AFTER SEVERAL HOURS A FOOD PLATTER PROTRUDED through the small window into Palmer’s cell. A gruff and formal voice from the other side of the door said, “Meal time,” and let the platter rest on the ledge. Palmer slid her food through the rest of the way and took it over to one of the seats to eat. She picked at the standard ration, not quite knowing what she ate: some sort of off-world meat, probably what everyone referred to as space chicken, and greenish vegetables, which were surely synthetic. When she was half finished and considering whether to eat the rest or not, the door opened. She looked up quickly.
Jacobs stepped into the room and walked over to her. “May I?” he said before sitting next to her.
“You don’t look roughed up at all,” she said.
“I have a proposition for you,” Jacobs edged too near for her comfort.
“I don’t do sexual favors,” she said.
“I wouldn’t ask.”
“I’m not so sure.” Palmer pushed the last perfect cube of meat around on the plate. The chicken-like hybrid was actually raised inside space stations positioned strategically all around the galaxy. In a space bound society, food had to be taken to the people. Unless traded through free trade agreements with the colonies, the government, or independent agencies, it was bought from the space stations. It was all big business as usual.
Jacobs reached for her hand but then stopped short and held to the edge of her platter.
She kept a hand on the platter as well, holding it between them. Her other hand she used to manipulate her fork between the food she played with and her mouth.
As Jacobs talked he tapped the bottom of the platter. It didn’t take long before Palmer recognized the tapping. It was Morse Code, unbelievably ancient, but still recognizable and useful. “What the hell?”
Jacobs smiled broadly but made no move to stop. He tapped out, “You have to agree to this. Either that or you’ll be framed and imprisoned.” At the same time he said, “We want to give you another chance, that’s what. Perhaps someone did load those explosives onto your ship. We’ll be investigating that prospect and will find the culprit. But we need you as a pilot if we’re going to go back down there to talk.”
“Back? So soon? That makes no sense,” she said.
“There is a plan in place,” Jacobs said.
“Well, use the pilot from the lander that picked me up,” she said.
“You know as well as I do that we have no pilots trained for such a mission. Our pilots are trained for space. They can’t handle a lander as well as you can under atmosphere, especially since every atmosphere is different. He’d be a sitting duck and probably couldn’t land without killing us. Besides that, we have to act quickly, while we can, while they’re vulnerable.”
“While they’re vulnerable? They shot your lander out of the air.” She felt him tap out a second message. That they believed Brandon had made it out alive. Didn’t she want to go back for him?
Palmer didn’t believe for a second that they didn’t have pilots who could do the job, only that, for some reason, they wouldn’t suggest it. She understood that something illegal was going on from the beginning and decided to ignore it for the money, but she was just getting deeper into it.
She tried to focus on both strands of information, but got caught up in the probability of Brandon’s survival. The thought of it caused her heart to race faster than Jacobs’ tapping. If anyone could make it, Brandon would. But what about Clark? And what would those on the planet do if they found him? At that point, she knew she’d go, but wanted to get some answers as well. She still had the recorder in her ear. “You taped that debriefing so that you had something on me and now you want to solicit my help using that as blackmail?” She tried to sound and look as indignant as she could, but she was no actress.
Jacobs said, “Your other option is to stay here until a trial.” But his tapping said, “You must insist that I go with you.”
Palmer opened her mouth. She didn’t exactly trust him, and now he expected to go with her. She tightened her lips and narrowed her eyes. “I don’t like the feel of this.”
“A decision,” Jacobs said. He let go of the platter and started to stand.
“Two conditions,” she said.
“Two?” He appeared genuinely surprised at her request.
She knew he would. She wasn’t acting now. “You go with me. Side-by-side. Just in case this is a way to get rid of me.” She looked right at him. “And we take my cruiser.”
His eyes went wide. “But you are loaded with ammunition. They’ll know. We need to go in with standard protection so they don’t suspect what we’re going to do.”
“What are we going to do?”
“If you are going to force me to go with you, then I’ll wait to debrief you once we get started.” He stood firm.
She raised her eyebrows and cocked her head. “Those are my conditions.”
He shook his head and rung his hands together. “If they attack us again, we could fail for the second time. You’ll be forced to retaliate against their attack. I don’t want to be in that situation.”
“Take it or leave it.” None of it made sense to her at the moment, but she was determined to find the truth in their actions. The last mission was a fake, but this one felt real. Jacobs wanted to be on that planet for a reason. They definitely had her over a barrel and the only way she’d get out of the brig was to agree. “Trust me,” she said. “Now where do I sign.”
“You just did,” Jacobs said. He walked out. “We’ll send someone for you.”
The sending took a few hours, which gave her time for a short nap and to work up a few plans to help her learn what was really going on. A decoy was one thing, but that should have been enough to get the time they needed. Earth Central wouldn’t have any real reason to show up unless called upon to do so. Yet an operation put into effect in such short time made it feel as though the IPF was worried about interference, which could only come from Earth Central. A Catch 22 of sorts.
Two soldiers showed up at her door to escort her away. They flanked her as she walked through the barren and empty corridors. She had memorized the hall system after only being inside the ship a few times.
At the launch bay, she saw that they had already connected her cruiser to external power and someone sat inside testing the ship’s systems. She jogged ahead and climbed the rear ramp. Passing through the small cargo and passenger area, she noticed that the ship had been fully stocked, and that two soldiers were already strapped in for departure. “Get the fuck out of here,” she said to the man in the cockpit.
A young man with a smooth face and short hair swung around as she entered the cockpit. “I was preparing your ship,” he said. “Under orders.”
“Well, you’re dismissed.”
The kid glanced past Palmer for approval.
She turned and Jacobs stood behind her. He nodded.
“Yes, ma’am,” the young man said. He flipped the thruster test switch off and got out of the seat.
“Them too,” she said, indicating the soldiers.
“They’re going. In case something goes wrong,” Jacobs said.
Palmer smiled and said, “You send me in a lander loaded down with high-powered explosives I didn’t know were on board and only one guard. But you get two bouncers when you’re just going along for the ride?” She didn’t wait for an answer, but followed the young man as he passed by, until she could watch him walk down the ramp and out of the ship. Without turning to face him, she said to Jacobs. “I do all my own ground checks.”
“We need to get going,” he said.
“That’s your fault for not sending for me sooner.” She looked out the rear of the cruiser and yelled, “All clear!” In a few long strides she passed through the cargo bay and reached to flip the switch to close the rear ramp.
“How long will this take?” Jacobs said as she stepped around him.
“As long as it does.” Palmer sat in the pilot’s seat where she slipped her legs and arms into the seat extensions. “This is how it’s done right.” The cruiser became part of her. That’s how she saw it, how it felt to her. The seat had an emergency parachute mounted into it that only attached to her while she was engaged in the seat. The captain went down with the ship until the very last second. Brandon should have been strapped in so that he had a chute too, or strapped into the chute separately. She shook the thoughts from her head and ran through her ground tests.
After a few minutes, Jacobs strolled into the cockpit and took the seat beside her. He shoved his arms and legs into the seat extensions and they closed around him. “We’re about there aren’t we?”
She put her headset on. “Pull external power.” She watched for the ground crew to drag their equipment out of the way and for the final go-ahead. In a moment the bay doors began to open. Everyone would be out of the bay area now. Palmer slammed her hand against her harness release and jumped from her seat.
“We’re leaving,” Jacobs said. “What are you doing?”
“One final thing.” Palmer turned a knob on a panel that stood behind her seat and removed a handheld meter.
“What’s that?” Jacobs reached for his harness release.
“Stay put,” Palmer said, and he stopped mid-motion. She opened her instrument panel next and snaked out a cable and plugged it into the handheld. After pushing a few buttons, she shook her head. “Done in a second.” Palmer walked out of the cockpit and yanked another panel open while the two soldiers stared at her. They looked nervous and a bit scared, but she didn’t have time to question them about it. Instead, she opened a tool cabinet and snapped loose a pair of wire cutters. She disconnected one cable then cut several wires and went back into the cockpit and checked her handheld again.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jacobs yelled. “We need to get out of here.”
Palmer sidled into position and relaxed into the seat extensions leaving the handheld still connected but hanging loose next to the center console. The bay door began to close.
Jacobs looked alarmed. “What’s going on?”
Palmer kicked the engines in, which slammed everyone into their seats. The open panels slammed and rattled as the cruiser shuttered from the strength of the engines under full thrust. She cocked the cruiser and passed through the bay doors long before they could close on her.
“What was that about?” Jacobs shook his head and stared wide-eyed at Palmer.
“Wiring test. We were tapped,” she said. “Assholes were going to listen to our whole conversation.”
“I didn’t think…”
“Exactly. Don’t even consider that they trust you any more than they trust me. Notice that they didn’t give my weapons back to me.” She gave him a grin. “And I can see that they don’t trust you with a weapon either.”
Jacobs jerked his head toward the passenger area and the two soldiers. “We have them?”
“We don’t need them if Brandon is alive,” she said. “He’s worth about eight of those ill-trained goons.”
“You’ve worked together a lot?”
“Often enough to know.”
“I noticed unusual concern. When I told you he was alive, you perked up.”
“My job is to protect good men, not let them go down with the ship while I eject. No pilot with any integrity would do that.” She kept her face forward. “Isn’t that what you’re hoping long about now?”
“I have those guys in the back if you get out of hand.”
“I’ll kill them if I have to. They’re not important.” Palmer swung her cruiser around toward the southern end of the planet.
“We’re going the wrong way. The IPF won’t like this,” Jacobs said.
She ignored his warning. “I want to hear it. Now. I’m not heading into another mess without information.”
Jacobs turned in his seat so that he could see one of the soldiers sitting in the passenger area.
“I told you they don’t matter. Now spill it,” Palmer said.
He turned back around and said as quietly as possible, “They found something.”
“Tells me nothing,” she said.
Jacobs glanced back again. “I don’t exactly know what it is, but it has stirred up the IPF, Earth Central, and every other organization you can think of including the Galaxy Marines, and the Colony Relocation Association. No one appears to know what is going on, but everyone is talking about it. Well, secretly talking about it. It hasn’t been formally released.”
Palmer turned some knobs and pushed a few buttons. “Hold on. We’re entering the planet’s atmosphere.” There was a bounce and a noticeable slowdown in air speed, then the cruiser jostled as though hitting turbulence. “You’re secret service?” she said.
Jacobs fidgeted in his seat and ran the back of his hand over his forehead. It was obvious that he didn’t want the soldiers behind them to know that piece of information. But it was too late. “Earth Central,” he admitted, “like your buddy Brandon.”
“Investigating the IPF?”
“They’re using force more often than Earth Central thinks is necessary. I’m supposed to find out why. See where the problem lies. I got my answer, but am afraid they’re onto me. I had to get out of there.”
“By why, you mean you were supposed to find out which of the higher-ups is the bad apple,” she said. “So, who is it?”
“A man named Garth Killjoy. He wants whatever they have down there. He senses that whatever it is, whoever has it, has power to negotiate.”
“Killjoy,” Palmer said. “It’s all in a name, I suppose.” She vocalized what she understood so far. “The IPF wants independence from Earth Central. That’s why they’ve been training their own goons. I can see that. The Earth Central government hires independent corporate types for their organizational expertise to run the IPF and eventually those same people want full independence. It’s all happened before. Power and control. So, how’d IPF get here so soon?”
“Luck. They’re here because they were closest to C-47 when the rumors started flying. Killjoy took a risk that it was something real, that this was his chance. He knew that if the colony showed any form of aggression, that they had reasonable cause to retaliate. And, he’d be able to take over. No questions asked.”
“He’d be taking a chance on destroying whatever they had down there. That would be stupid.” Palmer maneuvered the cruiser along a blue mountain range topped with sharp crags, the sides dropping into a lush valley on one side and scrub on the other. “I’d say he knew something ahead of time. I don’t believe in luck. I believe in strategy.”
“Doesn’t matter. We’re here.” He went on. “The first trip was to gain the authority to be aggressive. We’re going now to blackmail the colony. Simple as that. We have probable cause to wipe them out. And the IPF has the firepower to do it, too. This is a forceful negotiation we’re going on.” Jacobs said.
“There’s only one problem.” She saw the whole thing more clearly now. “As soon as a ship goes down, Earth Central responds. They’ll send in War ships if they have to. Especially if they didn’t know about the decoy.”
“Yes.”
“IPF wants to finish the deal before Earth Central shows up,” she deduced.
Jacobs didn’t answer. It wasn’t a question.
“What happens when Earth Central finds out that the IPF set the whole thing up?” She already felt as though she had stepped into something she should have analyzed before agreeing to, and the conversation wasn’t going well to stave her feelings about that.
“How would they find out? Garth can have all the tapes altered,” Jacobs said.
“And I won’t make it back alive,” Palmer said. “Will you?”
He didn’t answer, which didn’t matter to her at the moment.
It would take a few hours before they’d be in range of the colony weapons. Palmer set her cruiser on autopilot, keying ship’s location off of magnetic north, line of sight to the sun, and the omnidirectional signal from the colony’s landing system.
She ordered Jacobs to stay in his seat. Then she cleaned up, putting her handheld back into its cabinet and closing all the instrument and electrical panels so they weren’t slapping around anymore. The next thing she did was disconnect her seat and swing it up and to the side. She reached down and removed several weapons and strapped them on. Dropping the seat back into place, Palmer stepped into the passenger area and held a stunner on the two soldiers. “Your weapons.”
They relinquished and she stored them in the cargo area under lock and key. The cruiser hit some turbulence again which jostled her around a bit while she wobbled her way back into the cockpit and plopped into her seat.
“You finished?” Jacobs asked.
Palmer engaged her seat extensions and relaxed. She looked over at him. “One more thing.” She had a smile on her face as she pulled a pair of tweezers out of a compartment on the ship’s console, and pushed them into her ear. Slowly, she removed the recording device and plugged it into her console to transfer the data.
“You taped everything?”
She couldn’t tell if Jacobs tone meant happily surprised or worried about what she’d done. It didn’t matter. “Every word,” she said.
“I don’t think you understand how dangerous that was.” Jacobs stared at her.
“The operative word is ‘was,’” she said. “It’s too late. I succeeded. Even if I’m killed now, I just dumped the whole thing. The ship has multiple black box chips hidden throughout. It would take an expert to find them all.” She disengaged the autopilot and took over at the controls. “And Earth Central employs experts.”
Jacobs glanced out the side window then back at Palmer. “I considered it,” he said.
“Considered what?”
“That I wouldn’t make it back, but I hoped you’d be able to handle anything we ran into. I’m not a Peace Coordinator. I don’t have the negotiation skills.”
Palmer cruised along the ridge of the mountains knowing that she’d soon have to climb into the open where the colony’s scanners would pick up on her weapons load. This time she’d leave her radios open to communication. She’d have to be able to convince them of her intent, while carrying a loaded gun. The idea posed its own problems. She turned toward Jacobs. “I heard you,” she said.
As much as she wanted to trust Jacobs because he was with Earth Central — or so he claimed — she couldn’t read him well enough to know where he really stood. She only knew that once he fell silent that he was mentally adjusting his plans to the new situation. Only so much time would go by before Earth Central war ships showed up and the IPF would be forced to relinquish control of the situation. That would make it too late to claim the prize. And if Garth still pulled the strings, Jacobs wasn’t in touch with Earth Central yet.