Allison pulled off her overalls. She swiped her hand over the theft interlock, then used the codes Zebra ripped from the pilot’s holo-phone to activate the transport’s fusion core and then the other systems. She went through the remaining pre-flight checks before sending a request for exit clearance and orbital clearance. She received both and launched the transport. It was not a ship she’d piloted on a sim before but it was pretty standard controls. She started plotting the FTL jump to Titan and realized she didn’t need to, there was an auto calculator for the destination. She noticed the ships’ primary drive could only do six light years per hour. She groaned.
“This thing is slow.”
Once she reached a safe FTL transit distance she hit the jump button. She stood up and stretched and took another long drink of water. She walked back to the group who were checking their weapons.
“Thirty minutes. I’m going as fast as a civilian craft is allowed to within the inner solar system, which is two and a half times the speed of light.”
Dimi looked at Allison.
“Why is that? Why only two and a half times the speed of light? Seems kind of… arb.. arbi… whatsit?”
Allison got the gist of the question.
“You’re asking the wrong person. To get my FTL license I had to learn all the rules, I didn’t care why the rules existed. I had too much other stuff to worry about. The good news is that beyond Saturn’s orbit is the outer Sol system and then we can do five light years per hour. Then once we hit the heliopause and wow, we can do an amazing six light years an hour in this pile of crap.”
Pinto laughed.
“How long will it take to get to Sauroid prime then?”
Allison did a quick calculation.
“Well depending on where it is in its orbit, between six and half and seven hours.”
“Wow that’s pretty fast.”
Allison shook her head.
“Military FTL can do it in four hours.”
Allison looked around and found a bunk. Likely for long hall flights to other solar systems. She curled up on it.
“Wake me up when we get there.”
Allison mused that on her first FTL jump she had been throwing up. After her twentieth it just made her sleepy. It was relaxing. Especially now, it felt like her body was better adapted to it. She closed her eyes. When she woke up it was because an unknown number was calling her. Allison blinked slowly and answered it.
“What?”
She looked around and suddenly realized she was supposed to be flying. No one else was around. She rushed to the cockpit and realized she was in a landing bay. Miles spoke.
“Hey ah Mami, we ran into some trouble. We’re in Corp custody and we could use uh a lawyer. I’d hate to think I’d miss that appointment.”
Allison grimaced she decided to stick with code.
“Uh, can’t your friends go for you?”
“Nah, mami, they’re all with me here.”
Allison leaned down with her hands spread over the control panel.
“Hijo, I will call your cousin Vinnie. Okay?”
Mile’s voice sounded confused. Allison’s holo-phone had traced the source of the call by this time.
“Okay… whatever you think is good, mami.”
The call disconnected. Allison turned around and punched the pilot’s seat. Her hangover was blissfully gone but she was pretty annoyed.
“Oh, just a small favor, just set the FTL course, you’ll be staying on the ship….”
She opened her AR HUD and found the file Miles had sent her before they started the mission. She hadn’t bothered reading it because, honestly, she was expecting just to plot courses and sleep. She swiped through the target list. One solid steel, airtight canister, Nazi markings. One wooden crate, Nazi markings, containing: one beige nylon bag, one silver sword. The last one on the list made Allison blink a few times. It looked like an energy pistol of some description.
“How the hell did Nazi’s from the mid-twentieth century get their hands on thirtieth century tech and a nylon bag?”
Allison shook her head and brought up the storage location. It was a BMC facility three kilometers from the star port. Miles had provided forged shipping documents. A location number and ID badges. Allison could not figure out what went wrong. She tapped the map to the shipping location and moved it to the center of her display. She added a map to where the crew was being held and the map of the storage facility. She opened the ramp off the transport and walked down it. She walked up to the panel that would let her exit into the star port proper and swiped her hand. Allison sighed with relief when it flashed green, and the door opened.
Allison noticed her armor was out of place here. She looked at a woman and scanned her with her contacts. She then tapped the duplicate option on her holo-web control as she walked behind a pillar. She continued to walk on without stopping. She now appeared to be dressed in a business suit with black leggings. This space port had heavier patrols than the one on Earth. When she reached the exterior access door she swiped. Her false ident chit worked once again. She wondered where Miles got it and who it was saying she was. She just kept moving.
The map Miles had provided indicated a data port that Zebra was going to use to infiltrate the storage facility’s system. She headed to it and determined that Zebra hadn’t reached it. She saw ping on her AR HUD. Something was trying to make a connection. She tapped the tracer daemon her holo-phone had preloaded and once she locked onto the signal she moved towards it. When she arrived, she found the crew’s weapons and Zebra’s portable computer. It was a very compact, very powerful processing device. Allison picked up the duffle bag and moved towards the data port. She had intended to try the hack with her holo-phone, but Zebra’s computer would make things much easier. She moved her wrist over the various devices and realized it was Zebra’s computer trying to make a connection. She tapped allow. Zebra’s face appeared on her HUD. She spoke in Swahili in the message.
“Hey kid. We’re burned. Don’t have long. I linked access to your holo-phone. Miles says you know a thing or two about data infiltration. It should be an easy in and out. Just plug my deck into the data port Miles found. Replace the transfer paperwork with our modified ones and you should be able to just walk in with one of the modified holo-phones from one of those transport pilots. Then walk out with the cargo.”
Allison swapped hologram clothing for a full cloak from her fully repaired armor’s integrated holo-web. She pulled a liquid metal cable out of Zebra’s computer and plugged it into the data port. She linked her holo-phone up with Zebra’s computer and started the process of breaking into BMC’s cold storage facility’s computers. She had to admit it was much smarter than trying to break into BMC’s actual data centers. Zebra’s infiltration programs were top of the line. It made Allison’s task a lot easier. During her military training in such things, she had to make her own infiltration programs, they were sad pathetic things compared to Zebra’s. Allison was slightly jealous. She easily breached security and replaced the documents.
Allison reached to yank the liquid metal connecter out of the port. She paused when she realized she had an opportunity to cause a distraction which would make rescuing her… allies? Friends? She shrugged; She didn’t need to label them. A massive breach at the cold storage facility would likely result in a heavy response from corp security especially if it were something nasty. She searched through the list of storage units. She smiled when she found two that would get BMC in serious trouble if System’s Alliance were to see them. One had clones in cryo, the other was a sample of Synthlin Nanites. Titan was a free research zone. System’s Alliance turned a blind eye here, by design, but if someone were to escape with proof and publicize it System’s Alliance would need to react. Which is precisely why any breach of those storage units would be a heavy response. She used one of Zebra’s daemons to set a timed breach alert on those two storage units in sequence. She pulled the liquid metal cable out and put the computer back in the duffle bag.
Allison strapped one of the modified holo-phones to her right wrist. Her actual holo-phone was much smaller and blended into her armor. She leaned against the wall of the storage facility and accessed her holo-phone’s memory to pull video feed of her attack on the two pilots. She got a good image of one of them and swept it over to her holo-web’s image repository. She tapped the command to transform her two-dimensional video into a three-dimensional hologram. It took her holo-phone five minutes to complete the process. It was much easier to grab the holo-rendering live, like she did at the Titan Space Port. She flipped her holo-web from cloak to duplicate and she shimmered into existence and her face and clothing were replaced with the target she’d just rendered. She left the duffle bag stashed and headed towards the front gate of the storage facility.
Allison run-walked most of the way there. While she was heading to the gate she quickly pre-programed a message she could send. The message was nothing complicated but the fact that she was not a man, and her hologram was showing a man made the idea of speaking sound really dumb. Once she was just out of sight of the gate she broke into a full run.
Two armed BMC corporate security guards held up their hands. They had military style assault rifles and bullet proof vests, white shirts and black cargo pants on. She made a motion with her hand at her throat and sighed. The holo-web mimicked her actions. One of the security guards motioned her closer.
“What is your business here?”
Allison made a show of tapping the bulky, cheap holo-phone she’d stolen from the pilot and then sending her prepared message to the security guard along with the appropriate codes for her cargo transfer request. The security guard nodded. Her message read: My replacement vocal cords are malfunctioning, and I cannot speak. Waiting on corporate to authorize repairs. I am here to pick up cargo to transfer to another secure location.
“Fucking Corporate. Give us cheap Chipstation cybernetics instead of the good organics, then they fuck you over when the cheap shit breaks. Should call it Cheapstation. My fucking wife’s dildo has a better battery life.”
Allison nodded in agreement. The guard looked over the cargo transfer and storage manifest for the units.
“Everything seems to be in order. Where’s your truck?”
Allison typed a message on the holo-display of the stolen holo-phone. It read: It wasn’t there when I arrived, and I couldn’t get one released from the lot. I had to run here. It’s like they wanted me to be late. At this rate I’m going to have to borrow a hoverskid and pull it there myself.
The guard laughed.
“Fucking Corporate. Hey, we had a shipment come in today and the truck is still here. Maybe you can take that. Save someone a trip.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Allison gave a thumbs up and nodded. The guard motioned towards the storage yard proper.
“I’ll let the lot manager know you’re coming and about your malfunction.”
Allison gave him a two-fingered salute. She swiped her hand over the reader. It beeped in the negative. She tried again it did the same thing. She slapped her hand on the side of the reader then swiped again. It beeped in the affirmative. She shrugged at the guard who shook his head and chuckled.
“You’re having a shitty day. Hope your luck improves.”
Allison nodded and rushed onwards. She was on the clock now. The ident chit was already starting to be attacked by her Synthlin nanite infestation. It wouldn’t last for much longer. She silently wished she had some control over them. The lot manager found her. She nodded to him. He nodded to her in greeting.
“Hey, Walter. I didn’t know you had a cybernetic vocal processor. Shitty day for it to go out. Look, I’m sorry, there was a last-minute change in shipment. It’s going to be annoying to get them through System’s Alliance scans at your destination. I’m hoping corporate can sort out this mess.”
Allison nodded. Then sent him a message: I’ve been told. Some science guy is all hot and bothered about this shipment. I need to get it going fast but I have also been told to verify the contents of the crates. I’m already behind because I couldn’t get a truck, gate said you had one that needed to go back to the space port?
The lot manager scratched his head with his stylus.
“Good idea Walter.”
He tapped a comm link.
“Fitz, Terry, load up shipment 45672 on that cargo truck that needs to go back to the airport.”
The manager started walking towards the main building and once inside they went to the break room. The manager put down two cups and filled each with coffee. He reached into his back pocket and winked at Allison. He poured a shot into each. Then he handed one of the cups to Allison. She motioned to the flask and made a motion with her head. He laughed and poured another shot worth of the liquor into her cup. He lifted his glass.
“Fuck corporate, am I right?”
Allison nodded and lifted her glass before downing it. She was hoping the influx of a toxin would distract her nanites from the ident chit.
“You alright to fly after that? I hear Einstein station is hard to get to, where is it anyway? I hear it takes like fifteen hours at max FTL.”
Allison nodded and sent a message: Yeah. Courses are already pre-plotted; I don’t know; I just press the button. A trained monkey could do my job. I’ll sleep it off and let the co-pilot deal with it.
The manager laughed. He got a message.
“Hey, you’re good to go. See you on the next trip. You bring the drinks next time.”
Allison gave him a thumbs up and went to the loading dock. There was only one truck. She looked inside the cargo bay of the truck. She saw two wooden crates with faded Nazi symbology on them. She shrugged and looked around for a crowbar. It took her a few minutes to find something that would work, and she popped both lids. The wood smelled mildewy.
Alison wrinkled her nose. She verified that everything that had been requested by their client was there. She knocked on the metal cylinder. It seemed intact though rust had eaten away at some of the paint on the Nazi grey surface. There was lettering on it. She ran her fingers along it. The enhanced optics in her contacts outlined a swastika above a stylized eagle. The text was in twenty-first century German. Her AR HUD displayed the text in Alliance Standard and Swahili: Operation - Black Sun – Subject Two – Berlin 1942.
Allison ran her fingers over the lettering. The wood was fairly intact and there was minimal rusting on the tube. She mused that BMC must have dug it up relatively recently.
Allison picked up the energy pistol and looked it over. There did not seem to be a charging port, or even an emitter. She reached into her utility belt, pulled out her military grade scanner and swiped it over the device. She quirked her head to the side. It had the same energy readings as her armor. Same alien power source. She did a deep scan and saw there was some sort of crystal in the center that filled the entire casing. It was full of power. It had a trigger but as far as she could tell it wasn’t connected to anything. She shook her head and put it down.
Allison scanned the sword next. Her scanner could not identify the composition. The metal simply did not… should not exist. She knew she shouldn’t be wasting time, but her curiosity was overwhelming her. She looked over the sword. It had been in the ice for almost a thousand years, yet its surface was a mirror. She put it back in the crate.
Allison picked up the beige nylon bag next. It was another material that should not exist. The molecules were too perfect. Too well organized. Too stable. Not even the best fabrication tech available to them could reproduce any of the articles in the crate, she put the bag back in the crate.
Allison eyed the metal cylinder. She knew the merc code was don’t ask questions. Don’t look too closely just do the job. She also knew her ident chit was in the process of being eaten by her nanites. She was also on borrowed time. Her false alarm would trigger soon. A couple of security guards arrived. She hadn’t noticed them until one cleared her throat.
“Walter, we’re just here to verify you’re only taking what is authorized. Please step back.”
Allison nodded. The two guards checked the crate stamps. The same one who spoke, a youngish looking woman motioned to the scanner in Allison’s hand.
“Usually, you’re not supposed to open these, it’s all protected corporate information. What are you doing?”
Allison frowned and shrugged. She sent a message to the guard: The person requesting them is on comm and asking me to scan every single item to make sure they’re what he is requesting. This guy needs to get laid, get a drink, or both.
The guard snickered.
“Well once you’re done, you’re good to go.”
Allison nodded and bit her lower lip one more time before proceeding with a scan of the metal tube. It was a cylinder, inside was a vacuum. The metal walls were three inches thick whatever was inside the Nazis did not want anyone getting inside easily. It was still airtight. She scanned well preserved organic material inside, female, human. There was an energy signature. It matched Allison’s own armor. She was also picking up materials that didn’t exist until thirty years ago. Finally, the tube, the organic material, and sediments inside had no signs of the radioactive material present after the first atomic bomb. Her holo-phone was telling her that it meant this was forged and sealed before July 16, 1945. She was getting more and more curious. There was at least 29th century tech in a metal sarcophagus that was sealed before 1945. Oddly there were no signs of decomposition. No fluids. It was like the body just didn’t decay. Allison’s eyes went wide. She mouthed the words: Time Travelling Vampire? Scratch the Nazis not wanting anyone to get into it, they didn’t want the vampire to get out.
Allison shook her head then quickly pounded the lids on the crates and hopped down. She pulled the truck gate closed. Her mind was racing: What the hell do Sauroids want with a vampire? The alien tech was obvious. But a vampire?
Allison got into the driver’s seat and faced her first real challenge. She had never once driven a wheeled vehicle of any description. Nor had her mother signed her up for the promised driving lessons. Likely because she’d been under house arrest and declared missing in action for three weeks. She scratched the back of her head. She thought to herself: Two pedals, one must be go, and one must be stop. The steering wheel must turn the tires. She snapped her fingers. She accessed the Alliance-net from the stolen holo-phone and looked up: Driving for dummies. She rolled her eyes as the first video she played was basically a primer on how to pass her learner’s permit test. Which wasn’t how to physically operate a vehicle it was rules of the road.
She gave up on finding a guide and pressed the button that said start. The electric motor hummed as it powered on. She smiled. Then she put her foot on the left pedal. Nothing happened. She pressed her foot on the right pedal. The electric engine roared, as loud as such things could roar. No movement. She closed her eyes and tried to remember how her mom and dad would get things going. She snapped her fingers and looked around for the gearshift. She found it. It had several settings. She figured D would work. She tried to shift. It wouldn’t move. She felt like she was going to break the shifter, so she stopped. She pressed the left pedal then tried to shift. Success!
She lifted her foot off the left pedal and the truck started to roll forward. She pressed the left pedal again, the brakes squeaked and the truck ground to a halt. She nodded then put her foot on the right pedal. The truck surged forward, and she was forced to turn the wheel as the truck almost collided with a cargo container. The truck nearly tipped. She let her foot off the gas and let the truck coast forward. It was creeping along, and she slammed her foot on the brake pedal hard when she got to the front gate. The whole truck shook. The same security guard from earlier held up his hand.
“Put the truck into park please.”
Allison looked at the gear shifter saw a P so moved the shifter to that. She kept her foot on the brake pedal. She heard the back of the truck open. A few minutes later the security guard came around and lifted the gate and lowered the spikes. He motioned her through. She put the truck into drive and let her foot off the break. She pressed the gas again and the truck surged forward. She slammed her foot on the brakes and then let the electric motor just barely push the truck forward around the turn and then she pressed the gas. It surged forward and she felt like she was going too fast, so she slammed her foot on the brakes again. She was starting to figure out driving was not as easy as it looked.
She reached a spot near where she stashed the group’s gear and parked the truck. She got out and grabbed the bag and tossed it in behind the seats. She looked around and the road was pretty clear, so she did a U-turn. It wasn’t pretty, she managed it, but she went up on two curbs and nearly rolled the truck again. Her contacts provided a road route to the corporate security station. She still hadn’t quite got the handle on how the acceleration and brakes worked, she could make it go and stop but her driving was anything but graceful.
Allison pulled into a fast-food restaurant. Mars Burgers. She wasn’t familiar with them. She looked at her timer for the simulated breach. She had fifteen minutes. She shook her head and glanced at the restaurant. She got out of the truck and went inside. She used the self-service ordering kiosk and used the stolen holo-phone to complete the purchase. Her holo-web was doing the trick because it passed the visual ID request. She went to the pick-up counter. A robot slid along a track and placed her bag and a drink on the counter.
“Mars Burger for when you need a little green man in you. Have a nice day, Walter Franko.”
Allison picked up the bag and drink then walked out. She started her Birthday Massacre playlist, leaned against the front of the cargo truck and ate her burger. She tried a French fry. She made a face. They were mushy, flavorless and they didn’t even have salt. She rolled her eyes and tossed them out. She started drinking from the cup of soda. She made another face. They were using the much cheaper thirtieth century version of cola it tasted like they made brown sugar water with some bubbles. She was taking another drink of the Mars burger cola when she saw two corporate security cars speeding out of the security station parking lot then two security hovercraft. Allison threw her cup and soda into the recycle repository. She pulled the form-factor apple pie box out of the bag then tossed the bag into the bin.
She flipped her holo-web to cloak mode and hopped down into the security station lot. She pulled out her Qual’sa pistol. The doors to the security station detected movement and slid open. There was a chubby middle-aged woman at the front desk wearing a corporate security uniform. Allison made sure her pistol was set to stun. She pointed it at the woman and pulled the trigger. There was a flash of turquoise light and the woman fell face first onto her desk. Two other security officers rushed to see what happened. She managed to stun them both before either could. She took a bite from her apple pie. She bashed the interior security door with her shoulder, her natural dhampiric strength and armor did their job. The door burst open. Two other officers were rushing forward. She stunned them both and took another bite from her apple pie.
Allison swallowed her bite and looked around, her scanner was not picking up any other armed hostiles. She shrugged. Put her Qual’sa pistol in its holster. She bent down and grabbed one of the unconscious officer’s arms. She dragged him on his back to the holding cells. Miles, Dimi, Zebra and Pinto were all in the same cell. They all looked very confused by the security guard being dragged around by what appeared to be a ghost. She grabbed the pie with her teeth and tapped the holo-web control to show her face but projected an image disruption to fowl surveillance holo-video, and other visual recorders. The guard started to stir. Being dragged had apparently helped him break the stun.
“Hey, what’s go-”
Allison released his hand, pulled out her pistol and shot him twice. He stopped moving again. She holstered her pistol. She grabbed the pie that was drooping and about to fall. She took another bite of the half-finished pie. She dragged the guard to the far wall and bit down on her pie so she could use both hands to stand him up and hit the holding cell release with his ident chit. She grabbed her pie again and motioned to the gawking group of mercenaries.
“Come on, let’s get going. My distraction won’t last long.”
Allison tapped the command on her holo-web to expand her disruption field. The group was too big for her to cloak all of them but when security checked the videos, they would just see a bunch of black and white polygons and stretched images. Kind of like graphics glitches in old video games. She finished her apple pie as they reached the cargo truck. She tossed the box into the recycle bin. She tapped her holo-web command and selected Walter’s image from the repository.
“Get in the back. You guys are going to be all over their security feeds soon.”
She started the truck up and backed up. She nearly took out a corner of the Mars burger building before she’d managed to stop. She pressed the accelerator and then stopped really suddenly when she was at the exit to the parking lot. She then let the truck coast out on its own power much to the annoyance of someone who leaned on their horn. She slammed her foot on the accelerator then hit the brake when she realized she was going too fast. She got back into the rhythm of driving.
Security vehicles from other sectors came rushing past her. She just kept driving at the pace her foot had set which was under the speed limit. People were rushing past her and making obscene gestures. She slammed the breaks on when she came to another turn. Then the truck coasted around the corner and accelerated again. Hit the brakes causing the truck to shudder but didn’t take her foot off the accelerator. This was how she’d managed to hit the steady speed before. She figured why change what was working? She slammed both feet on the brake pedal when she saw a row of cars. Security was checking them all.