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Earth, The Oracle
Leaning forward in the gel chair, Atah turned up the volume on the listening devices, or 'pitchers' as Magnus called them, she'd planted.
Tessa's voice came through first.
"...set them up in a circle. If we can trap the reapers in the middle, we can take out large units of them – maybe all of them – at once."
"Was Hermie able to hack the reapers? Get you a number?" Magnus asked.
"Yes. He said it was around fifty, but they are making more. So we need to act fast," Tessa replied. Steps echoed faintly as one of them moved around the room.
"And you're sure the device won't hurt you?" The concern in Magnus's voice made Atah curl her lip. What was it with men constantly falling for the wrong women? Tessa was speaking again, dragging Atah's attention back to the conversation.
"Not without a significant change to the targeting system. Having a soul, which the reapers don't possess, specifically excludes my nanocytes from the metric."
And there it was. The 'in' Atah had been looking for. Change the targeting, change the outcome.
"I won't pretend to understand how that works," Magnus said.
"Just be glad Sirius does." This was a new voice, less familiar. The Venture's captain? What was her name? Val, something or other, wasn't it?
"And you said Gaia is on her way here?" A male voice. How many people were in this meeting?
"She is," Tessa said. "I tried to convince her not to come. It plays right into the reaper's little silver claws. But with any luck, we'll be able to take them out before she arrives."
"I think you underestimate how fast a Simoi can travel when they want to." The male again. Who was that?
"Alex, even the Simoi can't defy the laws of physics," Tessa said lightly. "We're doing this tonight at the overlook where this whole mess started. That way, we keep it away from populated areas – avoid collateral damage. The earliest she can arrive is tomorrow."
Well, that answers that. Even the Venture's communications officer was in on this, but they hadn’t invited any of Magnus's crew to the party. Atah grimaced bitterly.
The assassin pulled a dirk from the sheath at her hip, flipping it end over end and catching it as she formulated her plan.
Gaia's impending arrival complicated things. It meant leaving Earth as soon as the job was complete, but that was smart anyway. Magnus wasn't stupid. Give him time and he'd figure out who messed with the equipment. She hated to burn her ties to him. It had taken a significant investment of time and effort to get him to trust her.
Killing his pseudo-human paramour was sure to piss him off, and when a key member of his crew disappeared, he'd know who did it.
Still, the bump to her credit balance would be worth it.
Atah rose. She had all the information she needed. All that was left was accessing the device and changing the targeting to include Tessa's peculiar blend of soul and tech.
After that, it was just a matter of watching the game unfold, and being there to scoop up the prize when it fell.
Earth, Red Nest Manor
Tessa stalked out of Vincent Margrave's office, trying to erase his grief ravaged features from her mind. Convincing him to go along with her story had been painful. She believed he didn't know the location – that Gaia had shared it with no one.
But that didn't matter. The information itself was beside the point, and better kept under wraps, in any case.
What mattered was that the Reapers thought she knew where it was.
"You are crazy," Val said as she caught up. "Margrave is the only one on our side in this. Were you trying to piss him off?"
"Did I lie?"
"No," Val admitted reluctantly. "But he's in pain, Tessa. And forcing him to tell you–"
Tessa made a cutting gesture with her hand. "He told me all I need to know. And if we get to it first, we can get it off planet. Protect the Earth, and we protect her people. At least his wife won't have died for nothing."
A shadow moved on the periphery of her vision. Tessa tapped the hummingbird image embedded in her shoulder – her own personal spy machine – sending it aloft to scout the area. It brought back a negative report before melting into its accustomed place, but Tessa knew better.
Reapers were experts at recon. She knew they were watching her. She'd felt their eyes crawling over her ever since she'd left the Oracle and entered the Red Nest. So now they knew she had what they wanted – or at least that she could get it.
Val and Tessa continued their discussion in low tones, as if afraid of being overheard.
"We'll leave for the coast first thing in the morning. If we get there early enough, we'll be able to bring the machine up and get it off planet before they even know what's happening," Tessa said.
She caught a quiver of silver movement in the brush alongside the path ahead of them, but didn't send out her hummingbird again.
"They want you dead, too," Val pointed out.
"I'm aware. That's why I go in alone. I need the rest of you on lookout."
"Agreed."
The two reached the Oracle and boarded, dropping the whispers for normal tones as the doors closed behind them.
"We need more information," she said to Val as she led the way to her quarters. The pair dropped into chairs in the communal area.
"Numbers, where they are hiding," Val agreed.
"I'll take Hermie with me for a little recon tonight." Tessa ignored the pained look on Val's face.
"At least take the twins with you."
"I don't think so," Tessa replied. "They can't read Reapers and–"
"They can sense them, though." Val's jaw worked for a moment. "Even you won't do well if they surprise you with a large enough force."
"I agree with Val." Magnus entered from the bedroom with Pan and Dora frisking around his knees.
"Hey, what are you two doing in here?" Tessa asked, surprised.
We are enjoying Magnus, Dora said. He is very cozy.
"Cozy, huh?" She eyed Magnus, who grinned at her. "Right. Back to the point." Tessa grimaced at Magnus. "You know what they say about eavesdroppers."
"Hey, you brought the conversation to me, not the other way around. These are my quarters, too."
"Sure, but I thought you'd be on the bridge," Tessa said, her frown easing.
"Yolanda's got it in hand," Magnus said easily, settling into a chair next to her. "So, I'll be going with you on the recon. No arguments," he said, stopping her protest before she could make it. "If you get into trouble, you'll need an extra set of blasters."
"Fine." Tessa rolled her eyes, knowing there was no way she could convince him otherwise. "But remember, this is capture and question. Not search and destroy."
He gave her a mock salute. "Roger that."
"And the twins are staying home," Tessa said. She fully expected a chorus of feline disapproval, but that isn't what she got.
Dr. Tessa is right. We will stay here. Hermie should go, though, Pan said.
Agreed. We are not...
Dora fell silent and sniffed. Pan followed her example, and both twins froze.
Tessa frowned at them. "What's going on, guys?"
Someone has been in your quarters, Dr. Tessa, Pan said.
They must have broadcast the thought, because the room went still.
"The cleaning droid came through earlier. I saw the log," Magnus said.
"I don't think the twins would have alerted on a droid," Tessa replied. "Who?" Tessa asked the twins. "Are they still here?" It wouldn't be the first time an attacker played with invisibility near her.
They are not. But their scent lingers. It is... Pan began.
Familiar, but we cannot identify it, Dora finished the thought. It may be disguised.
Finishing each other's sentences was a sign of agitation in Syfe. Whoever had been in their quarters was dangerous. Not just a cleaning droid, then, Tessa thought.
"Xavier," Magnus said to the Oracles DEVA. "Run a scan in my quarters for pitchers and peepers."
"Scanning." Xavier's voice was professionally formal; a holdover from the Oracle's former owner, according to Magnus. "Scan complete. No visual surveillance detected, but a listening device is located on the underside of Dr. Graham's chair. Shall I notify security to have it removed?"
Tessa jerked upright, knocking over her seat. Flipping the gel chair the rest of the way over, she scanned its underside intently, using several visual spectrums.
"I don't think that will be necessary, Xavier," Magnus said. "But thanks anyway.
"There you are," she muttered. A dot the size of a grain of sand hid where the chair's seat met the base. She'd never have noticed it if she hadn't known to look.
In the maintenance tube above the Captain's quarters, a shadowy figure released a silent sigh of relief and edged backward, leaving the second listening device pasted to the air duct, out of range for a scan of the quarters below. They'd found the first device as she'd meant them to.
They wouldn't look for another until it was far too late.
"You think a Reaper got in here and planted that thing?" Magnus asked.
"I don't think so." Tessa shook her head slowly. "The reapers I knew weren't capable of that kind of tactical planning. They obeyed orders, period. But..."
"Whoever programmed them could be directing them. But, based on your description, they seem to have evolved since you fought them before. The ones that attacked Val and Tamar acted angry, almost."
"Yeah, that was new," Tessa said.
"The messages, too," Val said. "I don't remember them carrying messages for HiveZ, just death and destruction."
"The target was different back then. Taking down a goddess is bound to put you through some things." Magnus shrugged on a jacket. "When do you want to do the recon?"
"Sunset. But we need to get off the Oracle without being seen."
Magnus grinned at her. "I have just the thing."
Earth, The woods near Collairnach Village
The sun glared red through the trees, sending fingers of crimson probing between the branches.
A quick call to Padraic garnered homespun directions to the clearing where the reaper had attacked his sister.
"You must follow the path down to the burly stone. The one with a face carved in the front, yeah? You will see a fork in the trail past the Three Sisters – those are the oldest trees in the forest – walk left there. Then, go over the brook. You will find it easy."
Tessa was skeptical, but she recognized the stone face easily enough. Unless she missed her guess, it had once represented Paul Bunyan, a character from folklore so old even she didn't know the whole story behind him.
She wondered absently where his axe had gotten to. The face was worn by time and weather, the nose nearly gone, the once-deepset eyes now no more than shallow craters in the egg-shaped boulder.
The trail forked a scant hundred yards later, and they kept left, as Padraic had advised. Still, Tessa's unease grew.
"The boulder was easy," she said, keeping her voice low. "But there are thousands of trees in this forest. How are we supposed to find three specific ones when they all look..." Her voice trailed off.
There was no mistaking the Three Sisters. The massive oaks had to be thirty-five to forty feet in diameter and over a hundred feet tall. They grew on either side of the trail, two on one side and one on the other, with their main branches intertwined at the tops as if they were holding hands.
"Looks like three women dancing," Magnus said, his voice hushed with awe. "Never seen the like, and that's a fact."
A rounded knob grew in the crown of each tree like a head, trails of thin limbs and leaf strewn twigs providing hair. Tessa didn't have to squint to feel eyes on her. She wouldn't have been surprised if the heads had turned to watch her pass under their upstretched arms.
"It's like walking through a fairy tale – a dark one," she said softly. But she didn't feel threatened by the trees. There was something wild but benevolent about them. "Mother, Maiden, Crone," she whispered. "I wonder which is which."
"We got company," Magnus' words marched silently across her internal view screen. "Off the trail to your right. About twenty yards ahead."
Without turning her head, Tessa glanced in the direction he mentioned, making out a single glint of metal between the leaves and flowers slumbering in the near dark.
She sent her response directly to his earpiece. "Target acquired. Set the plan in motion."
"I think we took the wrong path back there," she said aloud. "We should split up. You go back and take the other fork. I'll continue on this one. Keep in contact."
"Sure thing, boss," Magnus responded, and turned back up the trail, disappearing into the dark in a few long strides.
Perfect, now the only question was, how froggy did the Reaper feel? How long will it take to jump?
The Three Sisters watched Tessa take two steps out of their shadow before the mechanized assassin dropped from the lowest branch of a lesser tree. "Death to Not-Hive!" it screamed.
Tessa side-stepped, letting the creature hit the ground as she spun to face it. "Killing me won't do Gaia any damage," she said.
"Not-Hive is a traitor. She must die," the creature said.
"I swore no oath to HiveZ, or to the HDL. Whichever one you are serving now has no claim to my loyalty."
The reaper sidled left, forcing Tessa to turn in order to keep it in sight. "We are of a kind. You should have helped us." It jumped at her, dagger-like fingers aiming for her throat.
Turning sideways, she punched it, sending the metal monster careening into a stout tree trunk. "Now, is that any way to treat a potential ally?" Where was her backup? Pulling her cryoblaster, she waited as the reaper gathered itself, oriented on her again, and lunged for her. Her shot caught it square in the chest as Hermie lurched out of the undergrowth, dragging a second reaper behind him.
"I am sorry, Boss-Tessa. This one attacked me while I was waiting for your signal. I–"
Magnus' hoarse shout and the sound of a blaster discharging jerked Tessa's attention up the path. How many of them were out there tonight?
Leaving the two downed reapers in Hermie's care, she sprinted toward the sound as a second laser blast ripped the air. She flew past the Three Sisters and reached the fork to find Magnus standing in the middle of the crossroad, breath coming fast but apparently unhurt, the burned-out husk of a reaper at his feet.
"I think I told you find and capture, NOT search and destroy," she said as she reached him.
“You weren’t kidding when you told me those things are fast.” He gestured to the ground a few feet away with the blaster in his hand. "It knocked the cryo-blaster out of my hand. No choice if I didn't want to be reaper fodder." He looked her over. "Please tell me you got one."
It was her turn to grin. "Better yet, Hermie and I both got one."
He slung an arm over her shoulders as they headed back to pick up Hermie and his trove of reapers. "Good. Let's go home and figure out what to do with them."
