to rely on her for all sorts of information, she knew that he secretly cross-checked much of what he was told. The fact that he’d survived for so long in the cutthroat world of Gedri’s crime syndicates was testament to his paranoia.

He saw threats everywhere, and eliminated them with extreme prejudice.

Acting against him was beyond foolhardy, it was inviting a death sentence.

Still, she pushed herself up straight and began to walk toward the airlock where she’d meet Sylvia. There must be a way. There must. And if I can’t break free from him, then I’ll find a way to kill us both.

She held in a laugh, knowing that he might be watching and listening through the ship’s internal sensors. The knowledge that he probably was checking up on her only galvanized her resolve.

She was unshakable.

She hoped.

HARD DAY’S NIGHT

STELLAR DATE: 09.30.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: City of Montral, Jericho

REGION: Gedri System, Gedri Freedom Alliance

Kal slouched down the dark alley in Montral’s Ventralla District, long cloak obscuring his form, and hood hiding his face.

A light drizzle was falling, and the ground was wet—slick from the grease and slime in the alley, getting enough moisture to begin to ooze toward the closest drain.

He wondered if that was why it rained in Montral to begin with. The city was under a dome, so it wasn’t as though they were at the mercy of any planetary weather—of which there was little on Jericho. The idea that the periodic rain existed only to wash a bit of filth off the city amused him. It was just the sort of thing that would pass for normal in the degenerate place.

“Hey, Al,” he said as he passed a garbage bin, nodding to the man who lived next to it, for some definition of the word ‘lived’.

“Screw you, Kal,” the man grunted.

Kal only laughed, tossed a credit chit in the bum’s direction, and kept walking. He’d never known Al to have a single nice word to say to anyone, but that didn’t have any bearing on Kal’s generosity.

Not that it was entirely altruistic. A lot of shit went down in Ventralla. Shit that affected half the cases Kal worked. Having extra eyes on the street never hurt—more than once, he’d gotten key intel from folks in Al’s position

Never from Al, but there might come a day.

He turned his focus back to the end of the alley, where a single light hung above a windowless door. There was no sign because one wasn’t needed. Everyone who needed to already knew about the Yucatan.

Kal wished he didn’t need to know, but there wasn’t much he could do about that anymore. This was where his life had led, and it was up to him to make the most of it.

He reached the door and passed it an encrypted token over the Link. Nothing happened for almost a minute, and then it finally opened, and he stepped through into the dark stairway.

To the best of his knowledge, no human reviewed the token, and the door was in good repair—though it didn’t look it. So far as he could tell, the delay in opening was a random wait time someone had programmed into the auth system to mess with people.

Either that, or they programmed it in just to mess with me.

Kal wouldn’t put it past the Yucatan’s proprietors. They didn’t really like him that much, but they tolerated him because he’d helped so many of Ventralla’s citizens out of tight binds.

He reached the bottom of the stairs, once again facing a windowless door. This one also took a token to open, and he listened to the dull thud of music and muffled conversation passing through it while the system took its time deciding whether or not he was worthy.

Finally, the door opened, blasting him with the Yucatan’s sound, sight, and smell.

The main room wasn’t large, just a hair over twenty by forty meters. The bar occupied the far end of the room, stools bolted to the floor lining the space in front of it. The rest of the space was filled with tables that had seen better days, few of which matched the others.

The denizens matched even less. From the flamboyant pilots of the Jara Guild to the thugs who worked the East Side Docks outside the dome, all kinds found their way to the Yucatan. The one common bond was that everyone here was willing to do something on the side to make some extra scratch.

Everyone except for Kal. The work he picked up at the Yucatan wasn’t a side-hustle, it was his main gig.

The problem in Ventralla was that, eventually, the things a person did for extra scratch would catch up to them—usually not in a good way. That’s when people turned to Kal.

Or friends of people. Half his gigs involved searching for the missing.

No one caught his eye as he entered, which meant there was no work, or no one wanted it known that they were hiring him. Normally, several people would send meaningful glances his way, but right now, everyone was laying low, waiting to see what Maverick’s assumption of the presidency would mean for Montral.

The crime lord had long been the most powerful figure on Jericho, ruling the planet and his interests across the Gedri System from his seedy club in the Red Zone. It was so cliché that Kal sometimes couldn’t believe it wasn’t just some bad vid story.

Granted, the way Maverick liked to put on airs, it wouldn’t have surprised Kal if the man had gotten the idea from some old story and decided to live out his dream in decadent glory.

It sounded boring to Kal. He was sure that there was endless posturing, tit for tat games, and pointless power struggles.

I guess it’s not so much different up there than down here at the bottom.

Once, Kal had dreamt of getting out of his current position, away from Montral, Jericho…heck, out of the Silstrand Alliance, if he could muster up the credit for passage on a ship bound for somewhere more palatable. But as much as he wanted to leave, a part of him preferred the comfort of knowing the lay of the land, who controlled what, and how to get things done.

In a new system, he’d need to re-learn everything—and Kal was certain it would be just as corrupt, and he’d end up back in the same place.

So why bother leaving in the first place?

He reached the bar and slid onto a seat with empty stools on either side. Bella, one of the regular bartenders, ambled toward him.

“Regular?”

“Sure,” Kal grunted.

“You got it, boss,” she drawled and grabbed a glass from under the bar. “Heard any interesting news?”

Kal grunted again. “You’re the one listening to all the chatter in this shithole. Aren’t you supposed to already know all the juicy bits?”

Bella winked as she reached for a bottom shelf bottle of vodka. “Normally, yeah, but with Maverick on his way back here, everyone’s real quiet.”

“Calm before the storm,” Kal said, eliciting silent nods from those in earshot. “No one wants to risk anything until we figure out what the new normal looks like.”

“No such thing as normal with Maverick,” one of the patrons further down the bar said. “Guy’s the textbook definition of unpredictable.”

Another patron shook her head. “I’d keep criticism of Maverick to yourself. Digs at the new president isn’t a good look.”

“Digs?” the first man said. “I think unpredictability is what’s gotten him this far. Not a criticism at all.”

Kal tuned out the conversation as Bella set the drink in front of him.

“Thanks.”

“No problem, hon.” She said the words while turning toward another patron, leaving Kal in his own world.

He sat for several minutes, sipping his drink and watching the room via the microprobes he’d set on the bar when he entered.

It was normally considered bad form to drop probes in the Yucatan, but he had special dispensation, given the good deeds he’d done. He didn’t record anything they picked up, just used them to get a three-sixty view of the room. It never hurt to have eyes in the back of one’s head—especially in Ventralla.

Those eyes paid off, as he saw a man rise from a table where he’d been sitting alone, and begin to thread through the Yucatan’s crush toward the bar to settle on the stool to Kal’s left.

He didn’t glance over and instead signaled Bella for a drink.

“Gimme a Red Dwarf,” he instructed the bartender, shaking his head ruefully as she began to prepare the beverage. “My sister used to love Red Dwarfs. I imagine she hasn’t had one in a while.”

“Oh? Why’s that?” Bella asked.

“She got mixed up in some shit up on Valhalla Station. Big mess. Now she’s indebted to you know who.”

Kal strongly considered getting up and walking right out of the bar. The man clearly wanted him to help get someone out of Maverick’s clutches. And it was a woman, which meant she’d be collared and enslaved to the crime lord.

In other words, it was impossible.

“Shit, that’s not something most people get themselves out of,” Bella said, her tone echoing Kal’s thoughts. “Have the Red Dwarf on me, buddy.”

The man took the drink and cupped it in his hands, staring down at the red liquid. “I came a long way looking for her. Now that I’ve found her, I can’t just leave.”

“Then you’d better get a job,” another patron said from further down the bar. “Because your sister’s not coming back to you till he’s done with her.”

“Thought this was the sort of place one got help,” the man said.

“Sorry, buddy,” Bella shook her head. “Not that sort of help. You’ve seen how things are, right? The guy you want to go up against is more secure and powerful than he’s ever been. No one’s kicking him off his perch.”

“I don’t want to kick him off his perch, I just want to snatch my sister from him.”

“Uh huh.” Bella nodded, glancing at Kal. “Good luck with that. Maybe try the SSF.”

A few laughs came at her statement, and the man turned red.

He gripped the drink in his hands even harder and half-turned to Kal. “Are you really going to turn me down?”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Kal replied evenly. “You were talking to Bella, not me—wasn’t paying attention.”

The man turned redder and began muttering obscenities under his breath. Kal ignored him until he finally seemed to run out of steam. After a few minutes longer, the visitor set his drink down and rose from his stool, slouching out of the Yucatan.

“What a tool,” Bella muttered after he was out of earshot.

“Can’t blame him for trying,” Kal said. “I get wanting to help family.”

The bartender paused her work and looked Kal in the eyes. “That what landed you here? I never did hear how someone with your skillset ended up at the bottom of Montral.”

Kal gave her a half smile and grabbed the untouched Red Dwarf, downing it in a single gulp. “And you never will.”

Bella chuckled and resumed her work. “Yeah, but I like to ask. Maybe someday, your guard will be down, and you’ll spill it.”

“Not likely.” He turned to look at the door as it closed behind the man.

“You’re not thinking of helping him, are you?” the bartender asked.

“No,” Kal shook his head. “Just thinking that maybe I should warn him off whatever foolish plan he’s got in mind. Last thing I want is for him to go after one of Maverick’s girls, and then have it get around that he was here first.”

Bella paled and she nodded. “Yes, stopping him from doing something that gets us all killed would be nice. Off with you.”

Kal chuckled and rose from his stool. “Put my drink on my tab.”

“It’s on the house, if we’re all still here in a week.”

Kal glanced around the room. “Be shocked if we’re all still here in a week.”

Bella laughed, and he smirked in response, making his own personal bets as to which of the Yucatan’s patrons wouldn’t survive the next few days. He had his favorites, and liked to see who beat the odds.

On Kal’s way to the door, one of the notoriously less intelligent dock workers, a beefy man named Sarge, rose and ambled toward the exit. He had a hungry look in his eyes and shot Kal a warning look as he pulled open the door and took the stairs two at a time.

Probably figuring our misguided friend has some credit on him if he’s approaching me.

It wasn’t a far-fetched guess. Most people tended to pay for Kal’s services in physical credit—well laundered physical credit, at that.

He followed Sarge up the stairs, surprised to see that the thug’s quarry had already passed beyond the outer door.

Fast bugger.

Sarge seemed to think so as well and pushed open the topside door to stand silhouetted by the overhead light, looking from side to side. A moment later, he took off jogging down the alley.

Kal was at the top of the stairs a moment later, peering into the gloom, wondering if Sarge was actually chasing the visitor, or if the thug had simply assumed his quarry was getting away.

“I’m not that dumb,” a voice said from behind Kal, and he spun to see the man from the bar two steps below him.

“Damn,” Kal shook his head. “That’s a sweet stealth setup. I didn’t pick you up at all.”

The man shrugged. “I’m good at not being noticed. Part of why I plan to get my sister with or without your help.”

“Look,” Kal raised a hand. “You’re gonna get yourself killed, maybe your sister too. Then Maverick’s gonna come looking for us and kill a few of the Yucatan’s regulars just to make a point. Best-case scenario, he takes Bella as one of his girls. You ready to trade her life for your sister’s?”

“You don’t know that’s how it would play out,” the man countered.

Kal nodded. “You’re right. I don’t know that. I said it’s a best-case scenario. It’ll probably play out much worse.”

“Well, either way, I’m doing it.”

“No,” Kal’s voice grew deadly serious. “You’re not. It’ll blow back on us, and I have better things to do than fight off Maverick’s goons.”

The man pursed his lips and grew still. Kal could tell he was considering pulling up the hood on his cloak and activating its stealth.

“I wouldn’t.” Kal’s hand drifted toward his sidearm. “Look, we got off on the wrong foot. What’s your name?”

“Barry,” the name was a barely audible mutter.

“OK, Barry, now this is how it’s going to go. You’re going to get yourself to the elevator and ride the strand up to the station. Then you’re going to go home and mourn your sister, because that’s the only option you have.”

“But this is my only chance,” Barry whispered, his eyes wide and pleading. “She’s at The Shade. Once Maverick comes back, it’ll be impossible to get to her, but right now, that place is a madhouse. We could get in. I have blueprints, a plan…. I just need someone to help me execute it.”

“More like execute you,” Kal muttered, though he was curious what sort of scheme this desperate brother had come up with. “OK, follow me. Let’s go somewhere we can talk and take a look at your plan.”

“Thanks.” Barry’s expression brightened. “I’m certain you’ll like it.”

Kal nodded encouragingly. And if I don’t, I’m going to cold-cock you and dump you on the first ship out of here.

“There you are!” a voice bellowed from midway down the alley. “You dumb asshole. I’m gonna end you.”

“Aw fuck,” Kal muttered. “It’s OK, Sarge, I’m handling it. No need to end anyone.”

“Nah-ah,” Sarge said as he thundered toward them. “He’s gonna bring Maverick down on the Yucatan. Can’t have that.”

Barry took a step back, reaching under his cloak, and Kal held out a hand.

“Easy. Sarge is an ass, but we can’t kill him, especially not here. It’ll stir up too much shit.”

“He doesn’t look like he has the same compunctions.”

Kal had to agree with Barry. Sarge was storming down the alley with a look in his face that said murder—for the both of them.

Deciding some violence was better than death, Kal drew his sidearm and shot the ground a few meters ahead of Sarge.

“Cool it. We’re leaving, everything’s going to be fine.”

Sarge paused a moment, then let out a bellow that echoed up and down the alley. Then he charged.

“Fuck,” Kal muttered, knowing that Sarge had enough mods to stop the pistol’s rounds if he shot center-mass.

He raised the weapon, taking aim at the thug’s right eye. He was squeezing the firing stud when Sarge’s eyes grew wide, and he went rigid. His forward momentum didn’t stop, however, and the behemoth crashed to the pavement, rolling awkwardly onto his side while sliding to a stop.

“That was unexpected,” Barry shook his head.

In Sarge’s wake stood Al; it was the only time Kal had seen the bum not ensconced next to his refuse bin. In his hand was a high-powered stun wand.

“Shit, Al. Thanks,” Kal said, walking toward Sarge and checking that the thug was still breathing.

The bum shrugged as he returned to his customary place. “That ass was too loud, disturbing my rest. If you had to fight him, it just would have gotten louder.”

Kal nodded. “Yeah, likely. You going to be OK? Maybe we should just waste him.”

Al shook his head. “Don’t worry, I can handle Sarge. You two just get out of here. I’ll play it like he was going to rough me up. I have people, he won’t try anything.”

Kal opted not to look too carefully at the gift, and nodded his thanks. “I’ll remember this, Al.”

“Just keep the credit coming.”

With a nod to Barry to follow after, Kal walked out of the alley. Going to his office to have the chat was too risky now, but that was why he had a few special places secreted away.

“Just a short walk,” he said to Barry. “Then we can take a look at this plan of yours.”

AID

STELLAR DATE: 09.30.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: GFS Satisfaction, en route to Jericho

REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

Sylvia turned away from the console and clenched her fists, shoulders tensing with pent-up fury.

“I take it that you’re not meeting with success,” Maverick said, his tone carefully moderated.

The woman’s head turned enough to reveal pursed lips and a furrowed brow. “Ya think, hon?”

“So what’s the problem?” he pressed. “I thought you knew how to do this. You removed the AI from Grayson, after all.”

“Sure.” She turned to face Maverick, not a lick of fear or subservience in her posture.

For some reason, he had never managed to instill either in Sylvia—though he hadn’t really tried. She was a repulsive mountain of flesh. He knew that some people liked that, but so far as he was concerned, she might as well have been an alien. Or a slug.

“Annnnd?” he prompted, as she failed to provide further information.

“Well, Jerrod is different than other SSF AIs I’ve worked with. Removing him from Grayson was complex, but in the end, all I had to do was get the AI out. Once that was done, the colonel wasn’t under his control anymore. The problem is that Jerrod has built-in control capabilities. If he’s in your head, he can own you.”

“Which is what you’re trying to deal with,” Maverick spoke through clenched teeth.

“Yeah! With you breathing over my shoulder. Look, I’m good at getting shit done, brute force jobs and stuff, but removing Jerrod’s less desirable abilities while keeping his cognitive abilities intact—and controllable—is the type of thing that will take months to sort out. And that’s after I re-image and experiment on him a dozen times. Probably burn through a few of your volunteers, too….”

She left the word hanging, and he sensed that she was considering another option.

“Spill it. How can we speed this up? The SSF isn’t going to give us months before they come back in force. Trust me, they won’t just let Gedri go without a fight. Then things aren’t going to look so good for either of us.”

“We could just leave,” she said with a shrug. “I don—”

Maverick was across the room in four strides, his left hand filled with the loose flesh around her neck, his right holding his plasma blade aloft. “Finish that sentence. Do it. See what happens.”

The words slipped past his lips in a venomous whisper, their dark threat causing her to pale in response.

“There’s someone who can help,” she rasped. “Heaven.”

“Heaven? The station, or where you expect to be in a minute?”

“S-station,” Sylvia rasped. “A modder. Finn. His girl can do it. They’ll know how.”

Maverick let go of the woman, not caring as she fell to the floor, her breaths coming in long, slow gasps. His plasma blade was still lit, and he gestured at Francis where she stood by the door.

“Get them for me, Francis. This Finn and his girl. We’ll see how they can help.”

The collared girl nodded and left the room, leaving just Maverick and Sylvia.

“Well, get up, you loathsome thing. I expect you to keep working—unless you want to go to the other heaven.”

ATMO TOWER

STELLAR DATE: 10.02.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: Red Zone, City of Montral, Jericho

REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

Kal hated the Red Zone.

It wasn’t any sleazier than the rest of Montral—well, not by too much—but it was somehow less coy about it.

Montral…coy. Right.

He supposed that ‘coy’ was the wrong word. Other parts of Montral, even the Ventralla District, at least tried to appear as though they were governed by rule of law. Even if that law was survival of the fittest.

In the Red Zone, the law was Maverick’s whim, and whoever he currently held in favor could do as they wished in his absence. Granted, that could be a double-edged sword. Maverick rarely left Jericho at all, let alone for weeks—but when he returned, the person he had left in command was either elevated or killed. Survival was far from a fifty-fifty toss-up.

Some took the job seriously; some decided to party like they were living their last days.

The current lieutenant in charge, a man named Yaris, was one of the serious ones.

Kal turned back from the high-rise window that overlooked the Red Zone. “It’s crawling with cops and thugs.”

“It’s always crawling with them,” Barry replied. “That doesn’t change, no matter who’s calling the shots.”

“Yeah, sure,” Kal shook his head. “But sometimes they’re just shooting the shit down there, and other times, they’re actually doing their jobs. Watch how the patrols overlap and how they’re actually checking corners. Those aren’t the sloppy seconds.”

Barry pushed past Kal and stood at the window for a minute before shrugging. “Still doesn’t matter, we’re not going in on the streets.”

“Yeah, the tunnels, I know. And you think that whoever is all organized on the ground—and the air,” he added, as a drone flew past the high-rise, “won’t be watching the tunnels?”

“They won’t watch tunnels they don’t know about.”

Kal pursed his lips. The conversation felt like it was a repeat running on auto. “OK, fine. But the first sign that they do know about your super old, super secret tunnel, we turn back. Because without a way around their patrols and sensors, this isn’t happening.”

Barry turned from the window and locked eyes with Kal. He stared unblinking for almost a minute, then nodded. “Fine. Yes. Are we going to finally do it tonight, then?”

“Yeah, clock’s ticking. Let’s go.”

An hour later, the two men stood outside one of the ancient atmo-towers that stood in Montral’s center. Long before the dome had been erected, towers like this one had dotted Jericho, pumping out atmosphere in an attempt to turn the world into a paradise.

They’d almost managed to succeed, but after centuries, the endeavor had failed—though no one knew why anymore. The people ultimately erected domes over their cities and let the rest of the world—aside from the deep valleys—turn back into a lifeless rock.

Barry had somehow gotten his hands on partial schematics for the towers, design plans which showed an aqueduct that had been used to supply water to the tower. It ran under the city, right beneath The Shade, as luck would have it.

Kal honestly didn’t see how the city engineers could be unaware of a five-meter-wide pipe that ran beneath the buildings, but Barry claimed it wasn’t on any city blueprints. Kal had verified that, but that didn’t quell his fears. Maverick had clawed his way up through the gangs and syndicates on Jericho over the course of centuries.

He was the most hated and feared man on the planet—likely in all of Gedri. Which meant he had enemies, and he was wily enough to survive them. In Kal’s experience, that meant that Maverick likely laid baited traps.

Traps like design specs for an atmo tower that revealed a conveniently placed water conduit.

I’m an idiot for going along with this.

Still, Barry was desperate, and if Kal didn’t go with him, the man would do it on his own—and likely kill himself in the process. At least in this scenario, Kal could spot any traps and get Barry out before either of them died.

I hope.

Though it no longer spewed atmosphere into the planet’s skies, the atmo tower did still refresh the domed city’s fresh air supply—something that impressed Kal to no end. Not just because it was thousands of years old, but that it had survived thousands of years in Montral of all places.

That was a strange thing about Jericho. Though each of the cities were ruled by gangs and crime syndicates, all operating beneath the thin veneer of the Gedri Freedom Alliance, there was an unspoken rule that no one messed with key infrastructure systems.

Power, water, air—and in Montral, the space elevator…. They were all verboten. No one even threw a rock around those facilities. Which, of course, made Barry’s plan either genius, or ridiculously dangerous.

The two men were dressed as repair techs from a company that maintained the power regulators the facility used. So far as Kal could tell, the regulators were standard fare, but on Montral, contracts could last centuries, with entire fiefdoms built around the privilege of maintaining key infrastructure systems.

<Remember,> Kal cautioned. <Let me do the talking. This is what I’m here for.>

 Barry replied.

The response seemed too easily given, and Kal mentally steeled himself for the need to backtrack out of something stupid that Barry might say.

He strode toward the front gate and stopped at the security booth, waiting for the man inside to turn away from his lunch to address the pair.

“Yeah,” the guard finally said, his mouth full of what had to be half a sandwich.

“Checking in,” Kal said, gesturing to the scan pad sitting on the far side of the booth.

“Not on my schedule,” the man grunted. “If I’m not expecting you, I don’t scan you. Now bugger off.”

Kal silently cursed his friend Arin, who had assured him that he and Barry would be on the schedule.

“Check again. We’re on it,” Kal insisted. “Or we’d better be. If we don’t get in there and service the primary regulator, power’s going to blow on the main tower.”

The guard glanced over his shoulder at the tallest of the ancient spires. “Main tower’s not operating right now.”

“Yaris wants it fired up and pumping atmo when Maverick gets back,” Kal said. “He’s supposed to be getting to Valhalla any day now, so she wants a test run.”

“Not on my sche—”

“Check it again,” Kal insisted, knowing that if he didn’t press the man, Barry would, and then things would get messy. “Or I’ll make sure it gets back to Yaris that you’re the reason we didn’t do a test run. Better hope the regulator holds.”

The man chewed his sandwich for a few long seconds, swallowed, and then sighed. “Fine, whatever gets you out of my face.”

He turned to his console and mashed a finger into a schedule icon. A list of deliveries and personnel appeared on the screen. Kal was surprised there was no privacy block keeping him from seeing the info, but decided not to tell the guard how to improve his security.

“Huh,” the man grunted. “Well, there you are. Must have been a late addition.”

“Ya think?” Barry muttered, and Kal resisted the urge to elbow his comrade.

“OK.” The guard passed the scan pad through the window. “Tokens and bios.”

Kal and Barry each Linked with the pad and passed their public keys, matching tokens with what was on file, and then verified their biosignatures and vitals.

“Looks good,” the guard mumbled around another mouthful of food. “Be sure to check in at the front desk and then register with the shift boss.”

“Will do,” Kal said with a nod as he led Barry along the walkway toward the main doors.

<What would you have done if he didn’t have us on the schedule?> Barry asked.

<Turned back,> Kal replied. <I’m not looking to get in a fight with the tower guards. That guy may have looked like some slovenly ass, but trust me, he’s backed up by a lot of serious people in serious armor.>

<Well, let’s just get to the access point. The day’s wasting.>

Kal nodded in response, and fifteen minutes later, they’d made all the appropriate check-ins, using their fabricated excuse to get them full access to the main tower.

Following Barry’s ancient blueprints, they turned down a dimly lit corridor that led to a stairwell on the northeast corner of the tower. The floors were clean, having been scrubbed by bots, but the walls were dull, their plas pitted and the color faded.

They reached the door that led to the stairwell, and Kal tried it, not surprised to find that it was locked.

<Well, let’s see if a standard patch kit can get us through,> he said.

<Standard?> Barry asked. 

He placed the terminal patch kit over the door’s access panel and waited the typical fifteen seconds, after which there was an audible snick, and the door opened.

“See?” Kal said as they stepped into the stairwell and waited for the lighting to slowly activate.

“Sure, and if it had failed?” Barry asked once he’d closed the door behind them.

“I’m not an idiot. It would soft-fail and not raise any alarms.”

“That you know of.”

“Kid,” Kal turned to face Barry, his grey eyes boring into the younger man’s green ones. “I’ve survived on this shithole a lot longer than most people in my position. I’ve done it by knowing what’s a wasp nest, and what’s a wad of plas. I’m not risking my life here, so trust that I’m not risking yours either. Got it?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

The two men began to descend the stairs in silence, Kal noting that it hadn’t seen as much cleaning as the hall above. The air was moderately fresh and there was little dust, meaning that they were still on the central filtration systems.

Which meant there could be errant nano about, circulated with the air that kept them all alive.

He kept a passive scan sweeping the area, the EM sensors running from small domes on his shoulders, hidden beneath the technician’s uniform. Periodic blips of activity showed up on his HUD, but it was consistent with normal background activity from nano and microbots that were ever dormant or entirely without power.

There were sensor nodes on each landing, but they registered as offline as well. Kal suspected that they only performed periodic sweeps. Operating full, constant scan everywhere within a facility like the atmo tower—especially with it being so old—would have likely produced a host of false positives to constantly track down.

That was where people tended to fall back on the ol’ Mark I eyeball—and that was where Kal usually found an in.

Still, it unnerved him that the atmo tower was so easy to breach. Either the tower guards trusted too much in the unspoken rule that the facility was hallowed ground, or there was some sort of surprise waiting for the pair.

“Almost there,” Barry said a minute later. “Just two more flights.”

Kal nodded a silent acknowledgment, and when they reached the bottom of the stairwell, a thick alloy door with a strange-looking security pad faced them.

“Well, there it is,” Kal said.

“What is?”

“The surprise. I’ve never seen a pad like that before. Must be original…or at least a few centuries old.”

“This where you bring out the good stuff?” Barry asked.

“Yeah.”

Kal opened up the case he carried and extracted a pad hack and small quantum comp. He slid the pad hack’s access cable into a crevice on the panel, waiting for the filaments on the end of the cable to stretch out and tap the pad.

They waited in silence for several minutes, Barry casting questioning looks at Kal that the older man ignored. Finally, the green light came on, and he connected the pad hack to the quantum comp.

“OK, now we let it sniff a minute before it begins slinging codes.”

“How’s it gonna know codes from back when this panel was put in?” Barry asked.

“Well, because there are only so many—not that we have time to try a fraction of them—but more because this panel is connected to the central system, and all we have to do is sniff the maintenance codes and initiate a re-code in the panel, and it will let us set our own password.”

“Really?” Barry asked. “That seems really easy.”

Kal shrugged. “Well, there are a number of other breach techniques the unit can try, but that one works most of the time. And the reason why it’s so ‘easy’ is because I’ve spent years building the toolset with a deep database of tricks to pull this off. You can’t buy off-the-shelf shit to do this sort of thing.”

Barry fell silent, and the comp continued to do its thing. It was taking longer than it should have, but Kal wasn’t about to tell his accomplice that. Then, almost four minutes later, it flashed a green light, and the panel switched to unlock.

The door swung open, and Barry was about to step into the dark passage, when Kal held up a hand. “Wait.”

He released a microdrone and it flew out, carefully mapping the space beyond, building a detailed picture of area and passing it to the two men.

“OK…” Kal shook his head. “That’s some old-school shit.”

“Looks like something out of the vids.”

The image that the drone was building up in their minds wasn’t fantastical, it was just different. There were only so many ways to configure a corridor, but this one had the feel of a time gone by. It was the little things, like the pattern on the deckplate, the types of brackets holding conduits against the wall, the shape of the lights—which were still dark. It all had a sense of aesthetic, yet rugged design, which was missing from everyday life on Jericho.

“Looks like one of the museums back in Silstrand City,” Barry commented. “Or one of the old starliners that they take out on special holidays.”

“Well, in Montral, ‘They don’t make ‘em like they used to’ is always a truthful idiom.”

“So are we good?” Barry appeared impatient.

“Well, sure, if you want to be target practice for that turret down there.”

“What turret?” Barry asked in a quiet voice, peering into the darkness.

“Just kidding,” Kal said with a snort. “There are more sensor pods down here, but they’re all offline as well. Maybe no one cares about this place.”

Or maybe it really is a honey pot waiting to catch stupid flies like us.

“So can we go already?”

“Yeah, just watch the drone’s feed and don’t use any lights. We have three hundred meters of these corridors before we get to the pumping station.”

Barry did as he was told, and the two men began to move through the passages deep under the main tower. Other than color-coded conduits on the walls, the passages were entirely unadorned.

They passed a multitude of intersections, and without facility plans, Kal was sure it would have taken them hours to find the pumping station. Given how much infrastructure was involved in getting water to the tower, he wondered how it functioned, now that its supply was gone.

The answer never presented itself, and before long, they reached the large chamber that contained the pumping station.

Four turbines stood in the center of the room, flecks of rust visible on metallic components, their impellers sitting in dusty vats connected by troughs to a deep channel that ran through the room and out the northeast side.

“I guess the aqueduct never filled up,” Barry said, noting the design.

“Could be a sluice gate further in,” Kal replied. “Though, yeah…usually the impellers are in the pipes. Maybe someone just thought this would look cool.”

“Whatever,” Barry shrugged, and strode to a ladder that led down to the aqueduct. “Let’s go.”

Kal wanted to spend time scanning the room, but he too was beginning to feel a sense of urgency. Though it wasn’t taking any more time than expected to get this far, he still felt uneasy, as though something terrible was going to befall them if they lingered.

The tunnel would pass beneath The Shade in four kilometers, and Barry was already at the entrance, staring into the darkness, waiting for Kal’s drones to go ahead and scan the passage.

“You ready?” Kal asked.

“Fuck…what do you think?” the other man replied.

“OK, then, let’s go.”

The drone moved ahead, mapping the tunnel—which had walkways on either side, over the deep channel—and the pair followed after at an easy lope.

The further they went without obstacle or any visible sign of defensive system or trap, the more incredulous Kal became. The only change was that the air was slowly gaining a musty scent, telling of standing water somewhere ahead.

Though they saw a few puddles in the deep trench next to the walkway, nothing more was in evidence before they came to a midway pumping station that was situated almost directly under Maverick’s dome scraper.

Two large turbines sat right in the middle of the trench, and on the far side was a drop to a lower section of the aqueduct, two more giant engines looming in the darkness below.

“Don’t slip,” Barry said with a laugh, the sound echoing mockingly off the curved walls.

<Quiet,> Kal replied over the Link as he scanned the surrounding area for the surface access the plans called for. <There.> He highlighted a door thirty meters away.

The pair threaded their way through ancient equipment. Kal found it curious how some systems appeared to have been repaired within the past few centuries, while others were nearly rusted to dust. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason he could discern, but he supposed there must be a rationale to the haphazard repairs.

<Looks like a mechanical lock,> Barry observed as they approached the door. <Weird.>

Kal nodded as he looked at the set of keyholes mounted in the door. <The kind that just keeps honest people honest.>

He slapped a wad of motive putty onto the locks and pulled up the standard mechanical hack software on his HUD. The putty oozed into the holes and began to take the correct shapes. Once the levers were all depressed, the putty extruded two handles, and Kal twisted each one, the ancient mechanism screeching loudly.

<So much for quiet,> Barry said.

<Mechanical stuff making noises is a lot different than you talking. One of those things probably happens down here with some frequency, one doesn’t. Guess which?>

Barry didn’t reply, and Kal pulled his putty out and waited for the microdrone to fly through and map the far side. The scan revealed a long corridor with doors set at regular intervals. At the far end, a lift stood open, and Kal knew it was unlikely to be operational.

Even if it was, they wouldn’t take it. So far as Kal was concerned, lifts were mobile death traps.

Satisfied that no one was waiting for them, and that there were no active defense systems, he pushed the door open and began to walk slowly down the hall.

<What are you expecting?> Barry asked as he followed behind.

<Lasers, giant saws to swing down from the ceiling, angry robots, anything and everything.>

<Oh.>

Despite Kal’s worry, nothing happened, and they reached the lift doors without incident.

<Shit…that’s weird,> he said, looking around.

<What? Is there something wrong with the lift?>

Kal shrugged. <Probably. What I’m more concerned about is that there doesn’t seem to be a staircase.>

Barry gestured toward the door with the universal staircase sign above. <What about this?>

<Open the door.>

After giving Kal a curious look, Barry walked to the door and pushed it open only to jump back as a pile of rubble fell out.

<Shit…those are the stairs, I guess.>

<Yeah, drone got past that mess. Ten meters up, it’s just smooth shaft, nothing to climb at all.>

Barry turned toward the lift. 

<And that it’s not sitting on top of the lift car.>

The two men entered the lift, which held steady under their weight. Kal sent his drone through a crack around the roof access hatch and let out a long groan.

<No ladder?> Barry guessed.

Kal shook his head. <Not one you’ll want to trust your weight to.> he pulled the pack off his back, fishing out his a-grav harnesses. <You said you’ve used these before, right?>

<Yeah, out in the open countryside.> Barry looked worried.

<Well, stay below me and try not to slam into the walls. Looks like four hundred meters to the top.>

The other man nodded, though he looked a few shades paler. <OK, let’s go.>

MEANWHILE, IN HEAVEN

STELLAR DATE: 10.02.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: Finn’s Mod Shop, Heaven

REGION: Scattered Disk, Gedri System, Gedri Freedom Alliance

“Gert? You get that latest shipment tagged and put away?”

A sigh hissed out of Gert’s lips and she turned to give Finn a level stare. “You mean the potato chips?”

“Uh huh,” Finn said, not looking up from the spinal reinforcement mod he was working on. “I want to make sure that they’re all in the right order based on expiration date.”

“You know that I’m the most talented neural modder on Heaven, right?” Gert placed her hands on her hips, green slanted eyes narrowing as she regarded the shop owner. “I have more important things to do than sort your potato chips by expiration date.”

Finn didn’t look up from his work. “Then mod something to sort them for me, if you’re so smart.”

Gert’s eyes narrowed further. “Maybe I would, if my jerkwad boss didn’t give me all this busy work all the time.”

A snort burst from Finn. “Yeah, that guy’s such a dork.”

“That’s why I stole a bag of his chips.”

“You what?” Finn’s head shot up, eyes boring into hers. “Oh…you…ha ha. Very funny.”

Gert shook her head, tentacles dancing across her shoulders. “You know I don’t like potato chips.”

“And that’s how I know there’s something wrong with you,” he replied, turning back to his project.

“That’s how you know? Not the green skin, long limbs, or the tentacles on my head?”

Finn shrugged. “Nothing wrong with any of that. Sometimes I think about getting tentacles, too. Just a lot of work to get the brain to deal with that many digits.”

Gert laughed, dancing her tentacles around her head. “Yeah, that took some work. I don’t recommend doing open brain surgery on oneself.”

“Wouldn’t need to,” he replied. “I have you on staff.”

“Just remember that, next time you think it’s my job to sort your food.”

Finn started to reply, but then his brow furrowed. “Someone’s in the hall.”

“We’re not expecting anyone,” Gert said, glancing toward the inner door that led out to the shop. Beyond that was a solid door with a long hall on the other side. “How’d they get in there?”

“I don’t know.” Finn stood. “But it’s not a good sign, that’s for damn sure.”

Gert nodded and walked across the small lab that also functioned as the pair’s operating theatre, heading for the weapons locker. She pulled out a pulse rifle and tossed it to Finn, while her tentacles grabbed a pair of pulse pistols.

Normally, weapons were forbidden on Heaven. The station was supposed to be neutral ground for any faction.

In reality, greedy assholes were everywhere, and the pair always stood ready to defend themselves.

With the rifle in hand, Finn walked out into the shop’s main room and called out, “Who the hell are you, and what do you want?”

Gert tapped into the hall cameras and watched the man from several angles. There were a dozen systems she could activate to take him down before he even touched the door. The corridor was lined with turrets, electrical discharge rods, and hacked a-grav plates that would pull a person to the floor in seconds.

“I’m here on behalf of the president,” the man called out, looking up at the nearest camera. “I want to have a chat is all.”

<The president sends armored goons for a chat?> Gert asked Finn privately.

<You don’t really know much about Maverick, do you?> he replied.

<So there’s your answer. Crime lords send armored goons for chats. It’s how they roll.>

Gert pursed her lips. <Glad I grew up on Heaven.>

“We gave at the office!” Finn called back to the man. “Elect President Maverick. Booyah. Now go away.”

<’We gave at the office’?>

Gert snorted a laugh. <You mean vid? No one has called them movies in thousands of years.>

<What can I say? I’m old-school.>

“What the hell does that mean?” the man called out. “We don’t have an office, and Maverick is already president.”

“Right!” Finn called back. “We won! Goooo us! Now bugger off.”

A motion sensor tripped at the shop’s rear entrance, and Gert pulled up the feeds, scanning the back hall. It was empty, and no IR or EM of any sort was registering. Still, it was an odd coincidence.

<Finn—>

Before she could complete the message, the back door exploded inward, barely visible shapes darting through the smoke. One moved toward Gert, and she fired at it with both pulse pistols.

“Fuck!” a voice cried out, and she fired again and again.

The intruder’s stealth armor failed, and she saw a man lying on the ground, rocking back and forth, moaning softly.

She was about to disarm him when a sound came from the front room. Gert rushed through the doorway and saw Finn struggling with an invisible attacker, two of his arms flailing at his enemy while the others still held the pulse rifle.

She took a step into the room, ready to help, when a voice from behind her barked, “Freeze!”

Gert tapped into the feeds and saw four more intruders flooding into the lab, weapons all aimed at her back.

Finn stopped fighting and met her gaze. “Aww shit.”

THE SHADE

STELLAR DATE: 10.02.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: Red Zone, City of Montral, Jericho

REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

Barry had only hit the walls of the lift shaft twice during their ascent. Kal wasn’t exactly impressed; if they had to descend under fire, he was worried the man wouldn’t manage as well.

If we even use the tunnels as egress.

He didn’t like the idea of retreating to what would be an easily discernable exit point.

The doors at the top of the shaft had proven harder to breach. They were connected to an active security system, and once through, the pair of men found themselves in a series of long-unused storage rooms.

Most were filled with equipment for the pumping station below, but some contained other detritus, the flotsam and jetsam that accumulated over centuries.

Like most of Montral, the ground under the Red Zone was a warren of tunnels that had seen a thousand uses over the years. The lift shaft had let them out only a hundred meters from The Shade’s tower, but still sixty meters below the surface.

He knew that even if Yaris was lax—which he wasn’t—there would be some patrols, and certainly a suite of automated defenses waiting for the unwary.

But Kal was not unwary.

Four separate microdrones now roved through the passages around the two men, alerting them to automated defenses and aberrant EM signatures that could indicate sensors or hidden weapons systems.

Despite the fact that they’d been traveling for over half a day, Kal was starting to feel a modicum of optimism. He’d always assumed that Maverick’s defenses would be impenetrable and that no one could sneak into the Red Zone unnoticed. Thus far, that belief seemed to be unfounded.

Everyone just must assume that Maverick would have these tunnels filled with defenses…I guess rumor and fear are cheaper than actual security.

It took twenty minutes to reach the lower levels of The Shade tower, and in that time, they only encountered one patrol and one pair of engineers, both of which they avoided by taking side passages.

<OK,> Kal said as the pair crouched behind a pile of old conduit that lay along the edge of a wide corridor. <We’re one level below the holding rooms where you think Karen is. Two levels above that is the lower-level club where most of them work. It’s morning now, so things have probably quieted down, and they’ll all be sleeping.>

<Probably,> Barry nodded in agreement. <We’re going to have to hack into the guard’s terminal to find out where my sister is.>

<And how to get that collar off her. I’ve heard that they’ll kill the wearer if they leave.>

The other man nodded. <Yeah, I’ve heard that, too.>

Kal wasn’t sure what Barry could do if they weren’t able to get the collar off. Probably stay with his sister and die horribly.

Stars…so many ways this can go wrong. Why am I doing this again? Oh yeah, because I hate Maverick.

He pushed that simmering rage back down to where it wouldn’t get in the way, and pointed out the two entrances to the area where the slaves were held.

<OK, so the main guard shack is at this entrance, to the north. The southern entrance only has a patrol in the hall. Looks like that’s where they bring the food in from the kitchens.>

<Right,> Barry nodded. <Think we should just hop a food cart? I have my stealth cloak.>

Kal twisted his lips, shaking his head. <No. That cloak you used fooled us in the dark at the Yucatan while you were still. It can’t hold up while moving in a well-lit corridor. Tech like that’s out of our budget.>

<So how do we get in?>

<Let’s get eyes on, first.>

The two men worked their way through the corridors, Kal’s drones now working to actively hide the pair by throwing up EM shields to confuse sensors, and disabling optics. There weren’t a lot of automated systems, but Kal began to worry that a savvy monitoring NSAI would spot a pattern of disturbances.

Even so, they managed to reach the corridor that ran along the slave area’s rear entrance without raising any alarms. A pair of guards patrolled the hall, casually chatting as they walked toward the intersection where Kal and Barry waited around the corner.

<I’ll stun them, you disarm them as soon as they go down,> Kal instructed. <Then we drag the bodies into that storage room.> He jerked his head back to a door they’d unlocked a minute earlier, and Barry nodded.

<Got it.>

Kal took several calming breaths, readying himself for everything to go horribly wrong. Then, timing it for when the guards were only a meter from the intersection, he stepped out and fired his pulse rifle, a wide spread of concussive waves knocking back both guards.

Shit, armor’s better than I thought.

He switched to a focused burst and fired a shot at the closest guard’s head, then turned to the other. The woman had managed to unsling her own rifle, and fired a pulse blast that caught Kal in the left shoulder.

“Fucker,” he muttered and shot her in the face.

The pulse smashed her nose, and the woman fell like a rock.

“Smooth,” Barry said in a tone that was hard to parse.

Kal only nodded and grabbed the woman’s arm, dragging her to the storage room, while Barry pulled the first guard after.

<We’re just going to clone their Link ident,> Kal said as they laid the guards down inside the room.

<Shit. You can do that? I thought it was almost impossible to clone a Link sig.>

<It is,> Kal replied as he pulled a transceiver out of his pack. <We can’t actually copy their idents, but we can re-route their network connection to make it look like they’re still in the hall. No need to compromise their hardware at all.>

As he spoke, Kal unfolded two faraday blankets and wrapped them around the guards.

<These will block their signal, but there’s an antenna inside that will pass through to the transceiver we’ll place in the hall.>

<Low tech, I like it.>

Kal shot Barry a dark look. <Effective tech. Not low.>

<Whatever. Let’s go, we’re almost there.>

Barry rose and strode toward the door, and Kal leapt up and clamped a hand on the other man’s shoulder, spinning him around to stare into Barry’s eyes.

<Don’t rush. We’re almost there. We do this slow and steady.>

For a moment, it looked like the man was preparing a retort, but then a modicum of tension flowed out of his shoulders.

<Yeah, OK.>

After checking that the coast was still clear, Kal eased open the door, and the two men walked down to the slave area’s doors.

“You ready?” Kal asked aloud.

“Yeah.”

He pushed the door open to reveal a long hall with open doorways leading off along both sides. From the plans Barry had gotten his hands on, each one led to a long room filled with bunk-style beds—something he confirmed as they reached the first door.

“They look asleep,” he said quietly. “You take the one on the left, I’ll take the one on the right, if we find your sister, don’t wake her, just get the ID off her collar. We’ll need that to unlock it at the guard terminal.”

Barry nodded, and the two men split up. Kal kept a visual of what the man’s sister looked like up on his HUD, skipping over the men—of which there were few—and examining each woman’s face. There were twenty bunks in each room and ten rooms on either side. If they were all occupied, that meant Maverick had nearly a thousand slaves below The Shade—and those were just the members of the lower caste. From what he’d heard, many more resided above.

The first room was a bust, and he moved on to the second, keeping an eye on the feeds from his microdrones, which were now at the doors on either end of the main hall. He knew it would only be a matter of time before someone demanded a check-in from the two guards. Once that happened, people were going to start paying a lot more attention to what was going on in the slave dormitories.

He and Barry moved quickly through the rooms, not finding any sign of Barry’s sister. Kal was a room behind Barry—who was on the last one on his side, when the doors on the near-end of the hall burst open, light flooding into the dim passage.

“Freeze!” a voice commanded, and Kal let out a long groan, knowing that he wouldn’t have time to reach cover before the armored figure in the doorway took him down.

“OK!” he called out, raising his hands. “Frozen here.”

No sound came from the dormitory Barry had entered moments earlier, and Kal hoped the man wouldn’t do anything stupid. He’d expected a confrontation at some point, and so long as Barry stuck to the plan, they’d get through it alive.

“Took you long enough to get here,” a voice said from behind the bulky figure.

Kal pursed his lips, holding back a curse as Yaris stepped around. The man wore a smug grin as he stayed close to the wall, out of the armored guard’s line of fire.

“Just happened to be down here making the rounds?” Kal asked. “Or were you coming to take a sample?”

Yaris laughed and shook his head. “No, I don’t need to stoop to collared women to get my rocks off. I’ve actually been waiting for you. Took you longer than I expected, I was starting to wonder if you turned back.”

“How long?”

“The staircase you took in the Atmo Tower. Thing’s loaded with passive sensors. Been watching your progress all night.”

Kal frowned. “Why’d you let us get in?”

“Figured it would be a good security test. I didn’t alert any patrols, so the asshats that missed you moving through the tunnels are going to have a bad day today…and tomorrow. Honestly, though, I’m disappointed.”

“Oh?” Kal cocked an eyebrow. “Why’s that?”

“Well, just that you’d risk your life for some collared slave. Would you like to sift through our trash bins as well? I bet we’ve thrown out other scraps you might be interested in.”

“You’re a real comedian, Yaris.”

The man’s jovial expression vanished in an instant. “And you’re a royal pain in the ass, Kal. You should have stayed away. Getting back on Maverick’s radar was a bad idea.”

Kal let a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. “Well, you’ve only got that partially right.”

“Oh?”

“I’m not on Maverick’s radar…yet.”

The moment the last word left his lips, the wall next to the guard exploded, flinging the armored soldier into Yaris, knocking both to the ground.

Kal didn’t waste the opportunity. Rifle in his hands, he toggled the weapon to fire large caliber slugs, and fired a trio at a crack in the guard’s armor where the breastplate met the pauldron.

The second round knocked the shoulder guard off, and the third took the man’s arm. Kal stepped forward and fired another two slugs into the wound, turning the man’s insides into pudding.

Another guard was moving into view beyond the open door, and Kal snatched a grenade off his belt and tossed it down the hall. He considered how many guards might be coming, and lobbed two more for good measure, crouching behind the fallen soldier as a concussive wave slammed into them.

Fire followed, and when it was gone, Kal glanced at Yaris, who was struggling to get his legs out from under the dead guard.

“Shit,” Barry said from the entrance to the dormitory on the left, a group of women clustered behind him. “That was nuts…glad you gave me that ‘nade, though.”

“And I’m glad you lowered the yield,” Kal muttered before getting to his feet and addressing Yaris. “OK, so here’s the deal. You disable the collars, and I don’t kill you.”

Yaris stopped pushing at the body pinning him, and glared up at Kal. “I do that and I’m dead.”

“You don’t, and I turn you over to these people down here. They don’t have any weapons, so they’ll probably carve you up by hand.”

Kal didn’t actually think the collared slaves would do that. Most were likely far too cowed to turn against their masters, but by the expression on Yaris’s face, he considered it to be a real possibility.

“OK, fine. Sure. You’re not getting out of here anyway.”

Yaris’s eyes closed, and the sound of metal hitting the ground came from all around.

“Damn…that was easy,” Barry shook his head. “Thought you were a badass, Yaris.”

“Doesn’t matter,” the man said, raising his voice. “A thousand troops are on their way. Anyone who leaves their dormitory with these two idiots will get gunned down with them.”

“Check the last dorm,” Kal directed Barry. “See if Karen is in there.”

“I’m Karen,” a woman said, pushing through the crowd that had spilled into the hall behind Kal.

He looked her up and down. “Karen Boula?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “That’s me.”

Barry walked toward the woman. “No it isn’t. Karen’s my sister. I think I’d know if I was looking at my sister.”

The woman’s face fell and she sucked in a wavering breath. “OK…I’m not Karen. My real name’s Francis. We swapped places one night when she was called up to Maverick. I…she did it to save me. But he liked her, and she never came back down.”

Kal held up a hand. “Wait a second. Are you saying that Barry’s sister is actually Francis, one of Maverick’s top lieutenants?”

“Top what?” Barry blurted out. “How—”

“I’m sorry!” the woman blurted out. “If I’d known—”

Behind them, Yaris was laughing, and Kal turned and fired a slug into the man’s head.

“Fuck!” Barry jumped at the rifle’s report. “What was that for?”

“Don’t need him sharing that bit of info with his boss. Mav would take this out on your sister.”

“Why would he do that?” Barry asked in a quiet voice. “She’s apparently one of his top lieutenants.”

Kal began to push through the crowd toward the rear exit. “I know who Francis is, and she’s still collared. She also left with Maverick when he went off-world a few weeks back.”

“Fuck!” Barry swore. “We have to get out of here!”

“No shit,” Kal said while still pushing through the crowd that now filled the corridor. Half the people were looking at one another in fear, and the other half were staring at the two men expectantly.

“What about us?” one asked.

Kal shook his head. “I came to get one woman out. We can’t get all of you back the way we came—hell, I have no idea how we’ll get out the way we came.”

“We’re coming anyway,” another voice said, and he saw the woman pretending to be Karen approach. “At least, I am. I’m dead if I stay.”

He was about to argue with her, but he realized that there was no point.

“Fine. Anyone who wants to come, come, but chances are we’re going to get shot at, and you won’t all make it.”

<Which way are we going?> Barry asked. <If Yaris has really called down that many soldiers, we’re not getting out topside.>

<We’re going back down to the aqueduct.>

<What? They’ll be waiting for us when we come back up!>

Kal gave Barry a sidelong glance. <There are two ends to an aqueduct.>

<What? The other end’ll be outside the dome!>

<There was water in the channel. That means it’s going to come out low enough that there’ll be atmo on the surface.>

<They’ll still find us,> Barry insisted.

<Probably. Let me know if you come up with a better idea.>

They reached the rear hall just as a pair of lightly armored soldiers came into view. Kal fired on the pair before they realized what was going on, and then tossed a grenade the way they’d come for good measure.

Screams came from the recently un-collared slaves as they spilled out into the hall, but they didn’t slow in following Kal and Barry through the warrens.

He wasn’t sure about the exact count, but a glance over his shoulder showed roughly three dozen people following after. He wasn’t sure if he was surprised so many came, or so few. In all honesty, the ones who’d stayed behind were smarter. They stood a much better chance at survival.

It took a lot less time to reach the lift shaft running than sneaking, and they only encountered two more groups of guards on the way. Two of the slaves had been hit, one fatally, the other only earning a nasty burn from a beam weapon.

The two men had used the last of their grenades, and now stood at the edge of the long drop into darkness, their rifles the last line of defense against the enemy.

“We’re supposed to go down those?” one of the women asked, pointing at the rusted ladders on either side of the shaft.

“Not a lot of options. Unless you’re hiding wings somewhere I can’t see,” Kal retorted.

“What about the lift?” a man asked.

“I don’t thi—”

Before Kal could finish his reply, one of the women pressed the call button. For a moment, nothing happened, and then a long groan came from the bottom of the shaft. The groan turned into a screech, and then a low hum.

“It’s coming!” a man shouted.

“Now that’s a miracle,” Kal muttered, moving through the crowd to the door that led out of the lift’s small foyer. “C’mon, Barry, you bleeding heart. That thing’s gonna take forever to get up here.”

The two men took up positions on either side of the door, ready to fire on Maverick’s soldiers. They didn’t have long to wait before two soldiers eased into view down the hall, firing at the entrance. Barry ducked back, and then returned fire, glancing at Kal.

“OK…so next time I have a stupid idea like trying to infiltrate The Shade, talk me out of it!”

“Next time?” Kal spat the words as he fired down the corridor. “What in all the flaming stars makes you think there’s going to be one of those?”

“I’m an eternal optimist,” Barry retorted. “Didn’t you get that from my determination to rescue my sister?”

Kal snorted as he ducked out of sight, glaring at the other man. “I just thought you were moronically stubborn.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

The pair returned to trading fire with the enemy soldiers, who were growing in number, their shots wearing down the doorframe the two men were hiding behind.

Then a plasma burst splashed against the wall and began melting through. Kal fell back, scrambling away from the molten plas.

“We can’t—”

His words were interrupted by a screech behind them, and he turned to see the lift car rise into view, the former slaves piling in even before it had come to a halt.

“Fall back,” he directed Barry, and the other man nodded, moving back toward the lift, his rifle still trained on the doorway leading out into the corridor. Kal rose to his feet and fired a few shots into the passage before joining Barry.

Before they’d even reached the lift, it began to lower once more, and Kal swore.

“Ungrateful bastards, wait for us!”

The two men dashed toward the descending car and jumped onto the roof just as it disappeared from view.

“Great cover here,” Barry muttered.

“Take aim.” Kal pointed at the floor above them. “Blow away whatever peeks over the edge. If that asshat fires plasma on us, we’re done for.”

To his credit, Barry didn’t reply, only crouched and pointed the business end of his weapon at the steadily shrinking opening above.

The lift was dropping fast, but Kal knew that didn’t matter; a sharp shooter would have no problem picking them off from above. Moments later, a weapon nosed into view, and both Barry and Kal fired, one of their shots missing, and the other hitting the gun’s barrel. It jerked back, and a second later, a grenade sailed out into the shaft.

“Fuck!” Barry yelled.

Both men flattened themselves against the roof, hands over their heads as the blast went off a dozen meters above them. Kal felt something pierce his thigh and craned his neck to see a chunk of metal sticking out of his leg.

“Dammit,” he muttered, then glanced at Barry. “You hit?”

“No, but can you tell the bells in my head to quiet down?”

Kal didn’t reply and fired wildly up the shaft before rolling onto his back.

“Keep shooting,” he said to Barry while grabbing a canister of biofoam from his pack. He popped off the cover and then grabbed the metal. “One, twooooo…” He ripped it free and jammed the canister’s nozzle into his leg and pressed the spray lever.

The scream that tore through his throat was drowned out by the lift coming to a stop at the bottom of the shaft.

“Can you move?” Barry asked, pointing at the opening that led down into the lift car.

“Just a se—”

Shots fired from above, some rounds hitting the walls, but just as many slamming into the lift car’s roof all around them.

“Nevermind!”

Kal dove through the opening, Barry following after. A few of the rescues were still present, and he landed on a pair of women, softening his fall.

“Thanks,” he muttered as they all half rose and scrambled out into the corridor.

Grabbing one last grenade from his pack, Kal lobbed it up through the roof hatch and turned to the others.

“Run!”

“I thought you were out!” Barry said after the explosion went off behind them.

Kal shrugged as he pushed through the milling crowd that had gathered at the end of the hall. “I saved one to disable the lift. Didn’t want the enemy to use it.”

“Wow, think you could have told me that?” Barry asked, an eyebrow raised.

“No.” He looked at the crowd of women and three men who had braved the tunnels down from The Shade. “Thanks for holding the elevator for us. This way.”

“Where are we going?” one of the men asked, jogging up to Kal’s side.

“Somewhere I hope no one is going to look.”

“Which is?” a woman asked.

Kal didn’t respond as he pushed open the door and walked out into the pumping station, holding a light aloft. He guided the group through ancient equipment until they came to the aqueduct.

“We’re going that way,” he gestured to the lower section of the tunnel.

“Wait…if that’s further down,” one of the women said, “and these pumps draw water up…”

“Yeah,” Kal nodded. “We’re going to see where it leads.”

“Which is probably outside the dome,” Barry groused.

There were several other complaints voiced, and Kal felt a rage begin to bubble up in his chest.

“Enough!” he hollered. “You have three options. Back to the lift shaft to wait for your likely deaths. Up the aqueduct to the Atmo Tower where they’ll be waiting as well, or down to the inlet to see what options we have.”

“What if they’re waiting for us down there, too?” a woman asked, and Kal recognized the one who had taken Karen’s name.

He shrugged. “Then we’re fucked.”

WELCOME TO HELL

STELLAR DATE: 10.03.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: GFS Satisfaction

REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

“Damn this thing is messy,” Gert commented as she pored through the AI’s programming. “And to think, Grayson was sitting in our lab with this thing in his head the whole time.”

“Yeah,” Finn muttered. “What a travesty. I’m more concerned with the fact that we’ve been kidnapped.”

Gert shook her head. “You’re worried that someone is raiding your chips back on Heaven.”

“Don’t forget my bacon,” he muttered. “I still have a bit of the good stuff I got from Kylie and Rogers. If I get back and it’s gone….”

A low groan came from the far side of the room. “Would you two shut up?” Sylvia grunted in annoyance. “If we don’t figure this out, Maverick is going to kill us.”

“Doubtful,” Finn replied as he turned and leant against his console. “We’re the best. He knows we’re useful, even if we can’t housebreak his pet AI. The thing could still be made to talk.”

Gert gave Finn a sidelong glance. A lot of what the pair did with AIs was illegal—if there was such a thing on Heaven. They kept AIs on ice and ensured they would be docile when they were put into people’s heads.

When she’d started out, it had been a matter of survival, but eventually, it became clear that her well-being was at the expense of others.

But this Jerrod…he’s not just some well-meaning AI. He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Maverick is a fool for wanting us to put it in his head.

“I have a solution that will allow us to fully encapsulate Jerrod,” Finn said. “We simulate an implant for him, and for Maverick. Then we sandbox the connection. The AI won’t be able to get direct access to Maverick’s mind or body.”

Sylvia shook her head. “He won’t go for that. He doesn’t want the delay.”

“It’s just a second or two.”

The rotund woman shrugged. “OK, you tell Maverick that. I’ll get the popcorn.”

“Sure, I’ll—”

“Stop,” Gert held up a hand. “That won’t be necessary. We can do the implantation the way Maverick wants.”

“How?” Sylvia and Finn asked in unison.

“I’ve identified the specific systems that give Jerrod the ability to tap into the host’s nervous system. I can disable it, and just to be safe, so long as the AI has a separate, well-buffered, Link from Maverick, there will be no way for this code to execute, even if someone runs an update and re-enables it.”

“Let me see that,” Sylvia said, moving across the room in a fast waddle. “Shit…yeah, you’re right, that is the segment of code that enables the takeover routine. How did I miss it?”

“It was hidden under several layers of innocuous systems. Maintenance routines and the like. Just took a bit of sandboxing and backtracing.”

Sylvia gave Gert a look like she thought the explanation was a lie.

In a way, it was, but she wasn’t going to tell the other woman her secrets. Having an edge that set her apart meant safety. She planned to make sure that Maverick knew who had achieved his desired result.

One way or another.

AN UPGRADE

STELLAR DATE: 10.05.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: GFS Satisfaction

REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

“And don’t come back till those asshats get their ships here!”

The door closed behind Francis, and she sagged against it. Maverick had been in a foul mood lately; everything she did seemed to be wrong.

Not that he’s ever been terribly reasonable….

She shut her eyes and drew a deep breath, willing herself to become calm—as much as she could while in the service of a megalomaniac.

“He still irritable?” a voice asked from nearby.

Francis looked up to see Gert, the woman who might as well be an alien, with her stick-thin limbs and the tentacles on her head.

I wonder if she really is an alien…like…what if aliens are living amongst us, and they’ve tricked us into thinking they’re modded humans?

She realized that Gert was waiting on an answer, though Francis didn’t see how one was really necessary. “Yeah, though that’s an understatement…of the millennium.”

Gert nodded, her brows furrowed. “Maybe I’ll come back later. I hate doing his check-up when he’s screaming at me.”

“Wise choice,” Francis nodded.

 Gert asked privately. <Do you like working for Maverick?>

 Francis nodded vigorously, her eyes imploring Gert not to continue that line of questioning.

The green woman cocked her head, and then nodded. “I like you, Francis. You know, I might have something that could help Maverick relax a bit. Would you like to come to my lab to see it?”

Something about the offer intrigued Francis, and she nodded, following the strange woman as she all but floated down the hall.

Behind her, she could hear Maverick bellowing at someone else, and she was glad that she had somewhere else to be at the moment.

MAN WITH A MISSION

STELLAR DATE: 10.10.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: ISF I2 Dock A1, ISF I2

REGION: Outer Silstrand System, Silstrand Alliance

“Anything else you need?” the admiral asked Grayson.

“No, ma’am.” He shook his head, pausing to take her in one last time. She wasn’t taller than him, not by more than a centimeter, at least, but she exuded a commanding presence he’d never before witnessed, and doubted he would again.

She wasn’t stiff, either, but rather relaxed, more like a jaguar than a woman. Nothing about her demanded respect, either. She didn’t wear a chest full of ribbons, or an ornate uniform. Heck, each time he’d seen the admiral, some piece of hair was almost falling out of her ponytail.

But she was in charge. There was no doubt about it.

Grayson supposed that a part of it was how the people around her behaved. There was almost a level of reverence directed toward Tanis Richards. The woman who commanded a fleet numbering in the millions—who possessed ships with invincible shields.

“Well…” he cocked an eyebrow. “Not unless you’re willing to upgrade my ship to have stasis shields.”

Admiral Tanis Richards placed a hand on his shoulder. “Sorry, Colonel. At the moment, we’re all tapped out on that tech. Plus, your ship would need an ISF or Transcend AI to manage the shields and self-destruct systems. The pair of destroyers I’m sending with you will have to do.”

“I understand, ma’am, just had to ask.”

The admiral laughed. “Of course you did. I would have too. I half-wish I could go with you to Gedri. I’m no fan of Maverick, that’s for sure. I owe him a double helping of payback.”

“You know Maverick?”

Grayson was surprised that the erudite woman before him could have ever come in contact with human trash such as the now-president of Gedri.

“Years ago, on the PetSil Mining Platform here in Silstrand,” she said, a far-off look in her eyes. “Bastard nearly cut me in two with a plasma sword.” She shook her head. “Plasma…can you believe it? The guy was nuts.”

Grayson snorted. “Well, that sure hasn’t changed. He still has that damn thing.”

“Pry it from his cold, dead hand.” The veneer of a serene woman faded entirely as she spoke the words. Before Grayson now stood one of the most fearsome predators that humanity had ever seen. The look in her eyes spoke pain and suffering for any who dared cross her; she was making Grayson the instrument of her vengeance.

She’s going to make one hell of a mark on the galaxy.

“That’s a promise I’m happy to make, Admiral.”

“Good.” She withdrew her hand from his shoulder and pulled it to her forehead in a salute. “Kick ass, Colonel.”

“Aye, ma’am.” He returned the salute. “Asses will be kicked.”

* * * * *

“Shit, that was weird,” Major Fallon said as space reappeared on the forward display.

Grayson gave her a look of agreement before turning to Scan. “Confirm location.”

“Sir, confirmed,” the scan officer replied. “We’re in Gedri. Four AU from Tomlinson.”

“Comm, alert the Kent. We’re ready to decouple.”

“Aye.” Comm bent over his console, then glanced at the Helm officer. “Ready to decouple.”

“Maneuvering thrusters green.”

“Separate us,” Grayson ordered. “Scan, do a full active sweep.”

A slight shudder ran through the deck as the Polis Fury disconnected from the ISS Kent, the ISF destroyer that had pulled them through the jump gate. The other destroyer, a ship barely larger than a frigate and named the Perdition, snapped into existence a thousand kilometers starboard of the ‘Fury.

Both ships were equipped with jump mirrors and stasis shields, and though they were small, their use of zero-point energy for power gave them an array of beam weapons that would make a Silstrand Space Force battlegroup envious.

“Sweep coming up,” Scan announced, as the forward holodisplay showed a three-dimensional view of the system.

“Shit,” Fallon muttered. “Look at that, they’ve got the SFF pushed all the way out into the Scattered Disk.”

“And Freemont is a salvager’s dream,” Grayson added. “Too many SSF hulls out there. Samuel never should have attacked that station. The people here aren’t going to forget that.”

“Especially since they won.” Fallon’s expression was hard. “Now we’re going to have to double down to bring these people to heel.”

Grayson cast a measuring look at his XO. “Crushing the people of Gedri isn’t on our agenda. We’re here to depose Maverick and then instate a new governor until proper elections can be held.”

“Proper,” Fallon snorted. “Like Gedri has ever had one of those.”

<Gedri’s government was considered no more corrupt than any other Silstrand member system roughly two centuries ago,> Alice supplied. <Recently, until Vaax bought her way in, they were making democratic reforms as well.>

“Oh really?” Fallon asked the AI. “Like voting on how best to screw the people?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Grayson cut in before his AI could start another fight with his XO. “We’re not here to reinstate democracy. That’s going to be someone else’s job. Maverick is to be captured and charged with his crimes.”

Fallon gave Grayson a sidelong look. “Captured? You mean that with imaginary quotes around it, right?”

“I have my orders,” he replied. “I got the impression that Tanis doesn’t care if he lives or dies, but Silstrand wants him to stand trial.”

“And if he fights back?” Fallon asked.

“If?” Grayson snorted and folded his hands behind his back as he continued to watch the system scan populate with more information. “There’s no ‘if’ about it.”

Fallon gave him a toothy grin. “Yes, sir.”

The colonel inclined his head in response before turning. “Comm, broadcast the Alliance president’s message. No one is going to give a crap, but we have to do it anyway. Helm, coordinate with the Kent and Perdition. Best course to Jericho.”

“You sure Maverick will be at Jericho?” Fallon asked. “I thought that The Futz was the capitol.”

“Not anymore.” Grayson looked over the ship idents that Scan was putting up on the main display. “There. It’s docked at Laerdo Station, right above Montral.”

“Sir?”

“The Satisfaction. Maverick will be where that ship is.”

OUTSIDE

STELLAR DATE: 10.10.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: Outside the City of Montral, Jericho

REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

Kal carefully worked his way back down the scree-covered slope, breathing in lungfuls of the dense air deeper in the valley, as hardy scrub grass gave way to low bushes and, eventually, thick forest.

The valley was more like a gash in the surface of Jericho where once a river had flowed to the north of Montral. Now it was one of the low-lying areas where the planet’s atmosphere was thick enough for foliage—and humans—to survive.

So far as he could tell, part of what made for the valley’s verdant growth was oxygen-rich air spilling out of the aqueduct. It was the freshest in that vicinity, and that was where the escapees from The Shade had made their home for the past nine days.

Nine days during which Maverick’s people had been scouring the city looking for them.

When he’d first led the former slaves into the valley, they’d gone several miles north of where the aqueduct exited. The trek had taken them several hundred meters closer to the surface, to the limit of what unaugmented humans could handle.

There, they had waited for any pursuit through the aqueduct. It had taken several hours, but eventually, a team of Maverick’s people had emerged and made what could only be described as a cursory search of the surrounding area.

By the time they’d finished, several of the escapees were showing signs of oxygen deprivation, so he led them back down into the valley, as close to the aqueduct’s entrance as he dared.

And there they had remained.

It honestly surprised Kal that Maverick hadn’t figured out where they were hiding. The searchers seemed convinced that he’d used one of the other exits from the aqueduct.

Which I probably would have, if I’d known they existed.

It was also possible that Maverick didn’t want anyone to know about the passage that led from outside the dome right under The Shade to the Atmo Tower. Or that the crime lord knew that the escapees were hiding in the valley, and was waiting for them to starve and come back to the city on their own.

Or it could be a dozen other things…

“What’s the word?” a voice asked, and he turned to see Karen emerge from the undergrowth, a dozen apples nestled in her arms.

“They’re still looking for us,” he said. “Though I think it’s simmered down from active searching to just keeping an eye out. People are far more concerned with paying homage to His Grand Poobahship.”

Karen chuckled. “When it comes to Maverick, that’s practically a compliment. Maybe something like ‘Grand Asshator’.”

Kal picked an apple out of her arms and rubbed it on his shirt before taking a bite.

“Kal, seriously,” she chided. “That apple is probably cleaner than your shirt at this point.”

He looked down at the dull grey shirt he’d been wearing for longer than he cared to admit. “Damn…force of habit.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Still, we’re not going to starve, but eventually, we’re all going to be naked.”

He gave her a sidelong look and saw that Karen was grinning at him. “Funny.”

“Funny because it’s true.”

“We won’t be out here that long. I got a message back from my contact…. He’s organizing a geological survey so there’s a reason to have ground vehicles out on the surface. They’ll pass by here, and we’ll get aboard. Then we’ll head to Hephaestus and ship out from there.”

“Ship out…” Karen whispered the words. “I grew up in Montral, you know.”

Kal pursed his lips and shrugged. “Well, so long as Maverick is president, there’s no place for you there. No place for any of us. Not in Montral, on Jericho, or in Gedri.”

“You don’t think the SSF will come back in force and depose him?”

They rounded a corner, and Kal caught sight of the group’s small camp tucked into a dry ravine below the aqueduct. A thick canopy of trees lay overhead, and even standing at the edge of the opening above, you’d never know that a group of refugees were hidden below.

“Word was going around that President Vaax was a Scipio plant. If that’s true, the SSF is likely shoring up defenses at Trio, and won’t give two shits about Gedri.”

Karen nodded wordlessly and was about to speak when Barry came running into camp. His gaze swept across the group of people settled amongst the foliage until they landed on Kal.

“Kal!” he hissed, rushing toward them. “We’ve got trouble.”

“Trouble?”

“Yeah.” Barry nodded vigorously. “There’s a patrol coming up the valley from the south.”

“Shit!” Kal swore. “How many?”

“Four that I saw. They had good stealth gear. If I hadn’t been in my cloak, I wouldn’t have gotten close enough to see more than one.”

“How far?”

“At their pace? Not more than fifteen meters behind me.”

Kal turned to the refugees. “OK, people, time to move!”

THE PINCER

STELLAR DATE: 10.10.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: SSS Polis Fury Approaching Jericho

REGION: Jericho, Gedri System, Gedri Freedom Alliance

“Weapons! Target that…corvette,” Grayson ordered, highlighting a small ship that was moving around the edge of his formation. “Don’t let it flank us.”

“Aye, Colonel,” the officer on weapon’s barked. “Firing beams. Rails when it gets another degree past the Kent.”

Grayson almost felt bad for the cobbled together forces that Maverick was throwing at his trio of ships. The enemy had scored a few hits on the Polis Fury, but the pair of ISF destroyers were entirely unscathed, their stasis shields simply shrugging off every attack.

If he were honest with himself, the ISF ships would be far more effective if the Fury weren’t present. They were spending as much effort to protect his ship as they were attacking the enemy.

Even so, at the end of the day, it was important that this be seen as an SSF takeover, not an assault by some foreign military.

Another group of GFA ships began to move up from low orbit around Jericho to join in the group defending Valhalla Station. The counters on the holodisplay showed that the enemy forces would be bolstered to over two hundred at that point.

Those that fought, at least. A lot of the ships in Maverick’s flotilla seemed just as happy to pick over disabled hulls as to join in the fight. There were still more ships further out, everything from cargo haulers to a few corvettes and destroyers belonging to other syndicates. He wondered if they were holding back on Maverick’s orders, or holding back because they didn’t want to lose assets to the ISF destroyers.

<How are things looking?> he called out to the captains of the Kent and Perdition.

<Getting a bit hot,> Kory, the lieutenant in command of the Kent, replied. <We’re pulling at max draw from our CriEn modules for shields and weapons. Tapping into the fusion boilers for other ship’s systems, and we can’t run cooling vanes.>

<Similar situation here, sir,> Alma, the lieutenant commanding the Perdition, added. 

All ships in combat had heating issues. Reactors ran hot, and you had to shed heat from incoming energy and kinetic shots. Gravity shields didn’t aid in the venting of heat, but they didn’t block any ambient dissipation, either.

Stasis shields, on the other hand, were very effective at trapping heat inside. The larger ISF ships had fewer issues, as they could run more CriEn modules, but due to spacetime distortion, the destroyers could only run one, and that meant tapping into fusion reactors during extended combat.

<Then we need to make a hard push for Valhalla,> Grayson announced. <Focus on that group moving around to our starboard, and then we’ll pull back on that vector. With us out of the way, you two can separate and come at Valhalla from opposing vectors.>

<You sure?> Lieutenant Kory asked. <You’ll be on your own, and there are a lot of wolves circling.>

Grayson checked the broader system scan. A dozen SSF ships that had been pushed out to the system’s Scattered Disk were on their way to reinforce him, but they were still several hours out.

The ISF lieutenant wasn’t wrong. The Fury would have to fend for itself.

<I’m sure. Hit Valhalla hard and take its guns offline. Then we can move in.>

<Aye.>

<Yes, sir.>

The ISF destroyers focused their fire on clearing out the vector Grayson had indicated, and then he directed Helm to pull the Polis Fury back from the fray.

“We’re retreating?” Fallon asked, her eyebrow raised as she regarded the holodisplay.

“We’re getting out of the way,” Grayson replied. “The ISF ships can do this on their own, no need to hamstring them further.”

“What about the SSF showing our strength?” she asked.

Grayson laughed. “Trust me, Major. This is just the beginning. It’s going to take weeks to bring this system to heel—as much as it ever can be, that is.”

“Should just purge the whole fucking place,” Fallon muttered.

Grayson didn’t grace her statement with a reply. Once, he’d felt the same way…that Gedri was a cesspool. He’d believed it had no place in the Silstrand Alliance, and that the legitimacy they had as a member was little more than a bad joke.

But after spending time in the system, getting to know the people on multiple stations and planets, he’d come to learn that most of them just wanted to live their lives in peace.

“People just want to be people,” he said quietly.

“Pardon?” Fallon grunted out the word.

“Nothing.”

The pair watched in silence as the ISF destroyers waded into the fight, their shields flaring brightly as the impenetrable defense systems simply shrugged off all incoming fire. Even though he’d seen it before, when the ISF destroyed the Revolution Fleet in Silstrand, that had been with the I2 present.

It wasn’t at all surprising to see a thirty-six-kilometer leviathan of a ship smash an enemy fleet, but watching two small destroyers go up against hundreds of opposing ships was something else entirely.

He was impressed with more than just the ISF’s technology, the fact that their people were willing to help deal with Silstrand’s issues when it was thousands of light years from their homeworld boggled the mind.

He couldn’t imagine traveling hundreds of light years to engage in a war, let alone thousands—and Tanis had warned him that the battlefront would only get larger.

That’s not my concern. I have one job: secure Gedri. That starts with capturing Maverick. He paused, considering how that would go. Though I won’t shed a tear if he doesn’t make it.

“Look at that.” Fallon pointed at a group of privateer freighters that had been holding the planet-side of Valhalla Station. “They’re fleeing.”

As she spoke, an atom beam lanced out from the Kent, cutting a cruiser in half, while another streaked out from the Perdition, boiling away a railgun mounted on Valhalla.

“Can you blame them?” he asked. “They don’t stand a chance.”

Without needing to protect the Polis Fury, the pair of ISF ships waded right into the midst of the defenders, fighting in a fashion Grayson had never seen before. It was like watching reenactments of battles between ancient ocean-going fleets, ships broadsiding one another across a few dozen kilometers.

With the ships holding the planet-side of the station fleeing, Valhalla’s defense began to crumble. Grayson estimated that in fifteen minutes, the station would surrender.

“Satisfaction is on the move,” Scan announced. “They’ve pulled away from Valhalla Station. Looks like a vector that will take them down to Laerdo Station.

“Acknowledged,” Grayson replied.

<You know what that means,> Alice said privately.

 Grayson’s lips drew into a thin line. <He’s going to ride the strand down to Montral and go to ground. Short of razing the place, it could take years to dig him out of that city.>

<And the population would fight for him, even if they hate him.>

The colonel nodded silently, considering his options, as one of the ISF destroyers holed another of Maverick’s privateer cruisers.

“Helm, take us down on an intercept.”

“The Satisfaction is a fully outfitted warship,” Major Fallon warned. “It can go toe to toe with us.”

Grayson nodded. “And even if it won, it wouldn’t get a light second out before our two friends caught up with it. Maverick’s not going to take the time to engage with us, though.”

“No?”

The colonel shifted, standing arms akimbo as he regarded the dot that represented the Satisfaction. “He’ll run. He’s not the sort to engage in a straight-up fight.”

TO GROUND

STELLAR DATE: 10.10.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: GFS Satisfaction, approaching Laerdo Station

REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

“What’s our ETA?” Maverick demanded as he strode onto the Satisfaction’s bridge. “Those fuckers aren’t going to be too far behind us.”

“Seventeen minutes,” Captain Lawrence said, rising from his command seat and offering it to Maverick.

Ignoring the man’s gesture, the president swept past, striding to the forward display, glaring at it as though he could change the course of events by force of will alone.

 Jerrod said. <You can use me.>

 Maverick replied. <Now shut up.>

They watched the battle unfold for a few seconds before Maverick blurted out, “Where the hell did that stupid puke get those ships? How can hulls that small have shields like that?”

“I don’t know,” Lawrence said in a quiet voice as he approached. “Nothing we throw at them gets through. But their fleet ident—”

“Intrepid.” Maverick slashed a hand through the air. “I know. Like the ship that wiped out the Mark and Pedro at Bollam’s World. But why are they here? Why now?”

Even though he’d asked the question, Maverick already knew the answer. It was the nanotech he’d sought. There had always been whispers that it was from Tanis Richards, the famed leader who defeated the five fleets at Bollam’s. She’d been seen in Silstrand months earlier.

Something Maverick could personally confirm.

And now Grayson was attacking with ISF ships at his beck and call.

Fuckers want payback. The both of them. Well, they’ll have to find me to claim victory, and that’s something they’ll never do.

Maverick had climbed his way up to the top of the ladder on Jericho. He knew of a thousand boltholes where he could avoid capture, leading a resistance that would wear down the SSF until they ceded Gedri as not being worth it.

So far as he was concerned, the fight was just getting started.

“If you want to get to Laerdo or the surface faster, you could take a pinnace,” Lawrence suggested. “Then we don’t have to brake to match v with the station.”

<That’s unwise,> Jerrod said quietly in the back of his mind.

Maverick turned, glaring at the captain. “Are you kidding? Out there in just a pinnace? Those ships have atom beams. I’d be a sitting duck.”

“Yes, sir, but a pinnace is highly maneuverable. At that range, even they won’t be able to track—”

“No.” Maverick said the word with a note of finality that caused the captain to swallow and nod wordlessly. “You have twelve minutes to get me onto Laerdo.”

“Yes, President,” the captain replied meekly.

Maverick turned and strode off the bridge, his voice filled with rage as he shouted, “Francis!”

* * * * *

“Holy shit!” Major Fallon exclaimed. “Did you see that? The Satisfaction probably fried three decks of Laerdo, pulling that maneuver.”

Grayson wondered what else Fallon thought he would have been looking at. “I saw it. Looks like Maverick is in a hurry.”

“And he doesn’t care who he hurts.” The major seemed strangely put out.

“Uh…yeah.” Grayson nodded. “He’s a crime lord. That’s sort of how he operates on the regular.”

“But he’s the president of Gedri now.”

“I don’t think that alters how he sees things.”

Fallon didn’t say anything in response, but Grayson could tell she disapproved—a sentiment that seemed foolish. Maverick was a scumbag. Expecting something noble out of him was ridiculous.

<Alice, I want to beat Maverick down to Montral. What’s my best option?> he asked the AI in his head. <And don’t tell me a low-altitude jump.>

<That’s not your best option, that’s your only option.> The AI’s reply contained a note of finality. <But it doesn’t have to be a jump, you can take a shuttle. Jericho has such a thin atmosphere that the ship can burn hard down to ten klicks above the surface.>

“Helm,” Grayson turned to the woman in the pilot’s seat. “Alice is going to pass you a course. We’re going to do a drive-by.”

The woman’s eyes widened, but she nodded without hesitation. “Aye, sir.”

“Major Fallon,” Grayson addressed his XO. “You have the conn.”

She regarded him with steely eyes for several long seconds, and he wondered for a moment if she was going to debate his decision in front of the crew.

“Aye, sir,” she said at last. “I have the conn.”

Grayson walked off the bridge, knowing that, while Fallon may not like the plan, she’d execute it. If nothing else, the woman was a stickler for the rules.

<Commander Maureen,> he reached out to his assault team leader while striding through the passageway to the lift. 

<We’re already assembled, sir. Only need five to get strapped in.>

<Good. I’ll be there by then.>

<Sir?>

Grayson chuckled. <I’m coming with you, Commander. We’re hunting Maverick, and that’s game I’m not going to miss out on.>

<Yes, sir, I wouldn’t dream of doing it without you.>

<This wise?> Alice asked. <Going down yourself.>

Maverick nodded to a pair of ratings exiting the lift before he got on. <It’s necessary. Maverick is the slickest, slimiest bastard this side of Sol. Maureen is good, but she’s not ready for him. I know how Maverick thinks.>

<Do you?> Alice asked. <Because I’ve read the reports. He got the better of you and Kylie on several occasions.>

<Well, I know enough about how he thinks to always expect another trick.>

<Fair enough.>

Seven minutes later, Grayson was armored up and strapped into the dropship with Commander Maureen and her platoon’s first squad. Sergeant George was haranguing a corporal over the condition of his armor, and the colonel suppressed a laugh.

<What’s so funny?> Alice asked.

<Sergeants. They never change, I swear. They’re like a special breed of human who seem to gravitate to the same job. If we mated sergeants with only sergeants for a few generations, I bet we’d produce a super race.>

<That’s illogical.>

Grayson chuckled at the idea. <It would be the surliest super race, too. It would probably die out before long.>

<You’re not making any sense.>

<Then you haven’t spent enough time around sergeants. How does our course look?>

Alice brought up a view of Jericho, with Montral’s position marked on the surface. <Helm is following my plot to a T. We’re coming in at a low angle of approach. The city defenses won’t be able to fire at us until we’re fifty klicks out. By then, they’ll have just fifteen seconds to hit the ship.>

<Which won’t do anything, because we’ll have already dropped,> Grayson said, nodding with approval. <With luck, all their surface to air will be so busy tracking the Polis Fury that they won’t even see us.>

Grayson leant back as Sergeant George checked his gear. “Looking good, sir.”

“Thanks, Sergeant,” Grayson replied. “Keep up the good work.”

“Have to. If I don’t, these greenhorns would all be dead on the next drop.”

“Thank stars we have Papa George to keep us safe!” a soldier called out from the far end of the assault ship.

“Who said that?” the sergeant spun. “Gael, if that was you….”

Grayson laughed and shared a look with Commander Maureen.

“You ready?” she asked as the counter on the bulkhead ticked down past the two-minute mark.

“Hell yeah.”

Grayson was more than ready. After what Maverick had done to Kylie, to all of them, the man was going to find out what retribution looked like.

* * * * *

“Let’s go!” Kal said, striding through the group of refugees. “We’ll get up to the caves on the north slope and hope they don’t check that far.”

“And what if they do?” Karen asked.

“I’ve set up a few traps out there,” Kal replied. “Should be enough to thin their numbers.”

“Ha!” A voice came from right behind Kal. “Thanks for letting us know.”

Kal spun to see a man standing behind him, three others materializing around the refugees, weapons leveled at the crowd.

Barry reached for his rifle, but the man who had spoken only laughed. “Go for it, buddy. You wanna be responsible for us mowing down all these people? Bounty’s for ‘dead or alive’. Right now, you’re just lucky that it’s a pain to haul around this many bodies.”

Kal nodded at Barry, and the other man raised his hands.

“That’s a good boy,” the leader said.

“So…how big is the bounty?” Kal asked.

The man laughed. “Ten mil. Were you thinking you could offer something better?”

The thought had crossed Kal’s mind, but he knew there was no chance he could come up with that amount of credit. The bounty hunters knew it, too.

He was about to reply when a thooouuum shook the ground.

“What the hell?” one of the bounty hunters muttered, and Kal looked up at above the ravine walls.

The sound came again, the ground shuddering, and this time, he saw a bolt of light streak across the sky.

“City defenses are firing at something,” Kal said, his brow furrowing as he peered through the canopy overhead. “I—”

His words were drowned out by the thunder of a starship passing only a few kilometers overhead, its engines screaming even in the thin atmosphere.

Half the refugees dropped to the ground in terror, and one of the bounty hunters fell over as well, hands over his head.

Kal was moving a split second later. He swung his rifle around and fired a pulse blast at the leader, knocking him back, before flipping the rifle to its projectile mode and letting a trio of rounds fly at another of the enemies.

Barry had sprung into action as well and let a pulse blast loose at the guard closest to him.

Turning back toward the leader, Kal found himself face to face with the barrel of a rifle.

“You’re lucky we get more money if you’re alive,” the leader growled, as the sound of the starship passing overhead faded. “But maybe we should ice a few of your precious little slaves here. Then you can carry their bodies. How’s that sou—”

The man paused as a more thumps came from the city’s defensive emplacements.

“Now what?” he grunted.

There was another thump, this one followed by a bright light just to the west of the ravine. A thunder-like crack came a second later, and Kal hit the dirt.

“Down!”

STRAND

STELLAR DATE: 10.10.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: Laerdo Station

REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

“Let’s go!” Maverick motioned for the rest of his retinue and guards to get aboard the elevator car. “We drop in thirty seconds, whether your sorry asses are aboard or not.”

His pronouncement made, Gedri’s president strode across the elevator car to the observation windows that looked out over the planet below. He both hated and loved the barren world that hung against the black backdrop of space.

He’d been born down there two centuries prior, to penniless parents. They’d died young, but he hadn’t. Maverick had fought and clawed his way to the top of the heap, then he’d found a bigger heap and clawed his way to the top of that.

For the past ten years, he’d been the clear leader amongst the syndicates on Jericho—which had made him one of the most influential people in Gedri. The most powerful voice in the ear of the president.

Until Vaax had screwed it all up.

But he’d turned that to his advantage as well, becoming president himself. A title he should have had the time to enjoy before the SSF struck back.

“Grayson.” He muttered the word as though it were a curse. “You just had to make a beeline back here, didn’t you?”

The thought of the SSF colonel invariably led to thoughts of Kylie. Her ship had jumped out of Gedri along with a lot of other civilian vessels in the wake of the attack on The Futz by General Samuel.

That Grayson had come back without her told Maverick one of two things. Kylie was imprisoned, or she had gone off with her blue-haired lover, Nadine. Either way, stick-up-his-ass Grayson didn’t have Kylie either.

Small victories.

The elevator car shuddered slightly as it began to descend the strand to Montral below.

Maverick felt incredibly vulnerable riding down to the city on the elevator, descending the thousand kilometers from Laerdo Station to the surface on a fixed path. But shooting down the elevator to take him out would kill untold civilians, and Grayson was a by-the-book officer of the SSF. He wouldn’t endanger the people he was sworn to protect.

Which was why getting off a warship and into Montral was the safest option for Maverick. From there, he’d lock down the city and then disappear.

“Sir, you should step away from the window.”

Maverick turned to see Francis at his side. “Oh?”

“The Polis Fury has dropped to a lower orbit. They might be making a run at the strand.”

“Polis Fury.” Maverick snorted. “Grayson would have a ship that’s begging to be turned into a dick joke.”

“Yes, sir.” Francis nodded. “But the window.”

“He’s not going to shoot at us,” Maverick said, summoning a holodisplay to show the ship’s trajectory. “Look. It’s boosting. They’re going to drop a shuttle.”

Francis frowned at the display. “Do you think so?”

“Jerrod?” he asked his AI.

 The AI’s voice was entirely toneless. <That is consistent with how Colonel Grayson thinks.>

“Thank you, Jerrod.” Maverick grinned as he regarded his lieutenant. “Instruct the city’s defenses to fire at the ship only enough to make them think we’re fooled, but to watch for that shuttle and take it out. Grayson will be on it. With him gone, things will stall out, give us time.”

“Yes, sir.” Francis turned to walk away.

“Francis,” Maverick called over his shoulder.

“Sir?”

“Tell them to shoot it down or else.”

“Yes, sir.”

He turned back to the window and watched in silence as the holodisplay showed the Polis Fury closing with the planet. After several minutes, he caught sight of the ship arcing over the surface.

It was a maneuver one could never pull on a terraformed world. Not only would the atmosphere pose a problem, but the ship’s engines would set fires that would rage across continents.

On Jericho, nothing happened. There was little atmosphere to buffet the ship, and nothing to burn. And even if there were, no one cared about Jericho.

Weapon emplacements around the city lit up, firing kinetics and beams at the approaching ship, which continued to accelerate as it streaked above the planet.

For a second afterward, everything appeared to be still, but then the guns fired again, striking something to the northeast of the city, a fireball blossoming in the air before a cloud of debris was thrown into the sky a few kilometers outside of the dome.

“Take that, Grayson,” Maverick said with a smirk. “How does that make you feel, Jerrod? To know that Grayson is dead.”

<I’ll believe it when I see the body,> the AI replied.

There was something chilling in the way Jerrod spoke that made Maverick uncertain which outcome the AI preferred.

AN OLD FRIEND

STELLAR DATE: 10.10.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: Outside the City of Montral, Jericho

REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

Kal’s mednano reported no major injuries—except to his ears—as it flooded through his body. The tiny bots worked their way through his bloodstream and began repairing his eardrums, dampening the ringing sound while they were at it.

Opening his eyes, he looked around, only one thought running through his mind: two of the bounty hunters had been wearing helmets.

Sitting up, he saw one of the enemies on his knees, shaking his head while blood ran from his ears and a gash on his face. The one Barry had shot was still down, as was the one Kal had shot, though he was moaning softly.

The leader was nowhere to be seen.

Kal got a hand around his rifle and struggled to his feet, only turning halfway around before spotting the fourth bounty hunter. He was sitting on a rock, looking dazed, but his rifle was aimed at Kal’s chest.

“Fuck…that was unexpected,” the man said, nodding at Kal’s rifle. “Doesn’t change shit, though. Drop it, or I blow away one of your friends.”

“I’ll kill you first,” Kal hissed.

“Then I’ll get a few of them,” the man countered, his right eye visible through a crack in his faceshield. “How many? Two? Three?”

“Fuck.” Kal dropped his rifle on the ground. “Fine. How do you want to do this?”

The leader of the bounty hunters let out a throaty chuckle as he rose to his feet. “Well, I’m still going to kill one or two of them. Make the others carry the bodies. Should keep everyone in line.”

The man swung the business end of his rifle to the refugees, most of whom were still on the ground. Kal was judging the distance, wondering if he could reach the bounty hunter before the man fired. He was about to do it regardless, when there was a soft pop, and the thug fell to the ground.

“The heck?” Kal whispered, taking a step forward.

“What? Did you like him or something?” A woman’s voice came from his right, and he spun to see a trio of soldiers in SSF armor come into view. “He seemed like a bad guy, so I put him down.”

“Who the hell are you?” Kal whispered, still trying to put together a coherent flow of events for the past few minutes.

“Commander Maureen of the SSF.” The soldiers with her moved forward and disarmed the other three bounty hunters. “We ran into some trouble with our shuttle, so we decided to come down the old-fashioned way.”

“The old-fashioned way?” Barry had struggled to his feet, and was eyeing his rifle.

Maureen shook her head. “Best to leave that where it is, pal. This isn’t the sort of situation where we make friends quickly. Enemies, yes, friends, no.” She turned back to Kal. “And the old-fashioned way is called jumping.”

“Damn…”

Another group of soldiers emerged from further down the ravine, one of them shaking his head. “Kal Lance. Why am I not surprised to see you mixed up in this?”

The soldier’s helmet covered his face, but Kal would have known that voice anywhere.

“Grayson?”

“Colonel Grayson to you, Lieutenant.”

“I’m not SSF anymore.”

“Right,” Grayson said, as though his word was the thing that made it so. “What are you doing out here? And who are these people?”

“We’re hiding,” Kal began, but Grayson interrupted.

“Not so well, it would seem.”

“We had it handled,” Barry muttered.

A laugh came from the commander. “Sure you did, buddy. Handled right into a body bag.”

Kal shot Barry a quelling look, and the other man subsided. “We rescued these people from The Shade, but got trapped outside the dome. I was working on getting us transport to another city when…well…I guess I was wrong about the SSF not giving a shit about Gedri. I thought you’d be forming up against Scipio.”

“A lot’s changed in the last two weeks,” Grayson replied. “Silstrand’s allied with Scipio now. Plus a lot of other people. It’s our job to shore up the Fringe, and that starts with Gedri…and Maverick.”

Barry’s head snapped around. “You’re after Maverick?”

“Of course we are,” Grayson snorted. “Who else do you think we’d come down here for?”

“Then I’m coming with you.” Barry took a step forward, only to find several rifles pointed at his head.

Grayson shook his head. “Sorry, buddy. We need to get into The Shade and nab Maverick. That doesn’t work with civvies in tow.”

“He has my sister,” Barry insisted.

“He has a lot of people’s sisters.” Grayson’s tone contained no compassion. “And more of them will live if we get in fast and take him out. Then the GFA falls, and this mess gets cleaned up properly.”

“Have fun with that,” Kal chuckled. “People have been trying to ‘clean up’ Gedri for, well…just about ever.”

Grayson took three long strides forward, stopping in front of Kal. “How’d you get out here? Can we use it to get inside the dome?”

Kal nodded. “There’s an aqueduct. Runs to the Atmo Tower. Halfway through, there’s a pumping station. If you go through it, you’ll get to a lift shaft that will take you into the Red Zone, almost under The Shade.”

“Good.” Grayson nodded to his soldiers. “You can come with us. I’ve heard what a labyrinth the tunnels under Montral are.”

“Nope.” Kal shook his head. “You don’t need me. I can pass you the route.

Grayson reached up and pulled his helmet off, the same steely eyes Kal remembered from a decade ago boring into his own.

“I heard rumors about what happened to you, Kal. It was a raw deal. Samuel has a rep for screwing people over—but Maverick played a part in it too. Don’t you want to be there when we bring him in?”

“Capture, not kill?” Kal asked.

“Those are the orders.”

“And if something happens to him?”

The colonel straightened. “I imagine that would only be the case if our quarry put up an unreasonable resistance. Shit happens in the field, though. You know how it is.”

“Yeah,” Kal nodded. “I sure do.”

Barry looked as though he was about to explode, but Kal shook his head.

“I’ll bring her back, Barry. I promise. You keep everyone here safe until we come for you.”

“You’d better.” Barry sucked in a deep breath. “How will we know if you won?”

“There’s no ‘if’,” Grayson ground out the words. “And trust me, you’ll know.”

* * * * *

Grayson had given Kal a tactical cloak and fresh powercells for his rifle, then told him to stay in the rear of the formation. The rest of the troops had wordlessly accepted Kal’s presence, having picked up on the reference to his former rank in the military.

He couldn’t see their faces behind their helmets’ faceshields, but he wondered if they made room for him out of respect for his service, or because Grayson ordered it.

In a firefight, will they cover my back?

During his days in the SSF, he would have never doubted it, but years of living on Jericho had taught him that you could never really trust anyone.

Even so, he was sure they were glad for a guide. He’d been through the same training as the men and women around him, and he knew that they’d prepared for a lot of different combat situations, from storming starships to seizing cities. But none of that would prepare them for what it was like to fight in a Jerichan city.

<Remember,> he told them, as the group moved along the walkway at the edge of the aqueduct. <In Montral, the entire populace is armed—and they’ll all see you as the enemy. It’s you against seven million. Assume that every person you meet will want to kill you and steal your gear.>

<Rosy outlook,> Commander Maureen commented.

<He’s not wrong,> Grayson said. <But everyone here is also a mercenary. You can barter in some unlikely situations, and they have a strange code of conduct.>

<Honor amongst thieves, sir?> Sergeant George asked, his tone derisive.

<Something like that,> the colonel said. <Despite the fact that Jericho is…whatever it is…it somehow manages to function. I used to think it was disgusting. I still think it’s sad, but it’s also impressive in its own way.>

Kal was surprised to hear such a nuanced viewpoint from Grayson. The man he remembered lived in a world without shades of grey. He wondered what had happened to change that.

<We’ve reached the pumping station,> one of the forward scouts reported back. <There’s a defensive position of sorts set up.>

The scouts updated the combat net with where Maverick’s people had barricaded the passage through the pumping station, as well markers for a dozen defenders.

<Take it down, Commander Maureen,> Grayson ordered, letting the commander have the reins.

<Watch for traps,> Kal cautioned. <These people won’t fight fair.>

<Understood,> she replied. <OK, Sergeant, take squads one and two around the far side of the upper pumps. We’ll hit them from the end. That’ll bottle them up behind that…thing that looks like a giant donut.>

<You got it, Commander,> the sergeant replied.

Grayson moved to Kal’s side as the soldiers activated a-grav systems to avoid climbing the old ladders.

<They probably know we’re here,> Kal said to the colonel.

<Could be. Won’t help,> Grayson replied. <A dozen of Maverick’s mercs don’t stand a chance against an entire platoon.>

Kal nodded. He didn’t disagree, he’d just hoped they could make it further in before alerting Maverick to their presence.

A second later, the sound of combat broke out, the report of rifles echoing down the long tunnel. Kal was watching the battle unfold via the feeds on the combat net, when suddenly, one of the SSF soldiers fell, his vitals flatlining.

“The fuck?” Kal muttered aloud, looking for the enemy who had taken the shot.

A flash of light distracted him, and he glanced up at the two massive pumps that sat in the upper section of the aqueduct.

<Up there! Sniper!> he pointed to the top of one of the pumps just as another light flashed and another soldier fell, this one alive, but missing an arm.

<More than one!> Grayson said, activating his a-grav and soaring up toward the pumps.

Kal turned his on as well, glad that the soldiers had also given him a new powercell for it. Grayson was angling toward the more distant of the two snipers, so he moved toward the one on the closest pump.

The top of the pump was a low dome, with heat vents set at regular intervals. The sniper was inside, firing through the vents. Kal took aim at where he thought the shooter must be and fired a stream of projectiles from his rifle.

A second later, a white-hot blob shot past him, and he swore, dropping until he was below the sniper’s cone of fire. He landed on a rickety staircase that circled around the pump, and rushed toward the top, rifle in one hand, the other drawing his sidearm.

Sure enough, before he reached the landing, the sniper leant over the edge of pump, looking for where Kal had landed. A series of pulse blasts from his sidearm forced the enemy back, and a few seconds later, Kal made it to the top of the pump, scanning the area.

A warning flared on his HUD, and he dove to the side as another blast streaked overhead. He rolled to his back to see the sniper hovering above him.

He fired his rifle, causing the sniper drop, avoiding the stream of projectiles.

“Dammit!”

Kal wished he had a pulse grenade. That would knock the sniper out to of the air.

The enemy was circling around the top of the pump, coming around to get another clear shot, and Kal watched, timing his next move.

The sniper came around the dome and fired again, but Kal was already moving. He rolled across the top of the pump, fired his pulse pistol at the sniper to slow the enemy, and then kicked off the ground, pushing his a-grav harness to the max.

He flew up into the air and slammed into the sniper, pushing the rifle to the side while jamming his pulse pistol under the man’s chin and firing five times.

The enemy went limp, and Kal wrenched the rifle from his hands, and then lowered back down to the top of the pump, leaving the mercenary hovering in the air. Once his feet set down, Kal checked the weapon for a biolock, and was pleasantly surprised to find that there wasn’t one.

He took aim and blew the sniper’s head off.

<You done there?> Grayson asked from atop his pump.

<What does it look like?> Kal grunted, turning to survey the battle below. The SSF soldiers had pushed the defenders back to the door leading out of the pumping station, having killed seven of the twelve mercs.

From his vantage, Kal had a clear shot on two of the enemies. He marked a target on the combat net to keep his line of fire clear, and tucked the rifle against his shoulder. He fired once, selected the other target, and fired again.

Two mercs dropped. Without their cover, the final three were exposed, and the soldiers finished them off in seconds.

<Clear down here,> Maureen announced.

<Up here, too,> Grayson said.

<You know…> Kal began to say as he looked over how Maverick’s people had set up their defenses.

The colonel grunted. 

<What do you think it means, sir?> Maureen asked.

Grayson pursed his lips. <Commander. Take George and two squads. Get up to The Shade and see if Maverick is present. Kal and I will take squads three and four to the Atmo Tower.> He turned toward Kal, and both men nodded.

<It’s honestly unlikely that he’d go to The Shade,> Kal said.

<He’s a cocky bastard,> Grayson replied. <But yeah, not quite that cocky. He’s a survivor, too.>

TOWER DEFENSE

STELLAR DATE: 10.10.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: City of Montral, Jericho

REGION: Gedri System, Gedri Freedom Alliance

Maverick settled into a chair in his command room, watching the feed showing combat in the warrens beneath The Shade. He didn’t see any sign that Grayson was present—though it was hard to be sure, with the armor the soldiers wore.

There were only fourteen SSF goons working their way through the tunnels, and though the enemy was pushing his forces back, their progress was slow. His troops would grind them down.

 Jerrod said in his quiet voice. <None of those soldiers move like Grayson.>

<Well I like that a lot,> Maverick retorted. <Glad that insufferable prick is finally dead.>

<You never met him in person.>

The AI was silent for a moment. <That sounds exhausting.>

<Says you. I find it invigorating.>

Jerrod fell silent, and Maverick returned to watching the feeds from below The Shade for a moment before turning to the visuals of the battle above the planet.

The two destroyers bearing ISS tags had defeated his forces surrounding Valhalla Station, but they had not moved toward Laerdo Station and the space elevator, nor had they deployed forces to secure Valhalla itself.

The Polis Fury had completed three orbits of Jericho, moving to a higher altitude before settling into an orbit that had them passing over Montral once an hour. No messages had come from the ship, nor had it made any attempts to deploy more troops.

“You can’t take a system with three ships,” Maverick said, a smirk on his lips. “Blockade is the most you can hope for.”

“There are more ships coming,” Francis pointed out from where she stood near a holotank. “A dozen SSF destroyers and two cruisers.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Maverick said. “Unless they plan to nuke us from orbit, they can’t do anything.”

“And if they do?” she asked.

The president shrugged. “I’ll be gone before that happens.”

Francis’s eyes narrowed, and he saw a spark of fight in them that hadn’t shown in some time.

“That a problem for you?” he asked. “You’ll be with me. We’ll be safe.”

The threat and promise hung in the air for a moment before she nodded.

“It’s not a problem, thank you.”

He nodded, glad that she understood that safety could only be found with him. “Good.”

* * * * *

<I’ve tapped their comm networks,> Alice informed Grayson as they approached the end of the aqueduct. <They’re preparing for an aerial attack.>

<And The Shade? Are they moving more troops to protect it?>

The AI was silent for a few seconds. <Not that I can see. They’re still defending it, but not bolstering those defenses at all. Maureen is making progress, too, so it’s not because they think they have it in hand.>

<Has she reached The Shade itself?>

<Yes, and no casualties, either. The defenders are falling back.>

Grayson considered what that could imply. <Have her slow down, I don’t want them rushing into a trap. Tell her to get close to the surface and not to enter The Shade itself.>

<Won’t that make them suspect that we have another objective?> Alice asked.

<That won’t matter before long. Do you have the plans for this tower?>

A simplified diagram of the central atmospheric processing tower appeared on Grayson’s HUD.

<So where do you think he’s hiding?>

<I’m not sure yet. I’m tapping into the operational logs of the facility, trying to see if there are any systems that never get used. They usually run the smaller tertiary towers for the city’s air. But they regularly test the secondary towers, and the main one sees test runs every few years as well.>

A frown settled on Grayson’s brow. <Why do they care if the main tower runs? The tertiary ones are more than enough for the city. The main tower is designed to feed atmosphere over a thousand square kilometers at least.>

<OK, people,> Grayson addressed the soldiers and Kal. <Maverick is somewhere in the central atmo tower.>

<Figures,> Kal muttered. <Probably near the top. That’s how he’d roll.>

<And I think I have a way up that gets us past any defenses,> Alice added.

* * * * *

One squad remained below, situated amongst the pumps at the head of the aqueduct, guarding the entrance carefully cut into the pipes that once carried water to the top of the tower, where, in centuries past, atomizers had heated and dispersed it to maintain the planet’s atmosphere.

Of course, if Alice was right, those atomizers wouldn’t be there anymore. If she was wrong, they’d find out soon enough.

The pipe was just over a meter wide, and the soldiers rose through it on their a-grav harnesses in single file, a corporal in the lead carrying a demolition pack. It took just a few minutes to soar up the two kilometers to the top of the tower to the location Alice had marked. Grayson knew they might be tripping sensors, but he was relying on speed and surprise at this point, not stealth.

Get in, get Maverick, get it done.

<I’m in position, Colonel,> the corporal reported a second later. <Setting the charges.>

<Don’t wait on me, Aarin.>

<Yes, sir. Fire in the hole!>

The blast shook the pipe, a hot rush of air pushing the soldiers down. Once it was past, Grayson looked up to see light shining through the hole. Then it was blotted out by the first fireteam moving through.

He tapped their feeds and saw that they were in a clean, white passageway, not the internals of an atmospheric processing tower.

<Good guess, Alice.>

The rest of the troops moved up to the hole, and a minute later, fourteen SSF soldiers, along with Kal, were in the curved corridor, spreading out and checking the doorways that led off.

On Grayson’s right, a fireteam kicked in a door, only to be met with return fire, causing them to fall back around the sides.

 one of the squad sergeants called out. <He’s in there!>

Grayson dashed down the hall, bellowing through his armor’s speakers. “Maverick! You’re not getting out of here. Surrender.”

His words were met by a laugh from inside the room. “Not likely. Your dozen tin soldiers aren’t enough to take me down.”

The squad deployed drones, and Grayson tapped the feed, seeing Maverick standing in the room on the far side of a holotable. A collared woman was standing next to him, and a dozen of his other girls were arrayed around the room, crouched behind cover, weapons trained on the door.

“What about you, girls?” Kal called out. “You all willing to die for Maverick? I recognize you, Francis. Your brother and I were working to free you—even led a raid on The Shade. How many of you have loved ones out there? Abandon Maverick, and you can be reunited.”

 Grayson said to the man. <They’re practically brainwashed.>

Grayson saw that a few of the women shared sidelong glances with one another, several locking eyes with Francis—including Maverick.

“Oh really?” he asked. “It was your brother who was with Kal? You reviewed the feeds, how come you never brought that up?”

“It wasn’t relevant.” Francis’s eyes narrowed, and her weapon remained trained on the doorway. “He’s dead to me. Showing up to rescue me just shows that he’s still an idiot.”

“A resourceful one,” Maverick muttered, regarding her silently for a moment.

“We’re not going to wait forever,” Grayson called out. “Decide.”

The crime lord laughed again, a throaty chuckle that filled the room as he shook his head. “Oh, I’ve decided. Girls, get them.”

Nine of the women in the room advanced toward the doorway, while three held back, looking uncertain.

Maverick nodded to Francis, and the pair dashed toward a side door while the other women began to fire through the doorway and into the hall.

<Where are they going?> Grayson asked. <Is there a lift back down?>

<There is, but it’s behind us. I think there might be a bay up here,> Alice replied, noting it on the map of the tower.

<Dammit. He’s just gonna fly out of here.>

Grayson took a second to consider options, and then directed his team to lob a dozen concussive grenades into the room.

The shockwave from the blast nearly knocked him off his feet, but he used the lull in fire to dash past the doorway, Kal and a fireteam in tow.

<When we get there, we stop that ship,> he ordered. <By any means. Maverick doesn’t get away.>

The docking bay was only a short distance away, and when they reached it, the ramp was rising on a small shuttle inside.

“Fuck!” Kal swore, firing at the shuttle as it backed out of the bay and boosted out of view.

“Get in!” Grayson gestured to a small, two-seat skiff parked on the side of the room.

Kal nodded and ran toward the skiff, while Grayson glanced back at his troops. “Secure the tower, establish a comm relay with the Polis Fury. I want it on station to hit Maverick’s shuttle if we can’t run it to ground.”

“Aye, sir,” the corporal replied.

<You sure this is wise?> Alice asked.

<No,> Grayson replied as he settled in next to Kal. “Let’s go. I’m not letting him get away after everything he’s done to her.”

“Her?” Kal asked as the skiff rose from the deck and shot out into Montral’s deepening dusk.

“Nevermind,” Grayson replied, scanning the nearby aircars. “There!”

“I see it,” Kal nodded, angling toward the shuttle Maverick had boarded. “Stars, Barry’s gonna kill me if I have to shoot down his sister.”

They wove through the city’s towers, keeping the crime lord’s ship in sight, but unable to catch up, their skiff’s engines not up to the task.

“Where’s he going?” Kal mused as he dove under a walkway connecting two towers. “He must be heading for a new bolthole.”

“Think so?” Grayson asked, gripping the armrests as Kal banked around a dome support pillar. “Where could he go?”

“In Montral? Anywhere.”

 Alice said.

“Why’s that?” Grayson grunted as the skiff jinked to the left, Kal narrowly avoiding a collision.

<Because it looks like he’s flying erratically, but he’s getting steadily closer to the Ventralla Docks.>

“Or a place to hide in Ventralla,” Kal suggested. “Trust me, if we lose him there, you might as well just give up.”

“He can’t get away outside of the city, though.” Grayson’s brow furrowed. “With the Polis Fury overhead and no risk of civilian casualties, we’d just take him out from orbit.”

<Not for twenty minutes, we won’t,> Alice said. <The Fury is on the far side of Jericho.>

“Dammit,” Grayson shook his head. “Maybe he is trying to make a break for it. How—”

<Colonel Grayson?> a voice came into his mind across the Link.

He backtraced the connection and found that it was routed through a dozen nodes in Montral, obscuring its source.

<Who is this?>

There was a pause. <It’s me…Francis.>

<Do you mean Karen? Kal told me about your little switcheroo.>

<Yeah…what a great plan that was.> Her voice dripped with sarcasm. <Still, I’m glad that…Karen got out. It’s been so long since I’ve used my old name, it’s easier to think of it as hers.>

<So why are you talking to me?> Grayson asked.

<Because I want out…but I don’t want to die.>

Grayson let out an irritated sigh. <That damn collar? It can kill you?>

<Yeah, it can. Though Mav has to use overrides for that. He didn’t used to have safeties, and accidentally killed a few girls on a whim.>

 Alice said.

Grayson’s eyes widened—partly in surprise at the AI’s statement, and partly due to a gut-wrenching maneuver Kal had pulled.

<Really?>

<After the mind-control used by the Revolution Fleet, the ISF gave us breaching routines that can crack a host of different neural control systems.>

Francis was silent for a moment, then said, <Are you offering?>

<Yes,> Alice clarified. <You’ll need to grant me root access to your Link.>

<Root?>

<Time is of the essence, Francis,> Grayson urged.

The sensation of a gulp came across the Link. <OK. Do it.>

CRASH AND BURN

STELLAR DATE: 10.10.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: City of Montral, Jericho

REGION: Gedri System, Gedri Freedom Alliance

Francis gave Maverick a sidelong glance, worried that he would somehow have picked up the chat with their pursuers. However, Gert had assured her that Maverick could no longer snoop on her conversations.

Of course, knowing that and putting it to the test are very different things.

“Focus, Francis,” Maverick grunted. “We’re coming up on the tunnel.

“We’re in the clear,” she replied. “Traffic has been diverted.”

“Good,” the man said, dropping them lower, speeding just a few meters above the road that passed under the dome and out to the docks.

“And once we’re out?” Francis asked. “We’ll be sitting ducks the next time their ship passes overhead.”

A low chuckle sounded in Maverick’s throat. “I have secrets even you don’t know about, Francis. You know the planet is riddled with bunkers and secret launch sites. We’ll be long gone by the time Grayson’s Polis Fury passes overhead again.”

The statement about secrets she didn’t know sent chills down Francis’s spine.

“How far out are they?” she asked.

“I think it would be best if I kept that to myself for now.”

Francis nodded, waiting as patiently as possible, hoping Grayson’s AI friend would have her freed before the ship got beyond the dome. Her shipsuit was capable of keeping her warm and under pressure, but she’d need a helmet, and those were in an aft locker.

<You’re not just going to bail out, are you?> Alice asked. <We need your help to stop him.>

<How do you know what I was thinking about?>

<You gave me root access to your Link. I saw you querying the ship’s inventory systems.>

<So you want me to take out Maverick?> They were in the tunnel now, the dome supports whipping past. <I’m not bad in a fight, but in close quarters like this—especially on my tip-toes in these boots—he’ll crush me.>

<What do you propose?> Alice asked. <Oh, and your collar is deactivated.>

It took a moment for the words to register in Francis’s mind.

She was free of Maverick’s control, but the brute still sat beside her.

I’m not yet free of him.

<Is there anything explosive in the ship?> Alice asked. <Something not on the inventory?>

Francis thought for a moment. Other than the rifles they carried, nothing came to mind. It was possible she could disable the ship, but the weapons were both slotted into a weapon’s rack in the back of the cockpit. By the time she got one free, Maverick would be on her.

<Wait…his plasma sword. He set it in a rack by the hatch.>

<Perfect!> Alice crowed. <Right inside the hatch on the port bulkhead is the main fuel line. If you drive the sword into the wall one and a half meters up, it’ll sever the lines.>

<He’ll be able to make a controlled descent,> Francis cautioned.

<Our orders are to bring him back alive, if possible. This is ideal.>

The ship passed out of the tunnel and through the Ventralla Dock’s grav shield.

“Yeeehaw!” Maverick shouted. “Home free.”

Behind them, the skiff slowed, and Francis gave a relieved sigh. “Looks like they don’t want to risk the exterior guns.”

“Blow ‘em right out of the fucking air,” he laughed.

Francis laughed with him, then scowled at her console. “Shoot, there’s a malfunction in one of the grav emitter control boards.”

“So switch to secondaries,” Maverick said, not bothering to glance at her as he spoke.

“I tried that,” she replied. “It won’t fail over.”

He gave a distracted wave, and she nodded, unfastening her harness and rising from her seat as the shuttle gained speed and altitude, headed toward one of Maverick’s secret bunkers.

<I’m headed back,> she said.

<Good. We’ll mark your location when you jump, and send a shuttle to pick you up. With Maverick gone, taking control of Montral will be simple.>

Francis doubted that, but decided that this wasn’t the time for debate.

She walked down the short passageway and stopped at the equipment rack, carefully opening the panel and grabbing a helmet. She tucked it under her arm, and then pulled out Maverick’s plasma sword.

The weapon disgusted her. She’d seen him use it to torture and maim countless people. It stored a charge of starstuff, and would also produce additional plasma on demand, coursing it through a channel along the blade’s edge, holding it in place with a magnetic field.

Francis walked back to the location Alice had indicated and activated the sword, drawing it back to plunge the blade through the bulkhead.

Only to have a steel grip arrest the motion.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

She pivoted to see Maverick towering over her, brow lowered and rage building behind his eyes.

“Seriously?” she asked. “That’s all you have? ‘What do you think you’re doing?’”

He raised his other hand, a sneer on his lips as he snapped his fingers—which should have sent bone-numbing pain through her body. But nothing happened.

“What the—?” he began, but jumped back as Francis swung the blade at the crime lord.

“Awww…can’t cheat today, Mav,” she sneered, widening her stance. “And what better way for you to go down than by your own blade?”

“Gedri’s core, I will.” He backpedaled toward the cockpit, and she knew he was going for a rifle.

Francis didn’t hesitate to swing the plasma blade up and drive it into the bulkhead, severing the fuel lines. The act of sabotage complete, she looked up to see Maverick standing in the cockpit entrance, pulse rifle in hand.

“I can still land it,” he said with a sneer. “And you’ll still be dead.”

“Good luck!” Francis hurled the plasma blade at him like a javelin.

Maverick swung his rifle to the side, firing at the sword, but he missed. There was no blood as the blade sliced through his left arm, severing the limb.

Francis barely heard his guttural wail as she snatched up the helmet from where it had fallen, and slammed her hand into the emergency release panel.

The door snapped open, the decompression sucking her outside before she got the helmet over her head.

Shit, shit, shit!

Twisting through the air, she fought against the wind and got the helmet over her head, activating the seal to her shipsuit. The suit’s internal a-grav harness began to slow her descent to the planet’s surface, and she again twisted in the air to get a look at the pinnace, hoping to track where it would land.

She spotted it a moment later, little more than a speck in the sky, falling at a steady rate.

Then the craft exploded.

Grayson’s voice sounded in her mind. <Francis! Are you alright?>

<Was Maverick aboard?>

<Yes. I cut his arm off right before it went up. He wouldn’t have made it off.>

There was a pause before Grayson replied. <OK, good. Stay put. The Polis Fury is dropping a shuttle to pick you up.>

Francis turned, looking at the city’s dome rising over the horizon, fifty kilometers distant.

<Thanks, I really wouldn’t want to have to walk back. I’ve had a long day.>

<Tell me about it.>

FINAL FAREWELL

STELLAR DATE: 10.11.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: City of Montral, Jericho

REGION: Gedri System, Gedri Freedom Alliance

Grayson couldn’t help but smile as he watched Francis embrace her brother, Barry, as they crashed into one another on the landing pad near the city’s western entrance.

“Glad we got them reunited,” Maureen said at his side.

Kal, who was standing beyond her, snorted. “I swear, Barry would have figured something out on his own. That guy was determined.”

“Got some moxie yourself, there, Kal,” Grayson said. “I can’t believe this is where you chose to settle down.”

“ ‘Chose’ really isn’t the most accurate term for it. More like ‘dumped’. I still can’t believe you got here so fast. And with those ships…they just crushed the GFA fleet.”

“A lot to catch you up on, Kal,” Grayson replied. “I’m curious, though. If I could get things cleared up for you with the SSF, would you come back?”

Kal gave Grayson a measuring look. “You have that much clout now?”

He shrugged. “A bit.”

“Huh. Well, either way, I think my soldiering days are over.”

“What are you going to do, then?” Maureen asked.

“I think I’ll stay here. In Montral.”

Grayson made a gagging sound. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, it’s grown on me.”

The colonel snorted. “You’re welcome to it…maybe we can get you to help with some sort of interim government.”

“Hey, whoa now.” Kal held up his hands in protest. “You’re not suckering me into that. I’m not as dumb as I look.”

Grayson cocked an eyebrow as he looked out over Montral. “Coulda fooled me. I mean, you’re choosing to stay here.”

Kal shrugged. “Maybe I’m a little bit dumb. But it’s home, you know?”

“Yeah, I think I know.”

* * * * *

Maverick walked up the ramp to the pinnace, his eyes sweeping over the Ventralla District’s docks.

“I’ll be back,” he whispered. “I’m not giving up this easily.”

His fist slammed against the ramp control, and he turned away, striding toward the cockpit where his pilot waited.

“Everything ready, Mercedes?”

The woman looked up, her new collar glinting in the cockpit’s light. “Yes, sir. We’re ready for takeoff.”

“And the decoy?”

<They bought it, sir,> Jerrod said. <The SSF thinks you’re dead.>

“I don’t care about the SSF,” Maverick growled. “I care about Grayson. What does he think? Whatever he believes is what Kylie will ultimately believe.”

<The report declaring you dead was filed by him.>

Maverick nodded silently, remaining standing as the pinnace took off and rose into the air over Montral. “Gert did good work. Too bad we weren’t able to bring her along.”

<We know where she is,> the AI whispered. <Should we need her again.>

Maverick nodded, his lips drawn in a thin line. “I promise,” he whispered. “I’ll be back. After I destroy what Grayson loves most.”

THE END

* * * * *

THE BOOKS OF AEON 14

Keep up to date with what is releasing in Aeon 14 with the free ^{Aeon 14 Reading Guide}.

The Sentience Wars: Origins (Age of the Sentience Wars – w/James S. Aaron)

- Books 1-3 Omnibus: ^{Lyssa’s Rise}

- Book 1: ^{Lyssa’s Dream}

- Book 2: ^{Lyssa’s Run}

- Book 3: ^{Lyssa’s Flight}

- Book 4: ^{Lyssa’s Call}

- Book 5: ^{Lyssa’s Flame}

Legends of the Sentience Wars (Age of the Sentience Wars – w/James S. Aaron)

- Volume 1: ^{The Proteus Bridge}

- Volume 2: ^{Vesta Burning}

The Sentience Wars: Solar War 1 (Age of the Sentience Wars – w/James S. Aaron)

- Book 1: ^{Eve of Destruction}

- Book 2: ^{The Spreading Fire}

Enfield Genesis (Age of the Sentience Wars – w/Lisa Richman)

- Book 1: ^{Alpha Centauri}

- Book 2: ^{Proxima Centauri}

- Book 3: ^{Tau Ceti}

- Book 4: ^{Epsilon Eridani}

- Book 5: ^Sirius

Origins of Destiny (The Age of Terra)

- Prequel: ^{Storming the Norse Wind}

- Prequel: ^{Angel’s Rise: The Huntress} (available on Patreon)

- Book 1: ^{Tanis Richards: Shore Leave}

- Book 2: ^{Tanis Richards: Masquerade}

- Book 3: ^{Tanis Richards: Blackest Night}

- Book 4: ^{Tanis Richards: Kill Shot}

The Intrepid Saga (The Age of Terra)

- Book 1: ^Outsystem

- Book 2: ^{A Path in the Darkness}

- Book 3: ^{Building Victoria}

- ^{The Intrepid Saga Omnibus} – Also contains Destiny Lost, book 1 of the Orion War series

- ^{Destiny Rising} – Special Author’s Extended Edition comprised of both Outsystem and A Path in the Darkness with over 100 pages of new content.

The Warlord (Before the Age of the Orion War)

- Books 1-3 Omnibus: ^{The Warlord of Midditerra}

- Book 1: ^{The Woman Without a World}

- Book 2: ^{The Woman Who Seized an Empire}

- Book 3: ^{The Woman Who Lost Everything}

The Orion War

- ^{Books 1-3 Omnibus} (includes Ignite the Stars anthology)

- Book 1: ^{Destiny Lost}

- Book 2: ^{New Canaan}

- Book 3: ^{Orion Rising}

- Book 4: ^{The Scipio Alliance}

- Book 5: ^{Attack on Thebes}

- Book 6: ^{War on a Thousand Fronts}

- Book 7: ^{Precipice of Darkness}

- Book 8: ^{Airtha Ascendancy}

- Book 9: ^{The Orion Front}

- Book 10: ^Starfire

- Book 11: ^{Race Across Spacetime} (2019)

- Book 12: ^{Return to Sol} (2019)

Building New Canaan (Age of the Orion War – w/J.J. Green)

- Book 1: ^Carthage

- Book 2: ^Tyre

- Book 3: ^Troy

- Book 4: ^Athens

Tales of the Orion War

- Book 1: ^{Set the Galaxy on Fire}

- Book 2: ^{Ignite the Stars}

Perilous Alliance (Age of the Orion War – w/Chris J. Pike)

- Book 1-3 Omnibus: ^{Crisis in Silstrand}

- Book 1: ^{Close Proximity}

- Book 2: ^{Strike Vector}

- Book 3: ^{Collision Course}

- Book 4: ^{Impact Imminent}

- Book 5: ^{Critical Inertia}

- Book 6: ^{Impulse Shock}

Rika’s Marauders (Age of the Orion War)

- Book 1-3 Omnibus: ^{Rika Activated}

- Prequel: ^{Rika Mechanized}

- Book 1: ^{Rika Outcast}

- Book 2: ^{Rika Redeemed}

- Book 3: ^{Rika Triumphant}

- Book 4: ^{Rika Major}

- Book 5: ^{Rika Infiltrator}

- Book 6: ^{Rika Unleashed}

- Book 7: ^{Rika Conqueror}

Non-Aeon 14 Anthologies containing Rika stories

- ^{Bob’s Bar Volume 2}

- ^{Backblast Area Clear}

The Genevian Queen (Age of the Orion War)

- Book 1: ^{Rika Rising}

- Book 2: ^{Rika Coronated} (2019)

- Book 3: Rika Reigns (2019)

Perseus Gate (Age of the Orion War)

Season 1: Orion Space

- Episode 1: ^{The Gate at the Grey Wolf Star}

- Episode 2: ^{The World at the Edge of Space}

- Episode 3: ^{The Dance on the Moons of Serenity}

- Episode 4: ^{The Last Bastion of Star City}

- Episode 5: ^{The Toll Road Between the Stars}

- Episode 6: ^{The Final Stroll on Perseus’s Arm}

- Eps 1-3 Omnibus: ^{The Trail Through the Stars}

- Eps 4-6 Omnibus: ^{The Path Amongst the Clouds}

Season 2: Inner Stars

- Episode 1: ^{A Meeting of Bodies and Minds}

- Episode 2: ^{A Deception and a Promise Kept}

- Episode 3: ^{A Surreptitious Rescue of Friends and Foes}

- Episode 4: ^{A Victory and a Crushing Defeat}

- Episode 5: A Trial and the Tribulations (2019)

- Episode 6: A Deal and a True Story Told (2019)

- Episode 7: A New Empire and An Old Ally (2019)

- Eps 1-3 Omnibus: ^{A Siege and a Salvation from Enemies}

Hand’s Assassin (Age of the Orion War – w/T.G. Ayer)

- Book 1: ^{Death Dealer}

- Book 2: Death Mark (2019)

Machete System Bounty Hunter (Age of the Orion War – w/Zen DiPietro)

- Book 1: ^{Hired Gun}

- Book 2: ^{Gunning for Trouble}

- Book 3: ^{With Guns Blazing}

Fennington Station Murder Mysteries (Age of the Orion War)

- Book 1: ^{Whole Latte Death} (w/Chris J. Pike)

- Book 2: ^{Cocoa Crush} (w/Chris J. Pike)

The Empire (Age of the Orion War)

- Book 1: ^{The Empress and the Ambassador}

- Book 2: ^{Consort of the Scorpion Empress} (2019)

- Book 3: ^{By the Empress’s Command} (2019)

The Sol Dissolution (The Age of Terra)

- Book 1: Venusian Uprising (2019)

- Book 2: Scattered Disk (2019)

- Book 3: Jovian Offensive (2019)

- Book 4: Fall of Terra (2019)

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

James S. Aaron lives in Oregon with too many chickens, a Corgi, and two irascible cats. He kicked around the world in the U.S. Army for a while, and always had a paperback in one of his cargo pockets.

Since he still has a day job, James spends his free time writing, hammering, soldering, gardening, biking, and listening to audiobooks during most the above.

You can sign up for his science fiction newsletter at ^{http://jamesaaron.net/list}

* * * * *

Malorie Cooper likes to think of herself as a dreamer and a wanderer, yet her feet are firmly grounded in reality.

A ‘maker’ from an early age, Malorie loves to craft things, from furniture, to cosplay costumes, to a well-spun tale, she can’t help but to create new things every day.

A rare extrovert writer, she loves to hang out with readers and people in general. If you meet her at a convention, she just might be rocking a catsuit, cosplaying one of her own characters, or maybe her latest favorite from Overwatch!

She shares her home with a brilliant young girl, her wonderful wife (who also writes), a cat that chirps at birds, a never-ending list of things she would like to build, and ideas…

Find out what’s coming next at ^{www.aeon14.com}.

Follow her on Instagram at ^{www.instagram.com/m.d.cooper}.

Hang out with the fans on Facebook at ^{www.facebook.com/groups/aeon14fans}.