June 11 2361 AIA
P59
Jane approached the door of her home with profound relief. It had been a hard day. There had been the almost routine argument with her boss in the morning, she had worked through lunch again, and she was still having problems with her computer. She was looking forward to relaxing with some ice cream and a reader—after she fixed whatever that damn hacker had done to her files. When she realized she was gritting her teeth again, she forced her jaw to relax. Jane shifted her bag so she could use her fingerprint to unlock the door and let herself in.
The light was on.
She never left the light on.
“Jane Bonumomnes?”
The woman’s voice was calm and nonthreatening, but finding two strangers in your home when all you want to do is take off your pants and head to the refrigerator would be enough to make anyone feel threatened.
Jane bristled. “Who the hell are you? What do you think you’re doing in my house?”
The woman was sitting on the couch. The man was standing behind her.
“My name is Alix Reyer,” she said. “This is Captain Adan Vas—”
“Captain?” Jane gripped the strap of her bag tighter. “Captain of what? If you’re peacekeepers, you should be in uniform.”
“We’re not peacekeepers. We were hoping that you could answer some questions.”
Jane put her bag down on the entryway table and pulled her phone out of her pocket. “If you’re not peacekeepers, then you’re in a hell of a lot of trouble.” She held the phone up to her ear. “Get out, or they’ll take you when they get here.” She stood there for a few seconds before she realized she was hearing nothing.
The man had a half smile on his face that made Jane even more nervous—but she wasn’t the type to stay nervous; she went straight to wrath.
“What the hell did you do to my phone?” she demanded.
“Nothing,” Captain Vas said.
“Then why isn’t it working?”
Reyer said, “We needed some time to explain things to you.”
“Explain what? You broke into my house because you wanted to ask me questions? I have an office you know! My name is on the door and everything.”
“Yes, but we thought you might want to talk to us in private.”
Vas grudgingly admitted to himself that was a good line. He and Reyer had both agreed that after breaking into a woman’s private residence, the woman might be more inclined to listen to another woman, rather than an armed man, but Alix was better at this than he’d thought to give her credit for. All Jane’s indignation instantly dissolved.
“Why?” She sounded wary.
“It’s about the xenos.”
A breathless moment later, Jane’s eyes narrowed. “Are you the ones that hacked my system?”
“No,” Reyer said, “but we know who did.”
“When you see them next, will you kindly kick their teeth in for me?”
“Probably not, but we’ll tell him that you asked us to.”
“Why do you want to know about the xenos? Are you from the Supremacy?”
“Why would you say that?” the captain asked.
Jane’s mouth clamped shut with an audible noise.
Reyer sighed. “Doctor, please, have a seat.”
Jane took a step, then stopped. “Aren’t you supposed to say that you’re not going to hurt me?”
“We don’t want to hurt you—that’s true. We’re hoping that you’ll help us willingly.”
“I think I’ll stand,” she said.
Reyer’s smile was tinged with amusement. “I guess we can’t blame you.” She relaxed deeper into the couch. “You’ve been studying xenos for years. We could guess that much from all the information you’ve compiled. But we’re also pretty sure that the Supremacy hasn’t been funding this work—”
“More sure since you asked if we were sent by them,” the captain added.
Reyer continued, “You set up a defense to protect all your files in case anyone came looking for them, which means you’re very secretive about it. I wonder how much trouble you’d get in if the people in charge found out about your side research.”
“Are you threatening to tell them?” Jane asked.
“Not exactly. We’re on even worse terms with them than you are.”
“Who are you?”
“We’re from the Rising.”
Jane backed into the door she’d unthinkingly shut behind herself. She tried the handle, but it was locked, and it didn’t respond to her prints. After she pounded on it a few times, she turned back to the intruders. “All right—how did you do that?”
“We know someone who’s good with computers,” Reyer said, “and we really needed to talk to you.”
The doctor nodded with bitter resignation. “Right. You’re from the Rising.” She looked at Vas. “You’re a captain in the Rising. You’ve broken into my home and locked me in. Are you going to kidnap me?”
“The thought has crossed our minds,” Vas said.
“But we thought we’d try asking you nicely first,” Reyer said.
Jane huffed. “And with a fantastic introduction like that, you thought I might actually say yes?”
Alix leaned forward. “You haven’t heard our offer yet.”
“You’re out of your minds. I’m a loyal Supremacy citizen.”
“Is that why you’re hiding information from them?” Vas asked.
“Everyone needs a little privacy!”
“Does the Supremacy agree?”
“I’m not going to discuss politics with a bunch of rebels—”
“You don’t have to,” Reyer assure her. “This isn’t about politics.” Her tone was loud, firm, and rather pointed. Vas turned away. Reyer went on in her normal voice, “This is about your work. We want to offer you a chance—”
“To help you?”
“To study the xenos.”
Jane froze for a moment, then slowly folded her arms. “I’m listening.”
“We can show you video of the planet where the xenos came from—”
“You’re lying.”
“Excuse me?”
“No one knows where the xenos’ home planet is.”
An unnerving silence fell over the room. Vas came around from behind the couch to stand beside Reyer. They exchanged looks, but Jane had no idea what passed between them.
Reyer said, “Wouldn’t that make the video we have all the more valuable? If our guess is correct, it not only shows a xeno transforming, but it also shows a xeno before its first transformation.”
Jane tried not to react, but her interest and her temper soared. She was too used to knowing everything; it frustrated her to think that such important information was so close at hand—and she didn’t have it.
“What would you want from me?” she asked.
“We’d want you to tell us everything you know about the xenos,” Reyer said. “All your research, any rumors, all your theories—everything.”
“I don’t think that’s a fair deal. Bet you a ten-coin I know a lot more about the xenos than you do.”
“That’s true,” Alix admitted, “but we know something you don’t.”
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Vas and Reyer watched with quiet amusement as Jane struggled with her conscience.
“How would this exchange of information happen?” she asked.
Vas held up a small nan-card. “We can do it here if you like. We’ll show you the first part of the video to convince you it’s real, then you transfer all your files, tell us anything not included in them, and we let you copy the entire video onto your machine.”
Jane half groaned and half growled. “I don’t know. Do you have any idea how much trouble I could get in for this?”
“Yes.”
Reyer’s blunt announcement caught the doctor off guard.
“Almost as much trouble as we’d get in if we were found here,” Vas said.
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Jane said, “but what have you got to lose? I’m in the middle of two big projects, I have several proposals for research being considered, I have classes that I have to teach—”
Vas said to Reyer, “She’s got us there. All we have left to lose are our lives.”
There was a knock at the door. Everyone stopped. The knock sounded again in the anxious silence.
Vas pulled his e-pistol and walked over to the front wall. Reyer forced herself to her feet. As distracting as the situation was, Jane noticed the pain and effort it took. Reyer came up to her side.
“Were you expecting someone?” she whispered.
“No,” Jane whispered back.
Vas moved the blinds just far enough for him to see out the window. “It’s a man. Tall, thin, blond.”
Jane swore under her breath. “I wasn’t expecting him, but he’s not unexpected.” She walked toward her door. “Can you unlock this thing? He knows I’m here. If I don’t answer, he’ll assume something’s wrong.”
“The hero-type?” Reyer asked with a slight smile.
Jane rolled her eyes.
Vas pulled the com out from his pocket. “Ciro,” he muttered, “we need the door open now.”
“Done” was the reply.
Jane stopped with her hand on the latch. “For crying out loud! Put that gun away and relax. Try to act normal.”
Vas tucked the e-pistol away and went to stand by Reyer.
When Jane opened the door, the man standing on the other side smiled.
“Jane,” he said, “how was work today?”
Jane tried to think. “Oh, you know. Same old stuff.”
“Do you mind if I come in?” His request was nothing but a formality at that point. He’d followed his arm gesture past the threshold.
Nevertheless, Jane tried to stall him. “Uh, actually, Jude, I have some friends visiting from off planet. I need you to—”
“That’s fantastic! Can I meet them?” Jude walked over to Vas and Reyer. Jane followed. “Jude Bethem,” he said. “Also a friend of Dr. Bonumomnes.”
Vas took his hand. “This is Bella Thorne. I’m Amado de la Vega—”
“De la Vega? As in Zorro?”
If Alix wasn’t already on edge, she might have laughed at the expression Vas managed to hide after only a split second.
“That’s right,” he said. “Though, obviously, no relation.”
Jude laughed while Adan plotted his little brother’s murder.
“Say, though,” Jude said, “you look familiar. Have we met before?”
“I doubt it,” Vas said. “This is my first time on planet. I must have one of those faces.”
Jude nodded while still searching Vas’s features. He turned to Alix. “And you’re Bella Thorne?”
“Yes.” She shook his hand.
“Where are you two from?”
At the same moment, Reyer said, “P48,” Vas said, “P31.”
Jude’s eyes moved between them.
“Sorry,” Adan said, “I thought you were talking to me. I’m from P31. She’s from P48.”
Jude swung back to Alix. “Good old Huegeh.”
“You know it?” Reyer asked.
“Yeah. Beautiful planet, just beautiful. I haven’t been there in a while though. I was working there.” He turned to Vas. “So how do you know Jane?”
“We’re students,” Reyer said. “Or we used to be. I heard that Amado was taking his ship through this area and asked if I could come.”
Jude turned to Jane. “I thought this was your first year teaching.”
“Oh, no,” Vas said. “You misunderstood. We were students together.”
There was a lull.
“You’re not Jane’s friends,” Jude said. “There’s a reason she wasn’t answering her phone.”
Vas let out something between a laugh and sigh. “Oh, thank god that’s over.”
He smashed his palms against Bethem’s chest to knock him off balance and kicked at his ankles. Jude was able to stay upright, but Vas drove his half-turned body into the nearby table, grabbed his arm, and twisted it up his back.
Jude let out a shout.
“I can’t stand small talk,” Vas said, “and I can out-hero you any day.”
“You’re from the Rising!” Jude struggled against the hold. “I’ve seen your pictures! What are you going to do to Jane?”
Reyer pulled her e-pistol and walked over to him.
“No!” Jane shouted.
Reyer ignored her. As Adan pulled Jude up by the shoulder, Reyer slammed the butt of her pistol across his temple. Jude’s head whipped around in a half circle, then his unconscious body slithered out from Vas’s grip.
“Are we good?” Reyer asked as Vas knelt down.
Adan checked the body. “Yes. He’s out. Neatly done.”
When Reyer turned back to her, Jane said, “I thought you were going to kill him.”
“Not today,” Vas said, arranging Jude so it’d be easier to tie him up.
“We’re not in the habit of killing innocent people,” Alix said. “He’s not a soldier—”
“Yes, he is!” Jane said.
Alix shrugged. “He’s not a very good soldier, anyway. I think we can tie him up and leave him here. Do you have rope?”
“I’m not going to help you tie him up!”
“You don’t have to. You can point to it, and we’ll tie him up.”
Jane grumbled to herself, then said, “No, I can’t. It’s in the other room.” She left and came back with a length of cord. Reyer thanked her and handed it to Vas.
As Vas was wrapping the rope around Jude’s wrists, the doctor asked, “What do we do?”
“I’m sorry, Doctor,” Alix said, “but I think you’d better come with us.”
“I don’t think so.”
From his place near the floor, Vas said, “Would you rather have this soldier wondering if you might be working with us? Before Reyer knocked him cold, it sounded to me like he thought you might be in danger. That’s good news for your reputation.”
Jane growled in her throat, then shouted, “Agh! Fine! Let me pack a bag. Dammit.” She stormed off toward her bedroom. When she reached the door, she turned around and pointed at Reyer. “I’ll let you kidnap me, but let me be clear, you are kidnapping me! I will not go willingly with a bunch of Rising rebels.”
She disappeared into her room.
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Once Jane was packed, they left for the ship. Given that they were trusting their luck (which hadn’t proved to be very reliable), Vas encouraged them to walk as fast as they could manage. Fortunately, it was late, and the streets were almost deserted.
“Where are we going?” Jane asked.
Vas pointed.
“But the ports are that way,” Jane said.
“We didn’t come by port,” Reyer said. “I don’t have a fake ID yet.”
Vas said, “That reminds me, I need to have a talk with Diego de la Vega when we get back to the ship.”
The walk was much longer than it would have been if they’d stopped at the local port. As they were about to leave the edge of the small town and head out into the crop fields, Jane stopped and looked back.
“He’ll be all right,” Reyer said. “You said people would come looking for you tomorrow.”
Jane grunted. “Yeah.” She pulled her kit bag higher up on her shoulder, turned, and kept walking.
“What was he to you?” Reyer asked. “A boyfriend?”
“He was sure trying to be.”
Jane noticed Reyer’s smile. It looked either teasing or playful. It might have been both.
“Trying to be?” Reyer prompted.
“Okay, I went out on a date or two with him. He was more serious about it, and I wasn’t.”
“You didn’t like him much?”
Vas couldn’t tell if Reyer was trying to breed a useful familiarity with the doctor or if she was actually enjoying the chance to talk girl-talk. He decided he didn’t want to know. Then he decided he would never use the phrase “girl-talk” around a woman who knew exactly the best way to knock a man unconscious with one blow.
Jane shook her head. “Not really. He was nice, but not very bright.”
“I can see where you’re coming from,” Reyer said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean I can’t see a smart girl like you dating a man who actually announces that he knows you’re an enemy before attacking or backing up to a safe distance.”
“I don’t usually evaluate my dates based on how they do in a fight.”
“Funny, that’s the only way I know how.”
The two women looked at each other. Jane Bonumomnes was not smiling. She was working very hard not to smile.
The Golondrina was at the edge of a wide field. The only security to check them in was the most complex and elegant robot that Jane had ever seen.
“What’s this?” she asked while looking the bot up and down.
“This is Lynx.” Reyer nudged the biologist’s elbow to get her up the ramp and into the ship.
Vas closed the ramp behind them. In the dim lights of the cabin, Jane looked around the small ship with obvious dismay.
Alix interrupted the inspection. “You’re going to want to roll up your sleeve, Doctor.”
Jane noticed that she and Vas had already done exactly that.
Lynx stopped at Reyer first. “Are there any open wounds you’d like me to draw blood from today, Miss Reyer?”
“Not this time, Lynx. It’ll have to be the hard way.”
As Lynx was drawing her blood, Reyer caught a glimpse of Jane’s expression and misinterpreted it. “Xenos, remember?”
Jane pulled back her shirt sleeve to give the bot access to her vein. She marveled at how precise and gentle his touch was. Usually, getting blood drawn by a bot was bad enough you’d rather stab yourself with a needle while wearing boxing gloves, but Lynx was almost as good as a human.
“Is he a medical robot?” she asked.
“He’s a lot of things,” Alix said.
“He has to be,” Vas added.
Jane walked around him while Lynx finished the blood tests.
“Captain,” Lynx said. “I can confirm that you are Adan Vas, and that Miss Reyer is who she appears to be. The new woman’s DNA profile matches that of Jane Bonumomnes as found in connection with her Supremacy issued ID, one known hospital record, and her birth records from her home planet.”
“My home planet?” Jane turned to Reyer and demanded, “How did you get my birth records?”
From over in the corner, Ciro said, “It was actually a lot easier than getting into your research files.”
Jane looked toward the sound of his voice and noticed him tucked away in his clutter of technology. “You!” She walked over to him and leaned over his array of tablets and consoles so she could point accusingly at him. “Are you the turd who broke through my firewall and compromised all of my security systems? It took me months to get that programmed the way I wanted!”
Ciro didn’t look upset by the accusation. He looked utterly smitten.
“Who do you think you are?” Jane finished.
He rose to his feet and put out his hand. “Ciro Vas. Technology expert for the Uprising.” Maybe it was his charming and friendly grin, but the biologist found herself shaking his hand. “And you’re Miss—”
“It’s doctor, actually. Doctor Jane Bonumomnes.”
Ciro winced in such a way it became a wink. “That is quite a mouthful, ma’am. Do you mind if I call you Dr. Jane?”
She hesitated. “I suppose it’s better than having a back-planet rube like you slaughtering my last name.” She realized he was still holding her hand and withdrew it.
“Well, Dr. Jane, if I may say, it was an honor hacking into your system.” His hand was on his chest. “That’s the first real challenge I’ve had in ages.”
“You two can talk shop later, Ciro,” Vas called from the pilot’s seat. “We have to get off planet now. Is Lynx available to pilot?”
“Yes. Are we in some kind of a rush?” Ciro came out from behind his computers.
“When aren’t we?” Vas said over his shoulder to Reyer, who was standing on the stairs, “You know, ever since I’ve met you, it feels like I’ve had to leave every planet in a hurry.”
“Excuse me, Miss Reyer,” Lynx said as he went past her and up to the copilot’s chair.
“What happened?” Ciro asked.
“We had to leave a Supremacy soldier tied up back at Dr. Jane’s house,” Reyer explained.
“What?”
“Yes, Doctor,” Vas said as he clicked several switches, “why did you let in a Supremacy soldier when you had two members of the Rising in your living room?”
“How was I supposed to know you were famous?” she asked.
Vas felt that was a decent argument. “Sit back or brace yourselves.”
“Wait. Does this mean we get to keep her?” Ciro asked, pointing to Jane.
Reyer grabbed him and hauled him over to a bench. “We kidnapped her fair and square. We’ll figure out what to do with her later. Right now we have to get away from here.”
Ciro sat down next to Jane. “Welcome to the team, Doctor.”
“I’m a scientist,” she said. “I’m not a rebel, and I’m not a part of anyone’s team. Especially yours, Ciro Vas.”
Reyer wondered how he’d take this rebuff, but Ciro simply sat back with a satisfied little smile as the ship took off. He seemed content to wait in silence, until:
“How did you get past my security?”
“Sorry, Dr. Jane. That’s team information.”