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I’m not sure how long I stayed under the water, crouched on the floor, watching it swirl down the drain on its way to recycling. I’m not sure how long I would have continued to crouch there, either, if Mack hadn’t opened up the san-unit door, reached in, and turned the water off.
“Bio is having a fit,” he said, as I glared up at him, “I’m getting hungry, and the cooks are getting grouchy.”
Which meant they had cooked something special, and I’d better go eat it. Mack stretched out his hand, and I took it, and let him help me to my feet. Once I was standing, he stepped out of the san unit, leaving me to work out that I’d forgotten to lay out a set of clothes when I’d come in. I stood there, contemplating that, while I dried myself off, and then wrapped the towel around my body.
Mack opened the door, just as I reached for the handle.
“Clothes,” he said, passing me the bundle he had in his hands.
“Thanks,” I managed, taking them and then shutting the door in his face.
I didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or grateful, and then settled on the latter, shrugging the embarrassment away. Man had seen I’d need to get dressed—and decided not to make me have to do it in front of him. I could deal with that.
It was a nice change.
“You done, yet?”
I took that to mean the normal Mack was returning and I should get my ass into gear.
“We’ve got a debrief, and I don’t want supper getting cold.”
“Fine!”
I hurried, and we hit the officers’ mess at the back of the caf in five.
It was no surprise to find Delight and Tens already in attendance, although Doc’s presence was a bit of surprise. He shrugged.
“Best way to see you,” he said, and I wondered why anyone would want to see me.
They all raised their eyebrows at that, but none of them said a word. Mack guided me to a seat between him and Delight, and I remembered the last time I’d sat between them. Apparently, so did Delight. She reached over and patted me on the knee.
“Don’t worry,” she told me. “We’ve had about all the girl time we’re ever going to need.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what she meant by that, but I figured I didn’t need to; I’d be happy as long as it meant she wasn’t going to teleport me off the ship and shoot me, again. Mack got the ball rolling.
“What happened after the door closed?” he asked, and the only place he could ever mean was the arach ship.
I thought about telling him that what went on in an arach ship stayed on an arach ship, but I knew that wasn’t going to fly, and I needed to just get it over with. I picked a spot on the wall somewhere to the left of Tens’ ear, figuring I might as well as annoy someone while I told the story.
“I backed up and reloaded the Blazer, Glazer and Zak...” I started, and went from there.
When I got to where I negotiated the arena trial, things got a little tricky; I heard my voice thicken, and felt my throat clog up, and Delight’s hand became an irritation on my knee. I guess I don’t like company when I relaying something that painful. Fortunately, she seemed to get it, and took her hand away.
I wondered where Pritchard was; it was unusual for Delight to be without her keeper... Who’d let her off her leash?
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Delight murmured, and I remembered that my head wasn’t my own. Damn.
“You refused the meal?” Doc asked, and I nodded.
He sighed.
“Next time. Don’t.”
Damn. I waited for him to explain.
“First, because it’s an olive branch, a sign that the clan offering is willing to forgive a breach against them. Acceptance means you count them worthy of being forgiven by.”
Oh. Double damn.
Doc ignored me.
“Second, because it’s an insult; you’re basically telling them you don’t think their worthy of eating with.”
Well, f—
“One more cuss word out of you, young lady,” Doc snapped, “and I am going to put you over my knee!”
Fuck.
And Doc was out of his seat, and coming around the table. I stared at him, and then scrambled in the opposite direction. Tens started laughing, and Delight pushed her chair out, crushing me against the wall.
Well, wasn’t she just a funny f...—I shot a glance at Doc—GIRL.
He stopped, just short of Mack.
“I’m sorry?” I tried, not sure he was ready to forgive me.
His glare got deeper, and he looked from me to Delight, and then down at Mack. I followed his gaze. The look on Mack’s face was unreadable, but he was looking up at Doc, and not saying a single word—at least, not out where I could hear it.
I tried again. I really didn’t want a fight with Doc, but I didn’t know how I’d avoid it. I’d cussed so much lately, it had become a habit. Besides, that whole arach set up was f... it was enough to make anyone swear.
“I’m sorry. I’ll try, okay?”
I waited, watching as the tension leaked out of his shoulders. Finally, he sighed, and turned back towards his seat.
“Do you know which clan it was?”
I tried to think back, but I couldn’t recall the colors of the warrior that had brought the food.
“I don’t know any of the clans, and I’d have to go back over the footage to be able to tell you what he was wearing.”
“We’ll work it out,” Doc assured me. “What happened when they came back?”
“They weren’t happy about the meal,” I said, “but at least I know why, now. I’d have eaten it if I’d known, but I hadn’t seen arach before the two in Andreus’s mansion.”
“Where?”
“Andreus’s mansion. That’s why I kicked the door closed behind me; I didn’t want them getting past, and I didn’t think I could hold them. They’d have hit Mack from behind.”
“Fair enough.” Tens shrugged.
Mack just stared.
“Why would that matter?” he asked.
“Because you were shooting it out with a patrol. They’d have been all over you before you knew it.”
Mack opened his mouth to argue, and then closed it again. He didn’t look very happy.
“You nearly got eaten.”
I closed my eyes, shoving the memory of that first encounter to one side, as I went back to the debrief.
“Like I said, the arach on the ship weren’t happy about the meal, and I was searched at the door.” I looked at Tens. “They knew about the locator bracelet, turned back my cuff and told me jewelry wasn’t allowed in the arena, and then snapped it into three or four pieces, and stomped it, before they’d let me out the door. I’m pretty sure they knew exactly what it was.”
“Being arach doesn’t mean technically deficient,” Doc said, and I wondered why he felt the need. It wasn’t like I’d suggested the arach hadn’t known technology.
“They’re still a good deal more aware than they need to be if they knew to look for the bracelet. Those are new,” Delight told him, and, from the defiant look on her face, I’d run into the middle of a long-standing argument between them.
I waited a couple of heartbeats, before I finished up.
“Anyway, Tens was able to find me without it, and got me out of there.”
I didn’t add that I was pretty sure I would have been dead if he hadn’t. I don’t think I’d have gotten as far as the arena, either.
“No,” Doc said. “You wouldn’t have. That meal was from one of the upper clans. Next time, eat. You’re accepting their protection.”
I stored that piece of information for later, and looked to Mack.
“Thank you, Cutter,” he said, and raised his head.
“Bring it in,” he said, and the door to the mess opened.
It looked like Mack had spoken to the kitchen about providing something fresh, given we were in orbit. We got the works: fresh cuts of something resembling Terran beef, vegetables that hadn’t been reconstituted, or had the life boiled out of them, and bread—hot, melt-in-the-mouth bread with a crunchy crust. I shut up and ate, all too aware of Delight sitting at my elbow, and Mack sitting across the table corner from me. Neither of them paid me any attention, but I was acutely aware of both of them, and couldn’t help wondering why. The answer came as the plates were cleared away.
“I want you to work with Doc on identifying the arach clans you saw,” Mack told me. “We weren’t aware they were in this sector.”
“Why would anyone work with them?” I asked.
“Greed, sweetie,” Delight told me. “It’s always greed. Odyssey will take care of the Costral clans. They’re more compromised than they know, if Andreus’s dealings went beyond his attempt to blackmail the clans with the loss of the station. That’s usually the first step for an arach invasion: infiltrate in the guise of lucrative trade, take out the external communications, isolate the solar system, fortify the planet and system against all-comers, start building a fleet staging point. If it hadn’t been for this business with Melari and Treivani, we’d never have known in time to intervene.”
It was strange, but by ‘intervene’, I thought she was referring to Odyssey rather than InterGal, and, until that moment, I hadn’t thought the company that wide-spread.
“You’d be surprised, sweetie,” Delight said, but she kept her voice soft, and I wondered if she was actually talking to me, or if she was talking to herself.
She didn’t choose to clarify it, so I left it.
I didn’t want to go digging into the arach clans. I hadn’t known they existed before this mission, and I would be just as happy not knowing they existed, now. Andreus’s reason for unleashing a virus on the station was becoming painfully clear, since there was nothing like a plague to have a planet indicted, and a solar system made a no-go zone. Isolation in a can, so to speak.
I shivered. If any of the ships that had gotten off the station had taken the virus to the adjoining sectors, then Andreus would have succeeded in isolating the system without losing the station, or blowing the warp gates. InterGalPol would have locked it down tight, until a cure could be found. No wonder he’d wanted Treivani. She’d survived any number of plagues while under Blaedergil’s care. He’d have been able to isolate the cure for enough of Blaedergil’s infections to keep the remaining population of Costral healthy.
And I guessed it wasn’t for trade.
“Only fools believe the arach trading line,” Delight said. “Unfortunately, the idea of making a lot of credits makes people stupid. Andreus wouldn’t have known what was coming until it was too late—and once he’d come under the influence of an arach queen, he wouldn’t have cared.”
I didn’t want to know what a queen could do, and Delight didn’t enlighten me. We ate the rest of the meal in silence, and I followed Doc out the door.
“There’s a reward for alerting the authorities to an impending arach invasion,” Doc told me, “as well as one for identifying collaborators. Make sure Mack puts those claims in to Odyssey when he writes up their invoice.”
I stared at him, wondering what made him think I would be anywhere near Mack when he was billing his employers.
“Well, just check to make sure he hasn’t forgotten,” Doc grumbled. “I could do with the extra cred.”
I wondered what for, but it didn’t seem polite to ask, so I just nodded. The further down the hall we got, the more the time on the arach ship caught up with me. Fatigue made me want to sleep, but I didn’t say anything; Mack said this was important, and nightmares lurked at the edges of my mind. There was something mildly threatening about sleep.
We moved past the rec room, and into a quiet section where corrals were set around a bank of central computers. I stopped. This was new to me. Doc turned back.
“Library and research section,” he said. “We keep these separate to the main ship’s systems, in case someone downloads a bug. These things service the simulators, too.”
They had sims? I felt my interest spark. I hadn’t encountered simulators until after I’d started at Odyssey. Axe had insisted on dragging the Specials out to one of the local gaming centers once a week, and putting us through our paces. Okay, he’d enjoyed kicking our tails in the various zombie apocalypse games he’d found—didn’t enjoy it so much when I returned the favor.
“We have more than games,” Doc said, “but, right now, we need to know which arach fleet we’re dealing with—or if we’re dealing with an entirely new one.”
There was more than one?
He patted my shoulder.
“You have no idea, kid. No idea...”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to, but he led the way into a booth, and pulled out a chair.
“Take a seat, and plug in,” he said. “We need all the arach footage you’ve got.”
“Do you want the stuff from the labs?” I asked, and I could see I’d surprised him.
“What stuff?” Doc didn’t like surprises.
I didn’t answer him, just jacked in, and then discovered I already had an account.
“Man was awfully sure of himself,” I muttered, and Doc snorted.
“Standard practice,” he said. “You’d have found that out if you hadn’t gone running off with the first sweet-talking AI you met.”
“What’s my password?”
“About that...” and Doc pulled out a small tray.
“Oh, Hell, no!” I said, and tried to push my chair back.
“You and whose army?” Mack asked, standing behind me so I couldn’t move an inch—and I hadn’t heard him come in.
I twisted in the seat, preparing to slide out the side—and discovered that Tens was blocking my way. He reached down and grabbed my hand, even as Mack rested his hands on my shoulder.
“Come on, Cutter,” Mack said. “It could be worse.”
It could? I glanced up at him, and Tens lifted my arm, hit the pressure point that left it numb, and pressed my thumb against the pad.
I yelped as the needle inside it, punched into my thumb tip, but Tens applied a self-adhesive dressing to the wound, and laid my arm on the desk in front of me.
“The feeling will come back, soon,” he said, and left as silently as he’d arrived.
Mack stayed while the machine verified my DNA, and then left to drag a chair into the cubicle. Doc settled himself into the seat on my other side, and logged himself into the console, followed by Mack.
“Standard procedure,” he said. “Everyone using a terminal has to log their presence. If they don’t, we log them out, and then come and ask why they piggy-backed into the system. It’s murder on saboteurs.”
He sounded like there’d been more than one of those, and I shivered. I didn’t like thinking that even here, in a place I was coming to think of as sanctuary, there was danger.
“Don’t worry, Cutter. Crew we’ve got now? You should be safe. You’re the newest member we’ve had in the last six standard.”
“Years?” I asked.
“Yeup.”
“Load ’em up,” Doc said, sounding impatient. “I haven’t got all night.”
I created three files: one titled “Lab_Critters”, one titled “Corovan_Estate_Arach”, and one titled “Arach_on_Ship”.
“Lab critters?” Mack asked, but I didn’t answer, just uploaded the footage of what I had thought were spider-human hybrids, when I was being attacked by them in the labs.”
“Holy shit,” Mack said. “Tens, are you getting this?”
“I got it during the battle,” Tens said—and that had been something I hadn’t known.
He’d been there?
“Yeah, I was there,” and I don’t think I’d ever heard Tens sound so tired.
He didn’t add any more, though, and I went through the files stored in the implant, putting the relevant clips into their folders. Doc, being the systematic guy he was, started with the arach on the ship.
“Wh...” I started, and then just shrugged. What the fuck ever. I’m sure it made some sort of sense somewhere.
“Priority order,” Doc said. “Your lab monsters aren’t it, but these bastards hit the warp point before Odyssey’s ship could get to them.”
“Did they wing it?” Mack asked, and I stilled.
Odyssey had fired on the arach ship?
“They can’t be sure,” Doc said. “All we know is that it hit the warp point wobbly, but went through.”
“And?”
“That point? No one’s following them through that. Not even FedExplore have put ships through it, yet. They’re too busy plundering other parts of the galaxy.”
“Ooh, that’s new,” said Delight, and reached in over my shoulder to mark her presence with the machine.
We all looked at what was on-screen, and Doc wriggled his chair a little closer.
“New new?” he asked, and Delight nodded.
Doc flicked to the next image.
“What about this?”
“Uh huh.”
“And this one?”
“Yup. All new.”
Doc turned in his chair and looked at Mack.
“What do you think, Mack? We hand these over to Odyssey’s boffins, and let them have at?”
Mack stared at the screen, then looked down at me.
“How much footage is there?”
I clicked on the file properties in my implant, and he whistled, then backed up a few steps. I watched the computer screen flicker, noting his log-out.
“Come on, Delight,” he said. “Looks like we need to talk.”
The screen flickered a second time, and they left the cubicle.
“Shut it down, Doc. We’re done here, unless Odyssey decides it needs us.”
“Sure thing, Mack.”
Doc turned further to watch the two of them leave, and I shifted enough to see them go. When they’d left the booth, Doc turned back to me.
“How do you feel about having another way to log in?” he asked, and I stared at him trying to work out what he meant.
“Instead of having to donate blood each time?” he added, and I glanced at the computer, remembering what had been required the last time.
“Please?” I asked, and Doc smiled.
“Here,” he said, and showed me how to set it up so I could log in with my implant.
“But only inside the rec center,” he added. “We’ve shielded it so the two systems don’t talk, and there’s no wireless crossover.”
I wondered if I could find one.
“Tens set it up,” the Doc told me, “but you’re welcome to try.”
Tens had set it up, had he? Well, challenge accepted.
