Outsystem (Aeon 14) (15 page)
Read Outsystem (Aeon 14) Online
Authors: M. D. Cooper
“You realize you’re a senior officer now too.” Tanis smiled.
“Damn…just when I thought I’d gotten used to it, my subconscious reminds me I haven’t.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“I do have a few autofit dresses you could look at.” Ouri led Tanis into her bedroom and after a few minutes they picked out a sedate blue sleeveless dress that came down just past Tanis’s knees. It snugged up to her body and she examined herself in the mirror.
After borrowing Ouri’s brush Tanis helped carry t
he last loads out to the fire pit—platters of meat for the night’s feast.
“Real meat?” Tanis asked.
“Yup, from right here in Old Sam. First generation; we’ve been testing out the protocols for herbivore initialization.”
“Where do you get the time for all of this?” Tanis asked as they laid condiments out on a wooden table. “I mean…I work you to the bone.”
Ouri smiled as she lit the grill. “Well, I make time for the things I love. I’m pretty good at this stuff, but I also seem to be pretty good at keeping people from blowing the ship up. They’re kinda interconnected.”
Tanis laughed. “So they are.”
“I also offload a lot of stuff onto Amy Lee.” Ouri chuckled as the grill came to life.
“God does she ever.” Amy Lee came strolling down the path with Terry Chang in tow. They had several baskets full of beverages,
which appeared to be mostly of the alcoholic variety. “I’d complain to her boss, but that she-devil would probably figure if I had time to complain I must have time for more work.” Amy Lee grinned, but then stopped short, her face turning red as she realized who she had just spoken to. “Uh…er…Major. I didn’t recognize you out of uniform.”
Tanis smiled at the second lieutenant. “We’re informal here, Amy Lee. Besides, I’ve got a really thick skin.”
“It’s actually true.” Joseph arrived with a few others. “I’ve needled her both physically and verbally to prove it—as you can see I survived to tell the tale.”
Tanis felt a small jolt of elation that Joseph had shown up. She had been hopeful, but didn’t want to come right out and ask Ouri.
“Yeah, but only just barely.” Tanis cast Joseph a stern look. “Amy Lee’s one of the ladies, she gets special dispensation. You’ve about used up all of your get out of jail free cards.”
Joseph put on an innocent face. “Me? I’m a paragon of cooperation and agreement. I have to be. I saw what happened to all the other men under you who didn’t toe the line.” He winked at Tanis as he stepped past her to put his load of bread down on the table.
Her gaze lingered on him a moment too long and he brushed against her shoulder at the same time. Tanis looked away and caught fleeting moments of recognition on the faces of Terry and Ouri. It would appear the attraction growing between her and Joseph wasn’t going unnoticed.
Their thoughts were obvious on their faces: so the major was human after all—and apparently falling for the dashing young commander. Too bad they were in the same chain of command.
Ouri began her hosting duties, greeting and introducing all the visitors as they arrived. A few assistant heads from the SOC that Tanis knew came down the path next, as well as the division head for stage three terraforming on the colony roster. The chief New Eden 1 station engineer came a bit later; she would be the woman in charge of taking the two habitation cylinders and mounting them to a space station when the
Intrepid
reached its destination. Her escort was the head of habitat environmental systems, a large-framed man with an easy smile and the biggest moustache Tanis had ever seen in person.
“A damn fine job you’ve done with your neck of the woods,” he said to Ouri as he surveyed the area around them. “You’ve turned what was little more than dirt two years ago into a very nice place indeed.” He turned to
Tanis and gave her a hearty clap on the shoulder. “And you’re the lassie I understand we owe being in one piece to.”
“I’m just happy to be here.”
“Believe us when we say we’re happy too,” said Erin, the station engineer. “You’re doing a fantastic job.”
“I want to get out of here as much as the next person. Just doing my part.” Tanis hated all the compliments.
“Not
here
here, I hope,” Ouri said with a smile as she handed out drinks.
“Only in as much as here is still in the Sol system
.” Tanis accepted the offered beverage. She looked up at the arching landscape overhead, just beginning to be draped in the shadows of dusk. “Once we get outsystem, here is a place I can see myself frequenting in the future.”
Later in the evening, Tanis found herself sitting with Ouri and Joseph around a fire that had been made by some of the revelers for the purpose of roasting marshmallows.
“So I’ve been looking over the proposed duty schedules and I realized something odd.” Ouri slowly rotated her marshmallow over the fire.
“Mmmm?” Tanis said around a mouthful of sticky goo.
“Well, I don’t have a debarkation date for Abby and Earnest,” Ouri said. “I think they’re staying on.”
“Huh? That can’t be right. What would people like them be doing on a colony mission?” Joseph asked.
“I know.” Ouri nodded. “That’s what’s so strange.”
Tanis gave
momentary debate to telling the truth and decided to do so. “They’re trying to keep it hush hush,” She said after finally managing to swallow the three marshmallows in her mouth. She erected a security barrier around them and put a hand over her mouth to mask her lip movement. “From what I can tell they’re coming along. Even stranger, I think Terrance is coming too.”
“What? Why’s he coming? Doesn’t he have some big multiworld corporation to look after?” Joseph asked.
“More than one.” Tanis nodded. “But he’s coming nonetheless. There’s something afoot here, something else. Think about it. Andrews is one of the best, one of the most qualified starship captains alive. Terrance is the owner of one of the largest private corporations in history and Earnest and Abby are two of the most important scientific minds of all time. Couple that with the fact that Admiral Sanderson is nowhere near retirement and you have a very interesting set of circumstances.”
“
Interesting
doesn’t even begin to cover how weird all of that is,” Ouri agreed.
“No kidding. When you consider all of that together...” Joseph
nodded.
“Even more,” Tanis continued. “Why does the
Intrepid
have an AI that could manage a dozen planets—possibly the most advanced AI ever—and why are we taking over twice the personnel and equipment than any other colony has ever before?”
“You’re making me nervous,” Ouri said. “What do you think it all means?”
“Damned if I know.” Tanis prepared another marshmallow. “But one thing is for sure. Something very interesting is planned for New Eden. Something that someone else doesn’t want to happen, and even our own benefactors don’t want us to know about.”
“So you’re saying that we shouldn’t be speculating amongst ourselves.” Joseph couldn’t help
but cast an eye around him.
“I think we’re best off not knowing what the underlying elements are here.” Tanis nodded in agreement. “At least not for now. Terrance is a bit shifty, but I’d trust Captain Andrews with my life. Sanderson may be a dick, but he’s a by-the-book dick who wouldn’t be involved in something subversive.”
“Damn, I hope you’re right,” Joseph said.
“When haven’t I been?” Tanis smiled as she dropped the security shield and proceeded
to roast her next marshmallow, signaling the end to the conversation.
The gathering lasted long into the night. Some
visitors left early, but others arrived late; a few of Ouri’s neighbors around the lake came by to visit as the evening progressed. It was nice; it was a hint of what their lives would be like when they arrived at New Eden.
Until then, before they could be on their way, the work of completing the ship had to be done; the schedule had to be maintained. The
GSS Dakota
was meeting all of its milestones early, and with the recent security issues, no one was feeling as confident as they had several years ago.
But tonight for a few hours everyone forgot those concerns; everyone pretended they had arrived at New Eden and were living the life they had always dreamed about. Tanis wasn’t sure when her dream had begun, but she knew now where it would end.
STELLAR DATE: 3227223 / 09.27.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION:
Mars Outer Shipyards (MOS)
REGION:
Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation
“How is it, Commander that you seem to end up a part of my security detail so often?” Tanis asked Joseph. “Don’t you have a fighter to fly or something?”
Joseph laughed his deep chuckle that Tanis found herself liking more and more eve
ry day. “I’ve got plenty of flyboys and flygirls now to handle that end of things. My main concern is keeping you alive so they don’t force me to do your job again.”
It was Tanis’s turn to laugh.
A more common occurrence in Joseph’s company—perhaps a connection existed… “I’m glad you have such an altruistic motivation for keeping me safe.”
“I’m all altruism. So where are we going today?” Joseph asked.
“To meet with some mercs that want to capture or kill me.”
“Pardon?” Joseph nearly tripped. “Don’t have enough trouble in your life as it is? Do you always have to go running toward it?”
PFC Lauder chuckled at that and earned a glare from Corporal Peters.
“It’s OK.” Tanis glanced at the four members of squad one/fireteam one from Forsythe’s platoon—her usual security detail. “We’re meeting with Lieutenant
Grenwald first. He’s got tactical on the situation. Besides,”—she gave Joseph a playful look—“if you’d known there would be danger would you have passed on joining me?”
Joseph coughed and stammered, “Of course not.”
She explained the situation to her companions as they boarded a maglev. Some mercs had set up what they must have thought would be a great lure; after somehow taking control of a cargo ship that ran tech goods to the
Intrepid
from Ceres, they slipped some contraband into a shipment. Not enough to set off all the alarms, but enough to get Tanis down there in person.
“So
then why
are
you going down yourself?” Joseph asked. “Couldn’t you have Grenwald take them without you?”
“Perhaps, but there’s a possibility they may have rigged the ship to blow. I have the best AI and highest-grade nano available at the moment, so I’m the best one to run point.”
A cross corridor away from the dock, they slipped through a nondescript doorway and came face to face with Grenwald’s platoon.
“Is everything in readiness, Lieutenant?” Tanis asked.
“It is, sir. We’ve got one/two on the dock, four remote sniping units in the ducts, and the rest of the team is ready to move in if needed. I’ve also got a direct line to engineering in case anything goes wrong.”
“Excellent.” Tanis nodded. “Commander Evans and my detail are with me. Don’t shoot unless I give the word; the more live bodies, the better.”
“Yes, sir.”
With that they swung back into the corridor and around the bend. Dock E3 was directly ahead, its bay doors
watched by two guards who were TSF Regulars. Grenwald had briefed them via the Link and they saluted Tanis and Joseph as they stepped onto the dock.
Dock E3 was a multilevel affair with ships docking at the highest level and
cargo moving via down-ramps to the lower storage and distribution areas. Looking up through the twisting array of chutes and gravity-powered elevators, Tanis saw four ships in interior berths.
Her overlay lit up with the people on the dock, highlighting the positions of the four
Marines who were undercover as cargo handlers, working the shipments on the other vessels. Red halos surrounded the men from the suspect ship and their cargo glowed yellow.
were looking annoyed as one of the MOS’s cargo inspectors read off the long list of statutes they had violated.
“And you are certainly going to be cited with failure to declare deviation of flight plan as you were half a percentage off o
n each of your two final trajectory alterations. MOS will be levying a fine against you for that.”
“Look, we just want to deliver our cargo and get off this tin can,” said the man who appeared to be in charge. “We’ve got a schedule to keep and this delay is going to cost us more money than your damn fines.”
