He sat in his darkened office, staring at the holo-screens in front of him with expressionless irritation, a pot of premium midori sencha tea rapidly cooling on his desk.
The two ships displayed on the screens were irritatingly out of reach. The Gladstone once again radio silent after the short period of panicked screaming and horrific images that the Alpha and Beta security teams sent back. Shadowy images of giant, insectoid creatures and horrific kewpie doll faces with impossible numbers of glowing magma red eyes. He understood that the operations room had become quite a mess after the image of one of those kewpie doll faces had been captured distorting, opening a wide maw and unfolding pedipalps to rip a one man’s terrified head off.
The other ship, the entire point of this entire endeavor, sat there floating powerless in space, still tethered firmly to the Gladstone. He knew the solutions to accomplish his goals lay inside that derelict hull, if only he could retrieve them. But after what happened on the Gladstone, there was a distinct reticence on the part of his security forces. They refused to even board a breaching shuttle to approach the vessel, and several people on EODS-245B Station had put forth recommendations that both ships simply be nuked in order to maintain the safety of the station.
The suggestion was, of course, unacceptable, but he’d played diplomat to their fears and ordered a round the clock guard of the ships by a squadron of heavy fighters. The implication was that if the ships made a move towards the station, those fighters would be in position to head them off quickly, and destroy them if need be. They were not aware of his backdoor control of every fighter craft on that station, and that he could lock out their weapons from where he sat, here, lightyears away.
He needed to find a team trustworthy enough, and brave enough that he could hire to go into that alien ship, cut the tethers, and move it away from the Gladstone. There was also the issue of preventing whatever it was that happened on the Gladstone. Perhaps it was time to consider the use of an Omega team.
He shook his head slightly. There had to be another option. Using the Omegas would mean justifying their use to the Board of Directors. If one leak about their existence got out to the public, it’d be a mess for the entire company. The Commonwealth had laws against that level of cybernetics. “Cyber Zombies” was the colloquial name for them. Barely a step above being pure machine, all that was left of the sophant used to create them was their brain matter, which did not do much for their sanity.
He was still staring at the screens and analyzing his next moves when his office door swooshed open. “Mr Fisch, sir?” he heard the voice of Charles Horgan, his admin assistant, say hesitantly, “I know you said no interruptions, but this is something you said you wanted immediate updates on.”
Benson Fisch, chief research officer of Enigma Osiris, kept iron control of his irritation. There was no sense in getting angry with the man for having had to choose between contradictory orders. “What is the situation Mr Horgan?”
He could almost hear Charles fidgeting, a behavior he abhorred, and if it were not for Charles’ unmatched efficiency at his job otherwise, he’d have replaced the man. “The corporate spy, Jessica Aacen, sir.” he explained, “She has managed to slip through all efforts by law enforcement to detain her. She has gone to ground and there has so far been no clues as to her location Sir.”
He allowed himself to clench his jaw slightly, the only sign of irritation showing in his demeanor. “Do we have anything on how she managed to slip away?”
“They are still working on that, sir. All they have right now is the fact that she was last seen in the company of one of her brother’s old associates, a Ms. Boudya Mend’nasa.”
His teeth made a slight squeak as his jaw clenched tighter. That blue skinned slut. How did she end up aware of the situation? All of their intelligence on Thomas Aacen showed that he hadn’t been in contact with any of his guild associates since he retired. “I want to know what brought the two of them in contact. Especially if Thomas Aacen had anything to do with it. Understand?”
“Yes sir.” The tension in Charles’ voice was palpable, there was something else. “That’s another thing sir.” He hesitated.
“Spit it out Charles, you know I don’t kill the messenger.”
He heard an audible gulp, then “It’s Mr. Aacen sir. I received a report from our contact in FleetSec. just moments before coming in. Mr. Aacen has been in contact with them, he’s reported to them that there is some sort of ancient contagion aboard that ship which Mr. Barstol retrieved for you. They’ve passed it up the chain, but have also ordered him in for questioning regarding his sister, but also Ms Mend’nasa. It seems the head of the Salvager Guild is concerned about her disappearance too.”
Benson’s jaw made an audible pop. Barstol said he’d disposed of the man! Left him for dead on that barren rock out beyond any mapped system of the Commonwealth or its neighbors. More complications, this was unacceptable.
“Is that all Charles?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thank our contact, and provide him with a bonus for the information.” He ordered. “And have him get us any further updates A.S.A.P. and if he can arrange for Mr. Aacen to be held indefinitely when he’s detained for questioning, there will be a sizable reward. I would really like to have a word with that man on how he survived.”
“Absolutely sir!” Charles replied, followed by the woosh of his office door opening and closing again.
The proverb said plans rarely survive engagement with the enemy, which is why he always had backup plans. The plans he’d made for these eventualities, however, were nowhere close to optimal. Things would very well get messy at this point, and he detested messy.
----------------------------------------
“You’re sure this will help keep it from being traced?”
Jophixa looked over at me from her command chair, “Nothing will stop them from finding it if they’re bound and determined.” she explained, “any security expert will tell you that. Your security measures are only as good as the skills and determination of the person trying to overcome them. We did what we could to make this frustrating as hell for them to track however. It’ll be constantly moving around in this system, ducking in and out of sensor shadows. And you set up all those proxies and false trails on the connections.”
“I know, I’m being a nervous Nancy.” I shook my head as I watched the capsule with the Frankenstinian comms relay speed away from our position. “Call it an engineer thing, we’re always worried about how something could fail on us.”
Stacy piped in at that point, “Why would you be Nancy? You told us your name is Thomas! Is this a roleplaying thing? Do I get to be Bruce the muscular heart-throb in this scenario? Like on the romance novel covers?”
Everyone on the bridge at the moment groaned, but I smiled at the same time. “It’s a figure of speech Stacy. A Nervous Nancy is just something they call someone who worries all the time.”
“Aww. No fun.”
“Keep it in your pants, Stacy…” I said, then added quickly “That’s also an expression. It means, "calm down on the horny talk.”” I turned back to Jophixa, “Let’s hope Boudya can get us a couple more comms units we can use to rig up a couple more of those relays. Bouncing between multiple relays will make us even harder to trace.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“OH!” Stacy exclaimed, “I forgot to mention. Once you showed how the emissions waveforms were modulated for communications, I was able to work with the engineers on the station to come up with a solution using our technology! They should have a few prototypes ready to drop out into space in a couple days! Isn’t that great?!”
Jophixa’s large, green ears were almost vibrating with the frustration I could tell she was holding back. “Stacy?”
“Yes Commander?”
“That is the kind of information you do not forget to mention.” she said deceptively calmly. There’d been a few instances of this kind of thing during our mad dash through hyperspace. Where Stacy had said or done something that royally cheesed Jophixa off. Like the time Stacy had referred to her as ‘Commander Hotpants’ on the bridge. I’d thought Jophixa was going to blow a gasket and deny Stacy access to the ship’s intercom system at the very least.
But Jophixa had taken a deep breath, then calmly explained to Stacy how inappropriate that had been, and that while I was a civilian, she was the ship’s commander, and would be referred to as such. Later, Jophixa reminded me that the Giobhioni considered true sentient A.I. such a rarity, and self actualized ones to be almost never seen. They were firm believers in making sure they approached relationships with them on the most amicable level possible. Even when one happened to annoy the Void’s Damned shit out of them from time to time.
Stacy was quiet for a few moments. “Yes Commander. That was unforgivably careless of me, I apologize.” she said finally, “I will make a subroutine for myself to let it never happen again!”
“Thank you Stacy,” Jophixa turned back to look out the front canopy of the bridge. “Well, that’s even less to worry about now I guess. If those prototypes work, we can get them seeded in lots of random places and they’ll be chasing grontnaks till they drop. We should get on our way to rescue your lover and your sister now that comms are taken care of.”
I blushed slightly when Jophixa referred to Boudya as my lover, but tried not to think about it. Instead I sent a mental note to Stacy to explain to me what the heck a grontnak was later. “Considering that it's at least,” I thought for a moment, doing the calculations in my head, “ 10 days by Tunneldrive to get there, and I have no idea what the conversion factor to your drive method ends up being, I agree completely.”
Toftri chuckled from his seat at the helm, “that works out to roughly 2 days travel time at most. Well, as long as we don’t run into any particularly bad hyperspace currents. All the adjustments those could require would slow us down markedly.”
“Dammit Toftri!” I teased him, “don’t you know not to jinx things? Now we have to perform an ancient terran ritual to dispel bad luck. Don’t worry though, it just involves a lot of sex and chanting.”
Toftri’s ears drooped in embarrassment, Jophixa narrowed her eyes at me, which was completely expected. The surprising part, however, Tzaki Tratsa’s ears were perked up, quivering slightly, and she had one eyebrow raised. What was going on in the silver haired doctor’s mind I wondered.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” I laughed and waved at Toftri. “Just a little joke, though there are a lot of humans who would actually believe you’d jinxed matters. That means summoned bad luck, by the way, in case the translators don’t impart that much. It’s like saying ‘things can’t get any worse’. Our popular media is full of instances where someone says that and is immediately confronted with things getting horrifically worse.
“The ritual thing was just a joke.”
Toftri looked relieved, Jophixa had that ‘i’ll chew you out later’ look, and the Doc looked mildly disappointed. Should I be watching what I say about the doctor Stacy?
Nah, Stacy replied, She’s just really curious about humans and how they “measure up”. Her giggle filled my mind, though don’t be surprised if she approaches you “for research purposes only”.
I rolled my eyes at her commentary, then shot another sideways look at the silver haired tsaki. She was still looking at me with a sly smile and shot me a wink when she caught me looking over. I was starting to get a feeling things would get interesting aboard this ship once Boudya was aboard. Benastians had a way of triggering…things.
“If we’re done with all the adolescent antics.” Jophixa chided us, “let's get underway. That is, if you still want to rescue your sister, Thomas?”
“Yes, by all means, let’s get moving!”
“You know what to do, Be’tsar. Get us moving.”
“Yes Ma’am!”
I was momentarily mesmerized by us shifting into hyperspace. There was a noticeable difference in the way the colours shifted as we slid through the barrier that separated our regular reality and that chaotic world of shifting energies. The tunnel drive gave you the noticeable feel of being in a tunnel, the eddies and currents swirling around the edges of it, as if you were in a transparent tube under deep technicolour rapids.
The Giobhioni drive tech, however, was like you were swimming in those waters, with the currents flowing around you, over you. The effect might seem subtle to some, but it was hypnotic to me.
So entranced was I, that I didn’t notice the good Tsaki slip over behind me, and put a hand on my shoulder, making me nearly start out of my skin. I heard Stacy giggle, and noticed Jophixa hide a grin before I looked over my shoulder at the Doc.
“Now that the Relay is deployed, and we’re underway,” she explained, “you are past due for having that implant of yours examined to make sure there’s no…anomalous behaviors between it and your grey matter. Please follow me to Medbay.”
In all seriousness, I understand that I might be coming off as some kind of letch, what with how I was interacting with Stacy, my old relationship with Boudya, and my thoughts regarding Jophixa, but I’m just as surprised by myself as you probably are.
Sure, Boudya opened me up to a whole different world out there then the innocent engineering student I had been, dreamed of. Made me realize I was polyamorous, and that sex and love didn’t have to be caught up in all the shit we humans still tended to wrap it up in, even now, 300 years after the “sexual revolution”. But here I am, walking down a corridor, idly contemplating the fit posterior of a female from a previously unknown species, who, if I wasn’t mistaken, was significantly on the senior side of me.
Don’t get ahead of yourself Thomas! I told myself, She could just be getting a bit of revenge for the orgy joke.
When we entered Medbay, the silver haired Giobhioni sat delicately down on the edge of a stool and crossed her short but shapely legs. “Alright Mr. Aacen, up on the exam table.” she said, all business. “Let’s have a look at that implant. If I do not keep up with the strict schedule of exams that Tsaki Gwatri laid out, he’s sure to, what was the expression you used the other day? ‘Read me the riot act’? He can be a bit overbearing at times, but there is a reason he was head of medical on the station.”
She stopped and looked at me seriously. “What? You didn’t think I was going to tackle you the moment we stepped through the door did you?” She laughed, a throaty sound speaking of a well seasoned sense of humor. “We’ll get to that part later. If you’re lucky.”
And she winked at me.
I gave a nervous chuckle and tried to relax, hoping up on the exam table and lying back as ordered. “You know Doc.” I explained, “You’ve got me just a bit confused here. We’ve been on this ship together for a couple weeks now and barely interacted outside of these checkups…”
“Not entirely true,” she corrected me, after standing up and sliding the scanner over my head. “We shared a couple of conversations over graptak in the mess hall. You told me a couple of stories about your time in University.”
The slight whirring of the scanner started, letting me know she’d started her check on my implant. “Not really what I’d call the kind of interactions that’d lead to implications of…whatever you were implying.”
I couldn’t see her through the scanner arch, but I heard her give another throaty chuckle. “See, you’re pretty new to interacting with us Giobhioni.” She explained. “So I figured I’d have to do a little explaining. You’ve told us about your Lady friend Boudya’s people, and how they are…how did you put it. ‘Always in season’?”
“That’s the most polite way it’s put, yep”
“Hmm, the implant has further integrated into your sensory cortexes. I’m going to have to make a note to grill your AI girlfriend on if she intended this level of integration or not.” She slid the scanner arch away from head, and smiled at me. “We Giovs aren’t on that level, but we aren’t prudes, and we aren’t afraid to act when someone interests us.” She thought for a moment, “Well, most of us aren’t”
I frowned at that last bit, wondering who she might be referring to, but then thought of something important to ask. “No hang-ups about sex meaning permanent pairings or anything like that? No offense, you seem like an awesome lady and all but…”
The laugh she let go this time loud, filling up Medbay with an echoing chime of delight. “That would be ridiculous! No, our only rules are honesty, safety, and any children that happen are taken care of and raised with love and respect. Everything else is between the participants in the activities!”
With that she defied any assumed age on her part, and vaulted up onto the exam table and straddled my hips. “Now, are you ok with a little cross species exploration here? Or do I have to deal with matters by myself again tonight?”
The grin I felt threatening to crack my face open must have been goofy looking, I swear, but I didn’t care at that moment. “What the hell! As long as it’s all in fun.” and with that, grabbed her and pulled her down for a kiss. Her whole body tensed up, so I let go after giving her the merest peck on the lips. “What’s the matter?”
She blinked at me in surprise, and brought her fingers to her lips for a second before smiling curiously, her ears high and quivering; At least that told me I hadn’t broken some taboo. “What,” she inquired back, “was that?”
Ah, I see. I thought to myself. Boudya had told me stories about her people encountering species that had no knowledge of kissing, back when we’d first begun orbiting each other. I guess these little green aliens might be like that. “Your people aren’t familiar with kissing?” I asked, but a way of explanation, “it’s a common display of affection with humans, and several other species in this quadrant too. Lips are very sensitive things, you know.”
“Kissing…” She smiled again, showing off those sharp teeth her people have, and leaned down to attempt copying the kiss I’d given her, and shivered. “No, this is not something we do. How could we miss such a thing?” She kissed me again, and again. “What else do humans do, I wonder?”
“Why don’t we find out?”