“Greetings, crewmembers of the United Terran Fleet Ship Warbler. It is the thirtieth day of December in the Thirtieth Year of the Republic, approximately the sixty-seventh day of the war, and third day of the Warbler’s official combat status. All crewmembers will report to the Common Area in full Shipboard Uniform in the next ten minutes, where you will be briefed for the day's operations. Super Nos.”
Sadira yawned, glancing at her watch. Most of the crew had been in the common area for over half an hour, slowly trickling in. Even Celia Abrams had joined in the camaraderie, although reluctantly.
Regardless, as Shan strode onto the deck, the mood was instantly dead. The room snapped to attention, saluting the Skipper.
Sadira yawned, glancing at her watch. Most of the crew had been in the common area for over half an hour, slowly trickling in. Even Celia Abrams had joined in the camaraderie, although reluctantly.
Regardless, as Shan strode onto the deck, the mood was instantly dead. The room snapped to attention, saluting the Skipper.
“At ease.” Shan said. “Today’s going to be relatively laid-back. ESS, I want any personnel you aren’t immediately using to double-check the ship’s inventory. Ansibilics, run diagnostics. We’re not currently orbiting a rocky superterran, so something went wrong. Combat, I want all eight consoles active, checking out the debris field in the Clarke Orbit. Keep your eyes peeled especially for another Ictarid Gunboat-it’s vaguely possible that we could cannibalize it for our hull. SENCOM, same mission. I want all stations prepped in forty-five minutes. Deck Officers, I want you on the bridge in thirty. Any questions?”
Elise Henrick raised her hand. “With all due respect, we both know it’s unlikely I’ll find something. When I don’t, what are we going to do?”
Sadira could have sworn that she saw a slight smile on Shan’s face. “In that case, Ensign, we’re taking the Ansible apart and rebuilding it from scratch.”
Jae Ali was the next to speak up. “Commander, if we do come across an object worth investigating, what’s our away team?”
Shan nodded. “Excellent question. I’d like to request that you lead it. It would be made up of Ensign Silver, Ensign Freeman, and Ensign Caspar. Are there any objections?”
Sadira started. It was clear that Shan was picking people with some level of combat experience, but... She was still surprised. “Yes ma’am!” She answered, before any of the others had even opened their mouths. Anything to get off this damn ship, even for a little while.
None of them refused.
“In that case, ma’am, may I have them for a few minutes before they report to their areas?” Jae asked.
“Yes, but make sure you make the Deck Officer’s meeting.” Seeing that there were no further questions, she said, “Crew dismissed.”
Sadira walked over to Silver, nicknamed ‘Ten’-one of the people she had connected with the most aboard the Warbler. “Away Team, huh?” Sadira asked, slurping down something from her ‘meal’.
“We’re not going to actually do anything, you know.” Ten replied. “The odds of there being a gunboat of our class intact enough to scavenge from are practically nil.”
Sadira shrugged. “Still, she’s at least thinking of these things.”
Ten glanced around furtively. “You still want to frag her, don’t you?” She hissed. “You understand that there’s no universe in which that ends well, don’t you?”
Sadira sighed. “No, I understand that there was only a brief window when that was possible, and it was likely a bad idea even then. I still don’t like it.”
Ten took another swig of the semi-liquid FlashHeat packet. “We’re in the military. You don’t have to like your officers-just obey them.”
Sadira shook her head. “No. That’s not how it should be.”
“Eh. It might not be ideal, but it’s the way it is. Get with the program or get out-and given recent developments, getting out seems rather unwise.”
“True enough. Still though...”
“Our officers know what they’re doing. You do stuff differently in the Recon Corp, I know, just like they do in Tactical-both of those are designed to allow highly autonomous activity. In the Marines though, and even more so in the Fleet, we need some initiative, yes, but mostly it’s compliance with orders that keeps us all alive. Every person on this ship is essential. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be here. Acceptable losses is zero. Hell, even if you want to get a little nihilistic, bring genetics into it-every one of us is priceless for those purposes too.”
Sadira suppressed a gag, thinking of Steele and Burton. “There’s at least one couple on this ship that I have a feeling has an intense desire to do their fair share to repopulate the species.” She glanced significantly at her fellow Midshipmen.
Silver laughed. “No comment, but literally everyone knows those two are into each other. You’ll need better gossip.”
“It’s not meant as that-this is one instance where I agree with Fleet Policy. That sort of relationship does horrible things to small groups like ours. We can’t afford that.”
“This is very true, and once again, we’ll figure that out sooner or later.” Silver stood, wrapping up the remnants of her food’s packaging. “But the first thing any of us have to deal with is our own survival.”
Sadira nodded. “Agreed.” She stood also. “I’m going to go boot up my Console and get some training time in on the simulator-I’m still half-terrified that I’m going to end up crashing my drone into the ship on launch.”
Silver raised her eyebrows. “That sounds bad. You should probably practice.”
“Sounds bad? I can’t imagine why.”
“I don’t know, call me selfish, but rapid decompression and death doesn’t sound fun to me.”
SENCOM was now officially half useless. In a world with no ‘rest of humanity’, there was little use for Communication with the rest of humanity. Ensign Freeman had even joked that they should replace the ansible with a seance. It had gotten laughs, but Maria thought it was in poor taste.
Sensors, though, was equally useless at the moment-their role in the day’s operations had amounted to scanning the debris field for large objects, and then pointing Combat’s drones in that direction.
What they did do, however, was analysis of the data from said drones. They had identified half a dozen or so different sub-fields of debris-two Species D cruisers, and either three or four UTF destroyers. They had positively identified the wreckage of the Yuri Gagarin, Breaker Bay, and Buzz Aldrin, as well as possibly some debris from the Ride. That meant that DESRONs Six and Nine had been engaged here, and that Nine had more or less been reduced to dust. The two Species D cruisers were harder to pin down, but they were clearly distinct-a smaller one that had been engaged by the Sally Ride and the Alan Shepard, and one that was likely an armored carrier of some sort that had been engaged by DESRON Six and the other two Nine ships. There were also dozens of drones from the UTFS Warden and over three dozen different smaller ships.
They had the computer running analysis on what they knew, but the general picture was bleak. Species D ships could outfight UTF ones, even under the command of Killian Hazzard, the single best tactician in the Republic.
“Go for SENCOM.” She heard Richard Tvorik say, and her ears pricked up-that meant that someone had found something worth bringing to their attention. It might very well be interesting.
Richard stiffened. “Hold for one moment.” He said, then muted the mic. “Commander Abrams! Console One has a visual on a cloaked structure!”
Abrams immediately turned from where she had been examining a chart of the Clarke Orbit. “Get me on the line. Ensign Tvorik, attempt to hail it. Ensign Freeman, notify the Bridge. Patch them in if they ask for it.”
Maria stood there, ready, fully aware of the irony of the situation-moments before she had been considering how Comms was now dead weight, and now they were both busy while she had nothing to do.
She turned on the feed of video footage from Console One. It was uninteresting, which was unsurprising-even something the size of a Carrier was tiny on the scales of distance that one dealt with in orbit.
It took barely a minute for Deck Officer Abrams to end her conversation with Deck Officer Norton-as the head of Combat Systems, he would be the person in Console One-and turn her attention back to her own area. “Right, SENCOM, stand by for some pretty intensive work. We’re fairly sure that what we’re dealing with is space station-one of our own, just for the record. The Skipper is on the line with Console One right now, but like I said, we’re mostly certain of this. Ensign Freeman, report to Deck Officer Ali for the away team. Ensign Prussin, keep a close eye on Console One’s feed.”
Maria nodded, turning back to the feed. The Drone was rapidly approaching a growing glint of light, which she assumed was the station. It was maneuvering with its primary thrusters in the general direction of the station, its chemical rockets decelerating it so that it could keep pace with the station.
As the two objects neared each other, Maria began to be able to make out details. The station was small, with six docking arms stretching out several hundred feet from the central core. And at the end of one of those arms there was a single ship docked-an Icterid gunboat.
A smile flashed across Maria’s face as she zoomed the feed in on the ship as well as she could. “Deck Officer Abrams!” She practically shouted. “I’ve got a visual on a gunboat!”
Abrams nodded. “I see it too. Notify the Skipper.”
“Yes ma’am.” Maria opened a comm line to the bridge. “SENCOM to Bridge.”
“Go for Bridge.”
“We’ve got a visual on an Icterid docked with the station.”
Maria could have sworn that she heard the Commander’s exclamation through the ship, not just the comms line. “Thank you, Ensign. Keep me posted.”
“We will. SENCOM out.” She clicked the line shut, and returned to the footage from the drone. It took perhaps another five minutes for the Gunboat to reach any level of resolution, but its hull appeared largely intact. The drone couldn’t approach too close, and the ship was hard to make out-it was cloaked, like the station, and painted black, also like the station, which made it hard to make out both on sensors and in visible light.
After a brief consultation with Console One and Deck Officer Abrams, Maria made one more call.
“SENCOM to Bridge.”
“Go for Bridge.”
“We’ve reached the closest safe approach to the station. We have a recommendation for action.”
“Yes?”
“Send in a team.”
The Warbler docked on the arm of the station across from the other Gunboat, the Bow Airlock cycling to allow the away team through. They wore airtight combat armor, and were armed with combined Plasma and Sabot Rifles, flamethrowers, and several dozen grenades.
The station’s lighting was off, which had almost immediately killed their hopes that there might be other survivors. There was also no air, which, while it was probably a better indicator of whether there were humans on the station, wasn’t immediately obvious inside a space suit.
Sadira felt out of place, trying to keep her Pulse Rifle level in front of herself, minimizing her profile. In the Recon Corp she had handled Sabot Guns and Tranqs all the time, but almost always as a hunter, trying to defend herself from something wild-not something as smart or more so than herself. Even the few times she had been forced to fight the Antaril natives, they had been limited to stone weapons, making it a massacre.
The corridor was empty, but long, straight, open, and therefore exposed. As they reached the end, Sadira felt the floor shake. That would be the Warbler decoupling from the station. There was a brief flash as its engines shone down the corridor, then it was away.
“Warbler to Away Team, we’re heading out to hold position two miles ahead.” Her comm crackled-that would be Richard Tvorik, as Cassidy Freeman was with them right now.
“Copy that, Warbler.” Jae said, the little popup of his head in her Hud giving her more information about who was talking than his voice. He held up his hand. “Away Team, most of you have never done this, so I’m going to spell it out for you. Ten Silver is our tank. She’s in a Mech, which, though it doesn’t look like much, is pumping out an Aegal which should keep anyone within ten feet of her safe. She’s gunna level anything that isn’t wearing the Republic’s flag. We snipe anything dumb, inexperienced, or armored enough to think that it’s a good plan to show itself. Make yourself a small target, go for opponents with energy weapons first... Am I missing anything?” He looked to Ten.
Hortensia ‘Ten’ Silver nodded. “Just try not to die. It’s less fun than it looks in the movies.”
Jae turned back to the door at the end of the corridor, stepping aside to let Ten pass him. “We’re going in in three... Two... One!”
The Mech burst through the door, plasma cannons held high, ready to fire with extreme prejudice. The rest of the group stormed in behind it, Sadira staying as close to Jae as possible. Ali ducked down, getting onto one knee, sweeping the room with his own plasma rifle, finger held above the trigger, ready to fire.
Slowly the plasma cannons cycled down, allowing them to see something other than blinding light. The interior of the station was slagged-they had been sure that there were no humans onboard as the door hadn’t been an airlock, but it was still disappointing to see how totally destroyed it was. The room had once been the station’s Bridge.
“Spread out.” Jae ordered. “Sweep the station. Stick together.”
The signs of combat were scattered throughout the station. A dead human lay draped across a console in one room, two more behind a door in another.
It was dark, and even the lights on their helmets seemed to cast more shadows than light. There was no air, so there was no sound.
That meant that they had next to no warning when they encountered the D.
It moved like lightning, barely visible, black against black, only visible due to the slight blue sheen it had when it moved. It lashed out like a tentacle, grabbing Silver’s mech, wrangling it down to the deck.
Sadira could only stand there, shocked, as more tendrils grabbed on to the mech. She saw red flashes as Jae and Cassidy fired, but they were constrained by the need not to hit Silver, The Mech had an aegal shield, but they were useless against anything that wasn’t a kinetic weapon.
Ten’s mech rolled over, fire spurting forth from the flamethrowers on its arms. The D’s tentacles shied back, dissolving, away from the flame.
Heart pounding in her chest, adrenaline pumping through her system, she brought her own weapon up to her shoulder, firing in the vague direction of the D.
The tendrils receded, fleeing from the flame and plasma of the Human weapons, dissolving into a black dust that seemed to flow like a liquid back down the corridor.
“Take cover!” Ali shouted, moving backwards, back towards last junction.
Silver tried to rise, but the Mech sparked. “This thing’s slagged!” She replied, trying to lift her arms to decouple it. “Someone, give me a hand with this!”
Cassidy Freeman bent down, flipping the emergency switches on it, explosive bolts ejecting the heavy armor. Down the corridor, a single point of blue light was visible, surrounded by shimmering blue reflections on black surfaces. Sadira fired again, glancing over her shoulder to Ali.
She felt something tugging at her boots as she tried to step backwards. She glanced down, and saw a fine black dust coating the floor, adhering to her boots. She screamed, and jumped backwards.
“Relax.” She heard Cassidy’s voice in her helmet. “Don’t lose your cool. That’s the worst thing you can do.”
Ten was free now, standing atop the mech, a pistol held in one hand-the only weapon she could keep on her person while piloting the mech, presumably. She scrambled down, taking shelter behind the mech, messing with something. “Get back from the mech!” She shouted, bolting towards Jae.
The roiling mass at the end of the corridor stilled for a moment, then rushed forward, a wave of black around a glowing ball in the center.
“Everyone away from the mech!” Silver shouted again. This time it actually registered, and Sadira ran too.
The mech exploded. The tank of fuel for the flamethrower on its back and the high-energy batteries that powered both the mech itself and its energy weapons provided more than enough energy to reduce the D to so much slag.
Sadira watched, breathing heavily, feeling like collapsing. She saw Jae glance at her, and he nodded approvingly. “First time in a firefight?” He asked.
She nodded. “More or less. Recon Corp training includes hand-to-hand combat, but that’s nothing like this.”
“You did well.” He started to say, but Ten cut him off.
“Two more Hostiles inbound!” She shouted, pointing. “We’ve gotta get out of here!”
“Follow me.” Jae ordered, breaking into a sprint. “We’re going to get to that Gunboat and get the hell out of here.”
The port where the Hoatzin was docked wasn’t far away, but they made the entire journey dodging Energy Weapon fire from the D.
Cassidy Freeman was the first to the airlock, grabbing the release mechanism. It wouldn’t budge. She glanced around frantically. “Give me some time here, I’ll get it open!”
Jae nodded. “Give Silver your rifle. Caspar, Silver-cover for her. Limit the explosions.”
Sadira nodded, stepping into an alcove in the wall and readying her rifle. The two D appeared seconds later-or was it one, with two of those blue spheres? Was there a difference? Regardless, this time Sadira had no hesitation about immediately pulling the trigger.
The D seemed to flow around the streams of energy, but they were clearly damaging.
She couldn’t see clearly what happened next, but the blue sphere vanished, followed closely by an exclamation from Jae. She would learn later that he had tried a single sabot round, taking aim at the only part of the D he could make out clearly, and hoped for the best.
Regardless of his intent, the effects were immediate. The entire... Sadira wasn’t sure what to call it. Mass? Swarm? Anyway, the D collapsed, spilling out across the floor like a pile of sand.
“Airlock opening!” Cassidy shouted, followed by a mild whooshing noise from the direction of the ship. It was far too quiet to have had anything near a full atmosphere.
“Go, go, go!” Jae shouted back, gesturing wildly towards the relative safety of the Hoatzin. They piled through the airlock, Freeman slamming each of the two doors shut behind them.
“Initiating decouple.” She said, keying something in. “Gunboat decoupled.”
Sadira could practically taste her relief, and offered up a quick prayer, something she hadn’t done in a long time.
Cassidy switched on the lights, revealing a Weapons Control Room not unlike the Warbler’s, but with-. She started. A human skeleton lay at their feet stripped completely clean of all organic material.
She turned away from it, to take in the rest of the room. It was a Weapons Control Room, not unlike the Warbler’s, but with the Consoles arranged differently. Instead of eight identical ones, they were grouped in groups of two, marked not just with the Console’s number, but with the name of the weapon they controlled, like ‘Point-Defense Laser’, or ‘Plasma Pulse Array’, or even ‘Antimatter Loom’.
“There shouldn’t be an airlock here, should there?” She asked.
Jae shook his head. “The Weapons room on the Warbler is on the starboard side, you’re right. But that’s the Fleet version of the Icterid-the Hoatzin is one of the Tactical models, which had Weapons at the bow, where our Berths are. Anyway, we’re not in the clear yet. Caspar, go check the Ansible Room, make absolutely sure that it’s offline, then go back to Engines. Freeman, get on of the Comms consoles back online. Silver, I’m going to need you with me on the bridge. Those are all in the same place as onboard the Warbler, so none of you should have a problem finding them.” He clapped his hands together, but the sound was lost to the vacuum. “Let’s go.”
They dispersed, heading off to their stations. The Ansible Room appeared empty, and there was a large red button labelled ‘Ansibilic Shutdown. DO NOT PUSH’.
Sadira pushed it.
Not much happened.
She started to heat aft, aiming for the Port Storage area, but the door out of the Ansible Room was marked ‘Cloaking and AI’. She frowned.
“Deck Officer Ali?” She asked into her radio. Now that they were out of combat, she thought it best to get back to protocol. “I’ve got something strange here-a door that says ‘Cloaking and AI?’ How do I proceed?”
“Apologies, Ensign-I forgot about that. There’s nothing in there-just go through.”
“Thank you, sir.” She twisted the bulkhead door open, stepping through. Something black slammed into her, shimmering blue.
No, no no! She thought. Another one?
She slammed into the deck on her back, screaming, hoping that someone heard her over the radio. The blackness covered her helmet.
It’s okay. It’s airtight. Whatever it is can’t get in. She thought. “Anyone, anyone, this is Caspar! I’m pinned down in Ansibilics! There’s another D onboard!” She shouted.
‘Radio Dead’ flashed across her screen. She could hear a faint hissing noise through the static though, like the air filter was active for some reason...
Something like a grain of dust fell down onto her nose, making her almost want to sneeze. Another fell onto her face, and crawled up from her neck-anywhere there was an air filter on her suit, the D was slipping itself in.
She screamed, feeling her skin crawl. Opening her mouth was a bad idea, as they poured down her throat, filling her lungs. She tried to scream again, but this time, she couldn’t even hear herself-her lungs were full of the black dust. They poured down her esophagus, triggering the gag reflex. Vomit and bile spilled up, into her mouth, mixing with the D.
Then, there was light. A figure in a dark blue Fleet spacesuit, like her own, stood above her, a blazing light held in its hands. It too cast a pale blue light, flickering in the darkness, barely visible to her D-filled eyes. The figure swung it like a sword, cutting through the mass of D, drawing it back, striking at the central sphere. It batted tendrils of D away like they were nothing, before finally cleaving the sphere in half, causing all the dust to collapse.
Sadira coughed repeatedly, dry heaving, trying to expel the dust from her system. “Silver, this is Ali. Get oxygen in the Aft Port bulkhead now. Don’t worry about best practice, just get it in here. And Freeman. Get her here too.”
As Sadira struggled not to black out, she saw the suit of armor kneel down beside her, placing a hand on her. “Lay down. The Warber will dock with us-rest.”
And as she looked up into the face of Jae Ali, she saw something there, something that she had sometimes seen in the face of her own father, Caspar Ibn Ali. It wasn’t relation-their surnames might be similar, but it was a common one. No, this ran deeper, a type of family, yes, but one born in shared experience, hardship, and yes, by blood.
The first thing off of the Hoatzin was the stretcher. Cassidy Freeman was at its front. “Move, move, move!” She shouted, pushing the crew out of the way as she navigated the awkward gravity discontinuity between the two ships.
The stretcher had ‘Hoatzin’ printed on the side of it in large block letters, and Tactical’s symbol printed on the side.
Kim cut her way through the group, straight to Freeman’s side. “What’s wrong?” She asked, voice tense. “You engaged D?”
“With all due respect, Commander, I have a soldier largely unable to breathe anything other than her own bile at the moment. May we please have this conversation another time?”
“Apologies, Ensign.” Kim said, ducking away, turning back to the other crewmembers crowding the hallway. “Everyone, get back to your stations. Something happened on the station, and we’re going to get a handle on it, but one of our own is injured and heading to the sickbay. From what Executive Officer Ali was able to tell us over the comm, they engaged several D while on the station and the Hoatzin.” Internally, she braced herself for what she was about to say next. “Midshipman Caspar was just injured and is in a severe state. If you’re the praying type... It couldn’t hurt.”
A hush fell over the room. Kim knew that she should get them working, to take their minds off Sadira, but this was the real first time that one of them had been severely incapacitated. Victor had been in Medical after Saray, but they had barely been a crew then. They’d need the time to get to grips with this.
And, from what she’d heard, she didn’t want anyone going onto the Hoatzin.
Sadira hacked and coughed on the table, physically restrained. She was covered in a fine black dust Cassidy’s instruments had immediately identified as nanobots. They were largely inert, without guidance, but still potentially life-threatening.
She plunged a needle into Sadira’s leg, injecting it, pumping far too high of a dose of KX2 into her. Cassidy was grasping at straws, and she knew it, but she just had no idea where to begin countering the effects of the dust. KX2 was a battlefield stimulant, immensely harmful to the circulatory system. It was, however, also a broad-spectrum anti-nanoparticle agent, specifically designed, among other things, to protect against bioweapons. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do.
She had another needle in each of Sadira’s arms, dialyzing her. There was an oxygen mask over her face-at least Cassidy hadn’t had to perform a Tracheotomy, although she had been tempted to do so while they were on the Hoatzin.
She moved on to more general diagnostics, checking for spinal or neck injuries, treating lacerations, and so on and so forth.
It took less than half an hour to confirm that the ‘only’ major injuries she had sustained was whatever the nanite dust had done to her. The dialysis would take another three hours at minimum, so Cassidy made a call. “Medical to Commander Shan.”
“Go for Shan.”
“If you’d like to come down to the sick bay, Sadira is stable.”
“Thank you-one moment. Good work, Ensign Freeman. Shan out.”
Cassidy could feel the Commander approaching, and proactively reached out to soothe her mind, just a touch. She had considered giving Sadira a neuronic earlier, but hadn’t thought it worth the time.
The door beeped, and Cassidy opened the door for the Commander. “How is she?” Shan asked, visibly both tense but optimistic.
Cassie smiled. “She should pull through. I’m running some diagnostics on the D nanites now, and it’s possible that she’ll have some long-term consequences from this... They might be quite severe, but shouldn’t be life-threatening.”
“Such as?”
“Possible kidney or liver failure. Likely something similar to silicosis. Autoimmune responses have been reported in connection with prolonged exposure to KX2, but I honestly have no idea how similar it is to D nanites in that regard. There’s almost certainly other side effects-I got several pounds of the stuff out of her.”
The Commander stiffened. “Where is it?”
“I gathered it up using magnets, then spaced them.”
“Excellent. I apologize, please continue.”
“Sadira’s going to be in a lot of pain over the next few days. Her lungs and throat in particular are going to be hard for her to deal with. Please, just... Be aware of that.”
Kimberly nodded. “I’ll do everything I can.”
“These are likely going to be chronic things.”
“I doubt we’ll live long enough for that to matter.”
There was silence for a moment, then Cassidy spoke up again. “I’d also like to talk to you about Deck Officer Ali, if you have a moment.”
“Very well... Continue.”
“Ma’am, Deck Officer Ali is the perfect leader. He proved that a thousand times over today-he’s brave, unafraid to take risks, and looks out for us. But...” Cassie swallowed. “He seems to know things he should not. Things about Tactical, specifically. He knew the layout of that ship like the back of his hand. Even that sword he found... What is that?”
Kim nodded, and Cassidy could feel the Commander turning over the problem in her mind. Kim thought it fit-Cassidy had known she would-but it was still relieving. “I’ve considered that Jae might be our Agent in the past, and it fits various other evidence... Thank you, Ensign.”
“Please... Don’t mention it.”
Shan nodded, understanding the dual meaning. Cassidy had done what she had out of a sense of duty-well, that and self-defense-but still wouldn’t like to have the likely vengeful Agent Ali to know what she had done.
Ali had to go, though. He was the only person on the ship who might know about her peculiar abilities, and she disliked that. Highly. He was going to use her for something anyway-that was why she was on the ship in the first place, she knew.
It was really only self-defence.
Kim stared at Jae, hand on the pistol under her desk. “You’ve been lying to me, Agent.” She said, and tossed the sheaf of papers she had found in his chest across the desk to him. “I don’t appreciate that.”
Jae feigned ignorance, picking up the papers and pawing through them. “I honestly don’t know what these are.” He said, looking up at her. Damn, but he was convincing. “I can only assume that it’s a plant of some kind.”
“Stop playing games, Agent Ali. It does not improve your chances.”
“With all due respect, Ma’am, I don’t see why-.”
“You found the watch! You conveniently volunteered to lead the away team onto the Tactical gunboat. I don’t know what secrets you wanted to hide, but I swear, if you’ve done any damage to that ship, I will leave you in it when we leave this system.”
Jae breathed in. “I volunteered to lead the expedition because I knew those ships, Commander. I flew on one for several years right up until the end of the Imperiata war. I got out immediately after, when Tactical began to transition to a secret police force under Riya Dare. I didn’t want to be part of that, and I haven’t been involved with Tactical since then.”
Kim looked away, disappointed. “That’s not what these papers say. Dammit, Ali, I truly did want to vindicate you. You have one last chance to come clean, or I will end you. Put your hands on the table.” She stood, bringing her pistol to bear on his forehead. He complied, and she continued, “I know that you’re the Agent. I will shoot you for that unless you cooperate with me right now.”
He nodded. “Finally some spine.” He said. “The Warbler is one of First Citizen Julien Shishani’s pet projects. It was supposed to be a sandbox they could put young officers in. It’s been specially outfitted for this mission in various respects, the most obvious being the upgraded sickbay-we didn’t want any of you bleeding out due to some training accident. That’s why the crew is exceptionally horrible-far too many of them are conscripts, and we’ve deliberately picked individuals that knew each other. The outbreak of war complicated things, but not enough to call the project off. You didn’t mishandle the Goei at Tantaline-Killian Hazzard himself was apparently impressed with your performance under the circumstances. The transfer to the Warbler was already set though, so we followed through. It wasn’t just going to be you here-we were going to put Reed Dare and First Citizen Isabella Shishani through this too when we had a chance.”
Reed Hazzard, not Dare. She thought. He might occasionally publicly go by his mothers surname, but he hated it-and her.
“Actually, part of our plan was to have you and Dare on the ship concurrently at the end of your stint, to screw it up even more. Obviously we didn’t deliberately sabotage the ship, as we’re at war-in fact, I’ve removed all the kill switches that we installed on various systems. I’m on your side, Commander.”
“Perhaps. Who else knows?”
“Mary Wentworth is an ex-Agent. She’s was with the Agency from the end of the Republic-Imperiata War up until a couple of years ago, when she transferred to the Fleet. She hasn’t been reactivated like I was. Sadira Caspar probably knows, or at least has guessed that I’m involved-her father was in the agency, and was a friend of mine, but she’s never been involved. Cassidy Freeman might-we met once before, although I was under an assumed identity. That should be it.”
She placed the pistol back in her holster. “Understood. Now I want one thing to be perfectly clear. You may be on my side-in fact, I find this likely. However, I can no longer have you by my side. You are no longer the Executive Officer of the UTFS Warbler. I’ll be shifting people around over the next day or so, but you’d best start training on a Drone.”
Jae nodded. “Yes ma’am.”
“You are dismissed, Ensign Ali.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” He stood and hesitated for a moment, before saying, “Super Nos,” and leaving the room.
“Super Nos.” She replied. His use of the phrase must be deliberate, a reminder that they were on the same side. She didn’t care. She had no place for men like him on board her ship.
Elise Henrick raised her hand. “With all due respect, we both know it’s unlikely I’ll find something. When I don’t, what are we going to do?”
Sadira could have sworn that she saw a slight smile on Shan’s face. “In that case, Ensign, we’re taking the Ansible apart and rebuilding it from scratch.”
Jae Ali was the next to speak up. “Commander, if we do come across an object worth investigating, what’s our away team?”
Shan nodded. “Excellent question. I’d like to request that you lead it. It would be made up of Ensign Silver, Ensign Freeman, and Ensign Caspar. Are there any objections?”
Sadira started. It was clear that Shan was picking people with some level of combat experience, but... She was still surprised. “Yes ma’am!” She answered, before any of the others had even opened their mouths. Anything to get off this damn ship, even for a little while.
None of them refused.
“In that case, ma’am, may I have them for a few minutes before they report to their areas?” Jae asked.
“Yes, but make sure you make the Deck Officer’s meeting.” Seeing that there were no further questions, she said, “Crew dismissed.”
Sadira walked over to Silver, nicknamed ‘Ten’-one of the people she had connected with the most aboard the Warbler. “Away Team, huh?” Sadira asked, slurping down something from her ‘meal’.
“We’re not going to actually do anything, you know.” Ten replied. “The odds of there being a gunboat of our class intact enough to scavenge from are practically nil.”
Sadira shrugged. “Still, she’s at least thinking of these things.”
Ten glanced around furtively. “You still want to frag her, don’t you?” She hissed. “You understand that there’s no universe in which that ends well, don’t you?”
Sadira sighed. “No, I understand that there was only a brief window when that was possible, and it was likely a bad idea even then. I still don’t like it.”
Ten took another swig of the semi-liquid FlashHeat packet. “We’re in the military. You don’t have to like your officers-just obey them.”
Sadira shook her head. “No. That’s not how it should be.”
“Eh. It might not be ideal, but it’s the way it is. Get with the program or get out-and given recent developments, getting out seems rather unwise.”
“True enough. Still though...”
“Our officers know what they’re doing. You do stuff differently in the Recon Corp, I know, just like they do in Tactical-both of those are designed to allow highly autonomous activity. In the Marines though, and even more so in the Fleet, we need some initiative, yes, but mostly it’s compliance with orders that keeps us all alive. Every person on this ship is essential. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be here. Acceptable losses is zero. Hell, even if you want to get a little nihilistic, bring genetics into it-every one of us is priceless for those purposes too.”
Sadira suppressed a gag, thinking of Steele and Burton. “There’s at least one couple on this ship that I have a feeling has an intense desire to do their fair share to repopulate the species.” She glanced significantly at her fellow Midshipmen.
Silver laughed. “No comment, but literally everyone knows those two are into each other. You’ll need better gossip.”
“It’s not meant as that-this is one instance where I agree with Fleet Policy. That sort of relationship does horrible things to small groups like ours. We can’t afford that.”
“This is very true, and once again, we’ll figure that out sooner or later.” Silver stood, wrapping up the remnants of her food’s packaging. “But the first thing any of us have to deal with is our own survival.”
Sadira nodded. “Agreed.” She stood also. “I’m going to go boot up my Console and get some training time in on the simulator-I’m still half-terrified that I’m going to end up crashing my drone into the ship on launch.”
Silver raised her eyebrows. “That sounds bad. You should probably practice.”
“Sounds bad? I can’t imagine why.”
“I don’t know, call me selfish, but rapid decompression and death doesn’t sound fun to me.”
SENCOM was now officially half useless. In a world with no ‘rest of humanity’, there was little use for Communication with the rest of humanity. Ensign Freeman had even joked that they should replace the ansible with a seance. It had gotten laughs, but Maria thought it was in poor taste.
Sensors, though, was equally useless at the moment-their role in the day’s operations had amounted to scanning the debris field for large objects, and then pointing Combat’s drones in that direction.
What they did do, however, was analysis of the data from said drones. They had identified half a dozen or so different sub-fields of debris-two Species D cruisers, and either three or four UTF destroyers. They had positively identified the wreckage of the Yuri Gagarin, Breaker Bay, and Buzz Aldrin, as well as possibly some debris from the Ride. That meant that DESRONs Six and Nine had been engaged here, and that Nine had more or less been reduced to dust. The two Species D cruisers were harder to pin down, but they were clearly distinct-a smaller one that had been engaged by the Sally Ride and the Alan Shepard, and one that was likely an armored carrier of some sort that had been engaged by DESRON Six and the other two Nine ships. There were also dozens of drones from the UTFS Warden and over three dozen different smaller ships.
They had the computer running analysis on what they knew, but the general picture was bleak. Species D ships could outfight UTF ones, even under the command of Killian Hazzard, the single best tactician in the Republic.
“Go for SENCOM.” She heard Richard Tvorik say, and her ears pricked up-that meant that someone had found something worth bringing to their attention. It might very well be interesting.
Richard stiffened. “Hold for one moment.” He said, then muted the mic. “Commander Abrams! Console One has a visual on a cloaked structure!”
Abrams immediately turned from where she had been examining a chart of the Clarke Orbit. “Get me on the line. Ensign Tvorik, attempt to hail it. Ensign Freeman, notify the Bridge. Patch them in if they ask for it.”
Maria stood there, ready, fully aware of the irony of the situation-moments before she had been considering how Comms was now dead weight, and now they were both busy while she had nothing to do.
She turned on the feed of video footage from Console One. It was uninteresting, which was unsurprising-even something the size of a Carrier was tiny on the scales of distance that one dealt with in orbit.
It took barely a minute for Deck Officer Abrams to end her conversation with Deck Officer Norton-as the head of Combat Systems, he would be the person in Console One-and turn her attention back to her own area. “Right, SENCOM, stand by for some pretty intensive work. We’re fairly sure that what we’re dealing with is space station-one of our own, just for the record. The Skipper is on the line with Console One right now, but like I said, we’re mostly certain of this. Ensign Freeman, report to Deck Officer Ali for the away team. Ensign Prussin, keep a close eye on Console One’s feed.”
Maria nodded, turning back to the feed. The Drone was rapidly approaching a growing glint of light, which she assumed was the station. It was maneuvering with its primary thrusters in the general direction of the station, its chemical rockets decelerating it so that it could keep pace with the station.
As the two objects neared each other, Maria began to be able to make out details. The station was small, with six docking arms stretching out several hundred feet from the central core. And at the end of one of those arms there was a single ship docked-an Icterid gunboat.
A smile flashed across Maria’s face as she zoomed the feed in on the ship as well as she could. “Deck Officer Abrams!” She practically shouted. “I’ve got a visual on a gunboat!”
Abrams nodded. “I see it too. Notify the Skipper.”
“Yes ma’am.” Maria opened a comm line to the bridge. “SENCOM to Bridge.”
“Go for Bridge.”
“We’ve got a visual on an Icterid docked with the station.”
Maria could have sworn that she heard the Commander’s exclamation through the ship, not just the comms line. “Thank you, Ensign. Keep me posted.”
“We will. SENCOM out.” She clicked the line shut, and returned to the footage from the drone. It took perhaps another five minutes for the Gunboat to reach any level of resolution, but its hull appeared largely intact. The drone couldn’t approach too close, and the ship was hard to make out-it was cloaked, like the station, and painted black, also like the station, which made it hard to make out both on sensors and in visible light.
After a brief consultation with Console One and Deck Officer Abrams, Maria made one more call.
“SENCOM to Bridge.”
“Go for Bridge.”
“We’ve reached the closest safe approach to the station. We have a recommendation for action.”
“Yes?”
“Send in a team.”
The Warbler docked on the arm of the station across from the other Gunboat, the Bow Airlock cycling to allow the away team through. They wore airtight combat armor, and were armed with combined Plasma and Sabot Rifles, flamethrowers, and several dozen grenades.
The station’s lighting was off, which had almost immediately killed their hopes that there might be other survivors. There was also no air, which, while it was probably a better indicator of whether there were humans on the station, wasn’t immediately obvious inside a space suit.
Sadira felt out of place, trying to keep her Pulse Rifle level in front of herself, minimizing her profile. In the Recon Corp she had handled Sabot Guns and Tranqs all the time, but almost always as a hunter, trying to defend herself from something wild-not something as smart or more so than herself. Even the few times she had been forced to fight the Antaril natives, they had been limited to stone weapons, making it a massacre.
The corridor was empty, but long, straight, open, and therefore exposed. As they reached the end, Sadira felt the floor shake. That would be the Warbler decoupling from the station. There was a brief flash as its engines shone down the corridor, then it was away.
“Warbler to Away Team, we’re heading out to hold position two miles ahead.” Her comm crackled-that would be Richard Tvorik, as Cassidy Freeman was with them right now.
“Copy that, Warbler.” Jae said, the little popup of his head in her Hud giving her more information about who was talking than his voice. He held up his hand. “Away Team, most of you have never done this, so I’m going to spell it out for you. Ten Silver is our tank. She’s in a Mech, which, though it doesn’t look like much, is pumping out an Aegal which should keep anyone within ten feet of her safe. She’s gunna level anything that isn’t wearing the Republic’s flag. We snipe anything dumb, inexperienced, or armored enough to think that it’s a good plan to show itself. Make yourself a small target, go for opponents with energy weapons first... Am I missing anything?” He looked to Ten.
Hortensia ‘Ten’ Silver nodded. “Just try not to die. It’s less fun than it looks in the movies.”
Jae turned back to the door at the end of the corridor, stepping aside to let Ten pass him. “We’re going in in three... Two... One!”
The Mech burst through the door, plasma cannons held high, ready to fire with extreme prejudice. The rest of the group stormed in behind it, Sadira staying as close to Jae as possible. Ali ducked down, getting onto one knee, sweeping the room with his own plasma rifle, finger held above the trigger, ready to fire.
Slowly the plasma cannons cycled down, allowing them to see something other than blinding light. The interior of the station was slagged-they had been sure that there were no humans onboard as the door hadn’t been an airlock, but it was still disappointing to see how totally destroyed it was. The room had once been the station’s Bridge.
“Spread out.” Jae ordered. “Sweep the station. Stick together.”
The signs of combat were scattered throughout the station. A dead human lay draped across a console in one room, two more behind a door in another.
It was dark, and even the lights on their helmets seemed to cast more shadows than light. There was no air, so there was no sound.
That meant that they had next to no warning when they encountered the D.
It moved like lightning, barely visible, black against black, only visible due to the slight blue sheen it had when it moved. It lashed out like a tentacle, grabbing Silver’s mech, wrangling it down to the deck.
Sadira could only stand there, shocked, as more tendrils grabbed on to the mech. She saw red flashes as Jae and Cassidy fired, but they were constrained by the need not to hit Silver, The Mech had an aegal shield, but they were useless against anything that wasn’t a kinetic weapon.
Ten’s mech rolled over, fire spurting forth from the flamethrowers on its arms. The D’s tentacles shied back, dissolving, away from the flame.
Heart pounding in her chest, adrenaline pumping through her system, she brought her own weapon up to her shoulder, firing in the vague direction of the D.
The tendrils receded, fleeing from the flame and plasma of the Human weapons, dissolving into a black dust that seemed to flow like a liquid back down the corridor.
“Take cover!” Ali shouted, moving backwards, back towards last junction.
Silver tried to rise, but the Mech sparked. “This thing’s slagged!” She replied, trying to lift her arms to decouple it. “Someone, give me a hand with this!”
Cassidy Freeman bent down, flipping the emergency switches on it, explosive bolts ejecting the heavy armor. Down the corridor, a single point of blue light was visible, surrounded by shimmering blue reflections on black surfaces. Sadira fired again, glancing over her shoulder to Ali.
She felt something tugging at her boots as she tried to step backwards. She glanced down, and saw a fine black dust coating the floor, adhering to her boots. She screamed, and jumped backwards.
“Relax.” She heard Cassidy’s voice in her helmet. “Don’t lose your cool. That’s the worst thing you can do.”
Ten was free now, standing atop the mech, a pistol held in one hand-the only weapon she could keep on her person while piloting the mech, presumably. She scrambled down, taking shelter behind the mech, messing with something. “Get back from the mech!” She shouted, bolting towards Jae.
The roiling mass at the end of the corridor stilled for a moment, then rushed forward, a wave of black around a glowing ball in the center.
“Everyone away from the mech!” Silver shouted again. This time it actually registered, and Sadira ran too.
The mech exploded. The tank of fuel for the flamethrower on its back and the high-energy batteries that powered both the mech itself and its energy weapons provided more than enough energy to reduce the D to so much slag.
Sadira watched, breathing heavily, feeling like collapsing. She saw Jae glance at her, and he nodded approvingly. “First time in a firefight?” He asked.
She nodded. “More or less. Recon Corp training includes hand-to-hand combat, but that’s nothing like this.”
“You did well.” He started to say, but Ten cut him off.
“Two more Hostiles inbound!” She shouted, pointing. “We’ve gotta get out of here!”
“Follow me.” Jae ordered, breaking into a sprint. “We’re going to get to that Gunboat and get the hell out of here.”
The port where the Hoatzin was docked wasn’t far away, but they made the entire journey dodging Energy Weapon fire from the D.
Cassidy Freeman was the first to the airlock, grabbing the release mechanism. It wouldn’t budge. She glanced around frantically. “Give me some time here, I’ll get it open!”
Jae nodded. “Give Silver your rifle. Caspar, Silver-cover for her. Limit the explosions.”
Sadira nodded, stepping into an alcove in the wall and readying her rifle. The two D appeared seconds later-or was it one, with two of those blue spheres? Was there a difference? Regardless, this time Sadira had no hesitation about immediately pulling the trigger.
The D seemed to flow around the streams of energy, but they were clearly damaging.
She couldn’t see clearly what happened next, but the blue sphere vanished, followed closely by an exclamation from Jae. She would learn later that he had tried a single sabot round, taking aim at the only part of the D he could make out clearly, and hoped for the best.
Regardless of his intent, the effects were immediate. The entire... Sadira wasn’t sure what to call it. Mass? Swarm? Anyway, the D collapsed, spilling out across the floor like a pile of sand.
“Airlock opening!” Cassidy shouted, followed by a mild whooshing noise from the direction of the ship. It was far too quiet to have had anything near a full atmosphere.
“Go, go, go!” Jae shouted back, gesturing wildly towards the relative safety of the Hoatzin. They piled through the airlock, Freeman slamming each of the two doors shut behind them.
“Initiating decouple.” She said, keying something in. “Gunboat decoupled.”
Sadira could practically taste her relief, and offered up a quick prayer, something she hadn’t done in a long time.
Cassidy switched on the lights, revealing a Weapons Control Room not unlike the Warbler’s, but with-. She started. A human skeleton lay at their feet stripped completely clean of all organic material.
She turned away from it, to take in the rest of the room. It was a Weapons Control Room, not unlike the Warbler’s, but with the Consoles arranged differently. Instead of eight identical ones, they were grouped in groups of two, marked not just with the Console’s number, but with the name of the weapon they controlled, like ‘Point-Defense Laser’, or ‘Plasma Pulse Array’, or even ‘Antimatter Loom’.
“There shouldn’t be an airlock here, should there?” She asked.
Jae shook his head. “The Weapons room on the Warbler is on the starboard side, you’re right. But that’s the Fleet version of the Icterid-the Hoatzin is one of the Tactical models, which had Weapons at the bow, where our Berths are. Anyway, we’re not in the clear yet. Caspar, go check the Ansible Room, make absolutely sure that it’s offline, then go back to Engines. Freeman, get on of the Comms consoles back online. Silver, I’m going to need you with me on the bridge. Those are all in the same place as onboard the Warbler, so none of you should have a problem finding them.” He clapped his hands together, but the sound was lost to the vacuum. “Let’s go.”
They dispersed, heading off to their stations. The Ansible Room appeared empty, and there was a large red button labelled ‘Ansibilic Shutdown. DO NOT PUSH’.
Sadira pushed it.
Not much happened.
She started to heat aft, aiming for the Port Storage area, but the door out of the Ansible Room was marked ‘Cloaking and AI’. She frowned.
“Deck Officer Ali?” She asked into her radio. Now that they were out of combat, she thought it best to get back to protocol. “I’ve got something strange here-a door that says ‘Cloaking and AI?’ How do I proceed?”
“Apologies, Ensign-I forgot about that. There’s nothing in there-just go through.”
“Thank you, sir.” She twisted the bulkhead door open, stepping through. Something black slammed into her, shimmering blue.
No, no no! She thought. Another one?
She slammed into the deck on her back, screaming, hoping that someone heard her over the radio. The blackness covered her helmet.
It’s okay. It’s airtight. Whatever it is can’t get in. She thought. “Anyone, anyone, this is Caspar! I’m pinned down in Ansibilics! There’s another D onboard!” She shouted.
‘Radio Dead’ flashed across her screen. She could hear a faint hissing noise through the static though, like the air filter was active for some reason...
Something like a grain of dust fell down onto her nose, making her almost want to sneeze. Another fell onto her face, and crawled up from her neck-anywhere there was an air filter on her suit, the D was slipping itself in.
She screamed, feeling her skin crawl. Opening her mouth was a bad idea, as they poured down her throat, filling her lungs. She tried to scream again, but this time, she couldn’t even hear herself-her lungs were full of the black dust. They poured down her esophagus, triggering the gag reflex. Vomit and bile spilled up, into her mouth, mixing with the D.
Then, there was light. A figure in a dark blue Fleet spacesuit, like her own, stood above her, a blazing light held in its hands. It too cast a pale blue light, flickering in the darkness, barely visible to her D-filled eyes. The figure swung it like a sword, cutting through the mass of D, drawing it back, striking at the central sphere. It batted tendrils of D away like they were nothing, before finally cleaving the sphere in half, causing all the dust to collapse.
Sadira coughed repeatedly, dry heaving, trying to expel the dust from her system. “Silver, this is Ali. Get oxygen in the Aft Port bulkhead now. Don’t worry about best practice, just get it in here. And Freeman. Get her here too.”
As Sadira struggled not to black out, she saw the suit of armor kneel down beside her, placing a hand on her. “Lay down. The Warber will dock with us-rest.”
And as she looked up into the face of Jae Ali, she saw something there, something that she had sometimes seen in the face of her own father, Caspar Ibn Ali. It wasn’t relation-their surnames might be similar, but it was a common one. No, this ran deeper, a type of family, yes, but one born in shared experience, hardship, and yes, by blood.
The first thing off of the Hoatzin was the stretcher. Cassidy Freeman was at its front. “Move, move, move!” She shouted, pushing the crew out of the way as she navigated the awkward gravity discontinuity between the two ships.
The stretcher had ‘Hoatzin’ printed on the side of it in large block letters, and Tactical’s symbol printed on the side.
Kim cut her way through the group, straight to Freeman’s side. “What’s wrong?” She asked, voice tense. “You engaged D?”
“With all due respect, Commander, I have a soldier largely unable to breathe anything other than her own bile at the moment. May we please have this conversation another time?”
“Apologies, Ensign.” Kim said, ducking away, turning back to the other crewmembers crowding the hallway. “Everyone, get back to your stations. Something happened on the station, and we’re going to get a handle on it, but one of our own is injured and heading to the sickbay. From what Executive Officer Ali was able to tell us over the comm, they engaged several D while on the station and the Hoatzin.” Internally, she braced herself for what she was about to say next. “Midshipman Caspar was just injured and is in a severe state. If you’re the praying type... It couldn’t hurt.”
A hush fell over the room. Kim knew that she should get them working, to take their minds off Sadira, but this was the real first time that one of them had been severely incapacitated. Victor had been in Medical after Saray, but they had barely been a crew then. They’d need the time to get to grips with this.
And, from what she’d heard, she didn’t want anyone going onto the Hoatzin.
Sadira hacked and coughed on the table, physically restrained. She was covered in a fine black dust Cassidy’s instruments had immediately identified as nanobots. They were largely inert, without guidance, but still potentially life-threatening.
She plunged a needle into Sadira’s leg, injecting it, pumping far too high of a dose of KX2 into her. Cassidy was grasping at straws, and she knew it, but she just had no idea where to begin countering the effects of the dust. KX2 was a battlefield stimulant, immensely harmful to the circulatory system. It was, however, also a broad-spectrum anti-nanoparticle agent, specifically designed, among other things, to protect against bioweapons. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do.
She had another needle in each of Sadira’s arms, dialyzing her. There was an oxygen mask over her face-at least Cassidy hadn’t had to perform a Tracheotomy, although she had been tempted to do so while they were on the Hoatzin.
She moved on to more general diagnostics, checking for spinal or neck injuries, treating lacerations, and so on and so forth.
It took less than half an hour to confirm that the ‘only’ major injuries she had sustained was whatever the nanite dust had done to her. The dialysis would take another three hours at minimum, so Cassidy made a call. “Medical to Commander Shan.”
“Go for Shan.”
“If you’d like to come down to the sick bay, Sadira is stable.”
“Thank you-one moment. Good work, Ensign Freeman. Shan out.”
Cassidy could feel the Commander approaching, and proactively reached out to soothe her mind, just a touch. She had considered giving Sadira a neuronic earlier, but hadn’t thought it worth the time.
The door beeped, and Cassidy opened the door for the Commander. “How is she?” Shan asked, visibly both tense but optimistic.
Cassie smiled. “She should pull through. I’m running some diagnostics on the D nanites now, and it’s possible that she’ll have some long-term consequences from this... They might be quite severe, but shouldn’t be life-threatening.”
“Such as?”
“Possible kidney or liver failure. Likely something similar to silicosis. Autoimmune responses have been reported in connection with prolonged exposure to KX2, but I honestly have no idea how similar it is to D nanites in that regard. There’s almost certainly other side effects-I got several pounds of the stuff out of her.”
The Commander stiffened. “Where is it?”
“I gathered it up using magnets, then spaced them.”
“Excellent. I apologize, please continue.”
“Sadira’s going to be in a lot of pain over the next few days. Her lungs and throat in particular are going to be hard for her to deal with. Please, just... Be aware of that.”
Kimberly nodded. “I’ll do everything I can.”
“These are likely going to be chronic things.”
“I doubt we’ll live long enough for that to matter.”
There was silence for a moment, then Cassidy spoke up again. “I’d also like to talk to you about Deck Officer Ali, if you have a moment.”
“Very well... Continue.”
“Ma’am, Deck Officer Ali is the perfect leader. He proved that a thousand times over today-he’s brave, unafraid to take risks, and looks out for us. But...” Cassie swallowed. “He seems to know things he should not. Things about Tactical, specifically. He knew the layout of that ship like the back of his hand. Even that sword he found... What is that?”
Kim nodded, and Cassidy could feel the Commander turning over the problem in her mind. Kim thought it fit-Cassidy had known she would-but it was still relieving. “I’ve considered that Jae might be our Agent in the past, and it fits various other evidence... Thank you, Ensign.”
“Please... Don’t mention it.”
Shan nodded, understanding the dual meaning. Cassidy had done what she had out of a sense of duty-well, that and self-defense-but still wouldn’t like to have the likely vengeful Agent Ali to know what she had done.
Ali had to go, though. He was the only person on the ship who might know about her peculiar abilities, and she disliked that. Highly. He was going to use her for something anyway-that was why she was on the ship in the first place, she knew.
It was really only self-defence.
Kim stared at Jae, hand on the pistol under her desk. “You’ve been lying to me, Agent.” She said, and tossed the sheaf of papers she had found in his chest across the desk to him. “I don’t appreciate that.”
Jae feigned ignorance, picking up the papers and pawing through them. “I honestly don’t know what these are.” He said, looking up at her. Damn, but he was convincing. “I can only assume that it’s a plant of some kind.”
“Stop playing games, Agent Ali. It does not improve your chances.”
“With all due respect, Ma’am, I don’t see why-.”
“You found the watch! You conveniently volunteered to lead the away team onto the Tactical gunboat. I don’t know what secrets you wanted to hide, but I swear, if you’ve done any damage to that ship, I will leave you in it when we leave this system.”
Jae breathed in. “I volunteered to lead the expedition because I knew those ships, Commander. I flew on one for several years right up until the end of the Imperiata war. I got out immediately after, when Tactical began to transition to a secret police force under Riya Dare. I didn’t want to be part of that, and I haven’t been involved with Tactical since then.”
Kim looked away, disappointed. “That’s not what these papers say. Dammit, Ali, I truly did want to vindicate you. You have one last chance to come clean, or I will end you. Put your hands on the table.” She stood, bringing her pistol to bear on his forehead. He complied, and she continued, “I know that you’re the Agent. I will shoot you for that unless you cooperate with me right now.”
He nodded. “Finally some spine.” He said. “The Warbler is one of First Citizen Julien Shishani’s pet projects. It was supposed to be a sandbox they could put young officers in. It’s been specially outfitted for this mission in various respects, the most obvious being the upgraded sickbay-we didn’t want any of you bleeding out due to some training accident. That’s why the crew is exceptionally horrible-far too many of them are conscripts, and we’ve deliberately picked individuals that knew each other. The outbreak of war complicated things, but not enough to call the project off. You didn’t mishandle the Goei at Tantaline-Killian Hazzard himself was apparently impressed with your performance under the circumstances. The transfer to the Warbler was already set though, so we followed through. It wasn’t just going to be you here-we were going to put Reed Dare and First Citizen Isabella Shishani through this too when we had a chance.”
Reed Hazzard, not Dare. She thought. He might occasionally publicly go by his mothers surname, but he hated it-and her.
“Actually, part of our plan was to have you and Dare on the ship concurrently at the end of your stint, to screw it up even more. Obviously we didn’t deliberately sabotage the ship, as we’re at war-in fact, I’ve removed all the kill switches that we installed on various systems. I’m on your side, Commander.”
“Perhaps. Who else knows?”
“Mary Wentworth is an ex-Agent. She’s was with the Agency from the end of the Republic-Imperiata War up until a couple of years ago, when she transferred to the Fleet. She hasn’t been reactivated like I was. Sadira Caspar probably knows, or at least has guessed that I’m involved-her father was in the agency, and was a friend of mine, but she’s never been involved. Cassidy Freeman might-we met once before, although I was under an assumed identity. That should be it.”
She placed the pistol back in her holster. “Understood. Now I want one thing to be perfectly clear. You may be on my side-in fact, I find this likely. However, I can no longer have you by my side. You are no longer the Executive Officer of the UTFS Warbler. I’ll be shifting people around over the next day or so, but you’d best start training on a Drone.”
Jae nodded. “Yes ma’am.”
“You are dismissed, Ensign Ali.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” He stood and hesitated for a moment, before saying, “Super Nos,” and leaving the room.
“Super Nos.” She replied. His use of the phrase must be deliberate, a reminder that they were on the same side. She didn’t care. She had no place for men like him on board her ship.