Asimov's SF, October-November 2011 (11 page)

It looked wrong to her, but she wasn't the expert. The people beside her were, but the person whose opinion mattered was Bradley Taylor.

Taylor had come from the
Ivoire
, the working Dignity Vessel that Boss had found four years before. He was young and when he first came to the Nine Planets, he hadn't been old enough to get work in the
Ivoire's
engineering department. But he had a knack for
anacapa
drives. He loved them as much as Squishy did, and once here, he had become her de facto right-hand man.

The
Ivoire's
crew had scattered over the years. Many stayed with the ship, but some—like Taylor—didn't ever want to travel by spaceship again. They certainly didn't want to be on a ship with a functioning (and occasionally employed)
anacapa
drive.

Still, Taylor had valuable skills, and he wanted to use them. Squishy was more than willing to put him to work in her labs. The design before her was mostly his.

"It doesn't look complete to me,” Squishy said, directing her comments to Taylor. The others listened.

"It does seem small,” he said, “but I can assure you that it works."

She programmed both holographs so that they revolved. Then they turned upside down, moving in all three dimensions. She watched, but that discomfort remained.

She shook her head. “Something's wrong. I just can't tell what it is."

Taylor didn't seem upset. Instead, he leaned into the images and watched them move as if they held the answers.

"I wish we could run some tests,” he said.

"No tests until I have some idea that this will work,” she said. Too many people had died in “tests."

No one from the
Ivoire
objected either. The only reason they were at the base was because their
anacapa
drive had malfunctioned a long, long time ago.

"We know that the
anacapa
part will work,” said Sadie Juarez. She had come from one of the top universities in the Nine Planets. She was a brilliant theorist, but she still hadn't grasped the dangers of the research. “Maybe there's some kind of way we can isolate the experiment . . . ."

She let her voice trail off so that everyone knew what she was saying, even though she hadn't finished the thought.

"We're not the Empire,” said Ward Zauft. He had helped Squishy since she'd started her research at Lost Souls. He was thin and wiry, had too much energy, and was always keeping an eye out for problems in experiments. She liked that the most about him. “We don't let eighty-five people die just because we believe the experiment will work."

Squishy nodded, then frowned. Eighty-five was a specific number, and it was too small to encompass all of the people who had died in the last few decades.

She turned toward him. “Eighty-five?"

"Haven't you heard? That's the latest loss. Eighty-five people because some stealth tech experiment went awry.” He wasn't even looking at her. He was clearly thinking about the drive in front of him, not the news he was passing on.

"Where did you see that?” she asked.

Something in her tone seemed to catch his attention. He looked away from the rotating drives, his gaze meeting hers. A slight frown creased his forehead.

"It got leaked and made some of the science news sites just this week,” he said. “They said the eighty-five people who died were the latest tragic accident in a program plagued by them."

"I heard it too,” Juarez said. “The story said that the numbers couldn't be confirmed but that maybe as many as eight hundred people have died in stealth tech related experiments in the past twenty years."

Squishy was shaking. She knew of the first two hundred of the dead. She had a hunch that eight hundred figure was too small.

"So they're warning people away?” she asked. “Telling them not to work for the imperial science programs?"

"It wasn't that kind of news,” Juarez said. “It was my impression that they were just interested in the statistics, nothing more."

Statistics. Squishy let out a small breath. “I don't want anyone running an experiment on this until someone who has worked with
anacapa
drives for a decade or more looks at it."

Then she excused herself and went to her office. She felt lightheaded and off balance.

The Empire was still experimenting with stealth tech, even after she and Boss had tried to shut them down. And people were still dying in the experiments. Over and over again, people were dying.

What would it take to convince the Empire that stealth tech was too dangerous to pursue? Or could it be persuaded?

Maybe she and Boss had been on the right track six years before. Maybe they should do everything they could to destroy the research. All of the research.

But that would mean destroying the scientists, too, and Squishy couldn't do that. Destroyed research and a large accident—one that ruined everything but didn't kill anyone—might make the Empire think twice about continuing the research, at least in the direction it was going. It might force some of the scientists out.

She leaned against her door, looked at her office, saw the neglect. A sweater she hadn't worn in months hung over the back of her chair. A cup that hadn't been washed in probably that long sat on one side of her desk.

She didn't like the way her thoughts were going, but she recognized the feeling. She couldn't keep working here while people were dying back there. Particularly if they were following protocols she had developed decades before.

The scientists with the Empire's program were following faulty assumptions with old information, and that wasn't just dangerous to them. It was dangerous to the entire sector.

Something had to be done. But what?

Now

Quint ran his hand through his hair. He stood and walked toward her. It took all of Squishy's strength not to back away.

She had forgotten how big he was, how muscular. She had always found that both appealing and intimidating. Only now, the appealing part was gone. She felt smaller than she ever had beside him.

"When
The Dane
entered imperial space,” he said, “I was actually hopeful. I thought you had come back to help us."

"I did,” she said softly.

"No, you didn't,” he said. “You came back here to destroy us."

One Year Earlier

She found Boss next to her latest project, a reconstructed Dignity Vessel that Boss had deliberately kept nameless. Boss was thin and ropy, preoccupied, her hair cut short, new lines near her eyes. But she didn't seem tired, even though she was working impossible hours. Lately, Boss seemed energized, as if the Dignity Vessel projects had revitalized a part of her.

The Dignity Vessel itself dwarfed everything else in the bay. The ship was huge. Squishy always forgot how big the Vessels were, even though she had now been inside several of them. The first Dignity Vessel, all those years ago, had been a derelict, floating in space, and even though it had taken a long time to dive it, the ship hadn't seemed as big as these. Space itself made everything seem small.

Since Squishy had come to work at Lost Souls, she had worked on five derelict ships. Then the
Ivoire
had arrived and some members of the crew had helped repair one of the five derelicts. This ship was another found ship, and it needed a lot of interior work, which Boss was supervising.

"We did it once before,” Squishy said as she walked beside Boss, staring up at the Dignity Vessel. The ship jutted above them, shading them from the lights at the top of the bay.

Boss stopped walking. Squishy had made her entire presentation while they examined the exterior of the Dignity Vessel. She had felt a bit uncomfortable, arguing that they should take a team into imperial space, with the mission of destroying stealth tech. She was half-hoping that Boss would take in a Dignity Vessel on a trial run, maybe even go in with the
anacapa
engaged, use the high-powered weaponry, and destroy the base that Squishy had discovered.

But Boss was frowning, and that wasn't a good sign. “Why do you care? The Empire kills people in a variety of ways. We can't stop that. We're working to keep the balance of power in the sector, to keep the Empire from moving out here. That's more than enough."

Squishy swallowed. She had thought Boss would understand. But Squishy had forgotten how Boss could overlook disturbing things. She had done that on their first dives in a Dignity Vessel, ignoring Squishy's warning, and leading to the breach that had hurt their relationship for years.

"People are dying because of me,” Squishy said.

"Nonsense,” Boss said. “You haven't been part of stealth tech research for decades, at least not in the Empire."

"But I'm the one who took them down this path. I'm the one who started all these experiments. Everyone who died since then died because of me."

Boss shook her head.

"Don't be dismissive,” Squishy snapped. “In the past, you've dismissed me and that was a mistake."

"One mistake,” Boss said. “A big one, I grant you. But just one. And I've apologized repeatedly. This is different."

"How is this different?” Squishy asked.

"It's not personal, Squishy,” Boss said. “I know you think it is, but it's not. A lot of people can hold the blame for all those deaths, including the people who continue the experiments in light of the disasters they're causing. It's not about you."

Squishy straightened. “You don't understand—"

"I do,” Boss said. “I've lost people because of mistakes I've made. I understand. But the worst thing we can do is go into the Empire."

"You did it,” Squishy said. “You went to Vaycehn, and found the
Ivoire
."

Boss nodded. “And it could have been a disaster. They didn't catch us that time, but they might this time. We're fugitives."

"Not all of us,” Squishy said. “I still get my military pension. It goes to my home in Vallevu."

Boss didn't say a word, but she was clearly struggling to remain silent.

"I can go back in with a team,” Squishy said before Boss could say anything. “We can use the same explosives that I developed a few years ago. I did the research, Boss. The Empire has confined stealth tech to one gigantic base. We get rid of the base, we get rid of the tech."

"They're not stupid enough to keep all of the research on that one base,” Boss said. “It's backed up somewhere."

"And once we find where the backups are kept, we launch the mission. I could go back, revamp my credentials and work in the lab until we're ready to launch the attack. They wouldn't suspect anything."

Boss snorted. “You haven't worked in stealth tech in decades and then you return? How is that not suspicious?"

"I would blame the leaked studies.” Squishy straightened. “I'm on the record—several legal records—protesting the way the experiments were conducted. That was decades ago. I would have complete credibility if I went back and stated that I wanted to return to correct the mistakes and make sure no one died."

"And they'd hire you?” Boss asked.

"They asked me to rejoin when I brought them the first Dignity Vessel,” Squishy said. Squishy had claimed the vessel she had taken from Boss on that fateful trip for the imperial government to get it out of Boss's hands. It had been a reaction to Boss's high-handed decision-making on that trip. The decision-making that led to the “one mistake” that Boss had just mentioned.

"And you said no,” Boss said. “That was years ago. Things change."

Squishy shook her head. “I'm still considered the godmother of stealth tech research. I'm mentioned in a ton of studies. I'd like to fix that."

"And what?” Boss asked. “Give them the
anacapa
drive?"

"Make sure they can never catch us,” Squishy said. “Make sure that their research goes in a different direction."

"You can't control research,” Boss said. “You know that."

"But you can alter it,” Squishy said.

"And if you get caught?” Boss asked. “What then? They'll get you to tell them about the
anacapa
drive."

Squishy shook her head. “I'd die first."

"Don't be melodramatic,” Boss said.

Squishy sighed. “I still don't have a great working knowledge of the
anacapa
drive. It's vast and complex and I certainly couldn't build one from scratch. If the Empire catches me, the only thing they'd get from me is that the drive exists. They'd also learn how powerful it is. They'd learn that they're making a terrible mistake when they try to treat it as a cloak."

"And then they come after us,” Boss said.

"They'll come after us eventually,” Squishy said.

"No,” Boss said and walked away.

Squishy scrambled to keep up. “People are dying, Boss."

"All over the Empire, for all kinds of reasons,” Boss said. “Hell, people are dying in the Nine Planets for all kinds of reasons, too. Some are too poor, some are too sick, some still live under repressive regimes. I'm not going in there to rescue those folks. Why should I rescue a bunch of scientists in the middle of the Empire? Scientists who specialize in weapons research, I might add."

Squishy was shaking. Her initial answers—
there might be someone like me; they're important; they're
scientists
for fuck's sake
—wouldn't be good enough for Boss.

"You wouldn't go in,” Squishy said. “I would."

Boss stopped walking and turned around. “So I should send in the only one of us who isn't connected to the
Ivoire
who has any chance of understanding how an
anacapa
drive works."

"There are a lot of people here who understand it as well as I do,” Squishy said. “And they're not all connected to the
Ivoire."

"But they're not you,” Boss said softly. “So my answer stands. No."

She started walking again. Squishy began to follow, then stopped. Boss said no. She rarely revisited decisions, and only when faced with a great deal of evidence that her assumptions were wrong.

Her assumptions weren't wrong here. She was right: this wasn't a Lost Souls mission.

This was a personal mission.