Edge of Redemption (A Star Too Far Book 3) (24 page)

*

E
milie pored over each screen and picked through the data as quickly as she could. Her fingers scrawled notes onto her tablet. It was so much to see, so much to take in. She blinked her eyes and rubbed them.

The humming sound continued behind her and it made her feel better that she was doing something. She leaned forward and scrolled the skyview of the city. Landmarks jumped out at her and she panned around picking out points she remembered as a child. Then she saw something new, something different.

A rectangular block was sectioned off from the rest of the city. Inside lay block after block of housing. Then she noticed the entire complex was packed with people. Even using a satellite image, the density was evident.

Prison camp? Had they relocated the civilian population? She panned around the rest of the city and saw commerce continuing. She shook her head and stood on shaky legs. Sleep, she needed to sleep. She found a drab office with a couch and a woolen blanket and drifted off.

*

A
fter the first night in the research facility, she felt cooped up. She was free, but free like an escaped prisoner. She focused on learning as much as she could and putting it together, but there just wasn’t much to do. The cells continued to hum and dump out steaming weapons.

She watched one cell, from start to finish, print out an entire heavy assault rifle. Once it was cool enough to touch, she picked it up and hefted it. It felt lighter than she thought it would be. She pulled it up to her cheek and sighted down the barrel. A simple set of sights bracketed her view.

“Nice, eh?” Emmet said, coughing.

“I think so?” Emilie handed the weapon to Emmet.

The ex-Marine tipped the weapon sideways and cycled the action. His hands pushed, pulled, and slid the weapon apart. A moment later he repeated the procedure and put it all back together. “Not bad, could use some deburring.”

“Will it shoot?”

Emmet snorted. “Of course it’ll shoot. But you better make some ammo.”

“Do you know what the big facility on the west edge of town is?”

Emmet set the weapon down next to the rest of the newly printed weapons. “Used to be the Core receiving facility. Each batch of immigrants came in and was processed there.”

Emilie was familiar with the process. As more colonists came in, they would be billeted and sent out according to the colonies’ need. It wasn’t exactly indentured servitude, but Core had to recoup the investment. On new colonies no one cared, but on the existing colonies she knew it created some tensions. “How was Core seen here?”

“Hmm.” Emmet straightened the front of the bathrobe. “If you worked for ‘em, you loved ‘em. If you didn’t, Core was trying to steal the moon.”

“So why is it full?”

“You gotta understand that before you came in, there was a big push against Core. Core went to great troubles to keep quiet, so they made the new guys into the boogieman. The locals were drumming up this anti-immigrant stuff. Kinda hypocritical, seeing as they all immigrated. But they called themselves ‘colonists’ while anyone who was new was an immigrant. Sounds worse, ya know?”

“But with the Hun, it shouldn’t matter, right?”

Emmet shrugged. “You got me. Oh, Kari says make drones too. Ammo and drones.”

“We can’t control them though,” Emilie said forcefully.

Emmet raised his hands. “Kari says she can handle one, but what about later?”

Emilie nodded slightly. “Fine. But weapons cells take priority.”

The days crawled and the finished products piled up. Stacks of weapons stood next to tubes of drones and bulk containers of ammunition. But it was driving her mad, she needed to talk to someone outside and find a use for it all. She had the mechanical element, now she needed the human element.

“We need to go outside.”

Kari looked to Emmet and shrugged.

“Why?” Emmet asked with an indifferent shrug.

“We can’t stay here forever.”

“I beg to differ.”

“That was your plan? Hide out?”

“What’s wrong with that? What have you done? Made a bunch of weapons for an army that doesn’t exist?”

Kari looked between the two indifferently.

“Which is why I need to get outside,” Emilie said louder.

“And what then? Who you gonna find? The Hun own this place,” Emmet said, and threw his hands in the air. “You go outside, you’re on your own!”

Kari scowled at Emmet.

“Don’t you start!” Emmet shook a finger at Kari. “We just wait here until the fleet arrives. They’ll drop down some Marines and they’ll clean this shit up.”

“Fleet isn’t coming,” Emilie said softly.

“What?”

“They’re not coming. The UC is pulling back.”

Emmet sighed. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

Emilie shook her head. “Shock? Denial? I don’t know...”

“Well fuck.” Emmet ran his hands through his hair and nodded to Kari. “That changes things then.”

Kari stood slowly and cracked her shoulders. She nodded to Emmet and walked off.

“Where’s she going?” Emilie asked.

“To get ready, we’re going outside.”

*

E
milie felt the sea breeze on her face and tasted the salty brine. The fog above her was tinted orange from the setting sun. She glanced out from the debris and shivered in the mist.

“What’s the plan?” Emmet asked as he wrapped his jacket tighter.

“I’m assuming any civilian comms still open are compromised, can’t very well make a call or send a message.” Emilie opened a small rectangular box and placed a set of slender glasses onto her face. Her fingers gently plucked a white cylinder out and set it before her.

“What’s that?” Emmet said, leaning closer.

“A toy.”

“A toy?”

Emilie smiled at Emmet. “Never seen one before?”

Emmet raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms.

“Kari in position?”

“Yeah.”

Emilie leaned away from the cylinder and took shelter under the overhang. The glasses blinked once, twice, and showed a tiny world before her. An animated green cartoon dragonfly buzzed across the glasses with a
WHING!
sound. The cylinder wobbled and exploded into a miniature dragonfly of green and gossamer.

“Huh,” Emmet said with a smile.

She held her hand out and landed the small nanite creature. It buzzed and hummed before the wings finally stopped. Tiny droplets of water coalesced and ran down the diamond glittering wings. The cartoonish eyes blinked and shook. She saw herself through its eyes and tossed it into the air.

The dragonfly flitted up and away. She smiled and focused on flying. The glasses read her eye movement. The drone flew wherever she looked.

The mist broke away and the drone descended into the mostly empty streets. She buzzed a column of Hun troops and sent the drone vertical onto the tops of the buildings. She turned, perched it on a ledge, and watched the troops. Something didn’t look right, but she couldn’t place what, so she swooped in for another look.

The column was two wide with a single tall man on the edge. Each of the troopers was hunched over with heavy plate armor on its chest. The arms seemed too long, the weapons too short, the gait chopped and stunted. The person walking alone wore thinner armor and seemed distinct from the rest.

She scooted the dragonfly up and nudged it onto a window frame. The column passed by a few meters away and she gasped. The faces were vaguely humanoid but almost simian in proportion. It was like an ape slept with a badger. She shuddered and took off. This was not the Hun she had read about. The memory of the autocannon wielding giants came back and she shivered again.

It was easy enough to find her way: the entire community was planned. Block after block of housing rose up, with all roads eventually heading to Founders Square. She flew on until the buildings narrowed. Kari had told them that she’d seen regular civilians still there, so that was her goal.

The council building rose with stained stone walls and pillars streaked with rain. Lights blared out through almost every window. Standing guard at the door was a group of police, not Hun troopers. Though she did see Hun across the square. These troopers looked normal, human. She zipped the dragonfly along the edges of the buildings and edged through the high doors.

Lights and sound slammed into her ears and eyes as the drone took a moment to adjust. The air currents slid it from side to side, but the internals adjusted and compensated. Beneath her the hallway was filled with staff rushing in and out. She set the nose down and followed the stream of people.

The layout surprised her, it wasn’t a mass of stupidity and bureaucracy but a well layered flow. Had she wanted to layout a rudimentary system of control it would happen as she saw it. Whoever was at the end, was the person she wanted to meet.

The drone dropped lower and passed underneath a stone arch and the hallway was much quieter. She quickly pushed it back into the upper reaches of the hall and felt her throat stick as a clerk looked around for the source of the noise. The drone pushed forward quickly and came to the end of the hall.

She let out a breath and glanced at Emmet. He scanned the mist and rested with his hand on his rifle. A single bead of water hung from the end of his nose, ready to drop at any movement.

The drone dropped down and peeked inside before hammering back up to the ceiling. A slender woman sat with her back straight and her face down. Her hair was streaked with gray and she looked almost elegant—rough, but elegant. A man stood beside the table with his arms crossed over his chest. Emilie decided to wait and listen.

“We can’t feed them all,” the woman’s voice said.

“They want you to keep them fed,” the man’s voice replied.

“It’s your camp, your people. Send them out, call it a work crew.”

“Don’t tell me how to do my job, Natyasha.”

“That’s Councilor Dousman to you,” the woman said coldly. “Now do your damn job.”

The man stomped out the door. He turned and took two steps and stood beneath the dragonfly. He cracked his hands and shook his head slowly. “Not for long,” he mumbled and walked away.

Emilie saw her chance and dropped the dragonfly straight down and almost onto the floor. The little creature hovered and zipped through the room. It came to rest on the desk directly before the woman. She looked up in surprise before her eyes narrowed and she smiled slightly.

“One moment,” she said softly and walked away. The door clicked shut. “Emilie Rose?”

“Who are you?” Emilie asked. To her this was just another negotiation.

“Natyasha Dousman, Councilor.” The voice was silky, smooth, confident.

“You’re talking, so that tells me you’re interested.”

“That’s right.”

“I can offer weapons, ammunition, firepower, and information.”

Natyasha smiled slightly and nodded at the little dragonfly. “In return?”

“We both gain our freedom.”

Natyasha glanced up and back down to the dragonfly. “I won’t conduct business like this, you need to meet with a member of my staff.”

Emilie’s heart beat quicker. She missed someone. “Tomorrow night, the first landing.”

Natyasha gave a questioning look and then a smile crossed her thin lips. “Her name is Bark.”

“Her word?”

“Is as good as mine.”

“Open a window,” Emilie said.

Natyasha stood slowly and pushed open a frosted glass window behind her. She never let her eyes drift off of the drone.

Emilie piloted the dragonfly up, turned to look at the other person and pushed through the opening. The woman sitting across the room was built like a boxer with arms like a hydraulic press. The drone was out into open space and away. She removed the glasses and sighed.

“They’re gonna fuck ya,” Emmet said. The droplet fell off his nose. “They probably had the room bugged.”

Emilie wondered the same thing, but she didn’t have much of an option. She glanced into the fog and saw the light dimming. The gray returned and what little beauty the day offered was gone.

*

S
he plopped into a chair on the edge of the command room. The options weren’t what she liked. But, as they taught her in business school, a good plan now was better than a perfect plan too late.

The screen above her changed and shifted. She tried to examine the new data, but didn’t know the mass readings to understand what was happening. Her heart beat heavy in her chest and hope returned. Someone was still out there.

She watched as another blink point opened close to the planet. Seconds later the screen registered something new. Something she hadn’t expected to see. A message.

She almost tripped over the chair as she ran across the room and sat down at a console. Her fingers felt like sausages as she couldn’t quite tap the right spots. She was almost giddy with excitement. It had to be Captain Grace. Had to be.

The message lit up and it was short. “Anyone home? WG.”

She tapped out a response and stopped. Was it a ruse? A trap? She knew the data stream was secure and randomized across billions of nanites, but still. How much did she trust whoever would read it? She erased the first eager message and replied with something of use.

“Planet occupied. Local military surrendered. Interest in changing status quo. Mercs under hostile contract.” She sent it off and waited.

“Who is this? WG.”

How could she let him know without compromising herself? She thought for a second to the last time she’d seen Captain Grace and typed quickly. “It’s hard to stay away when you can make a difference.”

The moments passed with only the sound of the ventilation system clicking away.

“We knocked out the Hun troopship. Will try and remove the
Gallipoli
later. Can you secure the ground?”

The question hit her and she felt helpless, but not as helpless as she had before. “Working on it,” she replied, and waited until she saw that nothing more was coming. Hope, she thought. Now there’s some hope.

She shivered and thought back to the inhuman troops. She eyed her tablet and replayed the captured video. She slowed it down and watched as the handler walked and saw the arrogance, the control, the indifference.