Outsystem (Aeon 14) (21 page)
Read Outsystem (Aeon 14) Online
Authors: M. D. Cooper
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Jens said.
“I read massive bio signals in here.”
“Massive? How’s that happen?”
“Uh…Jens…I think there’s a body in here.”
Jens couldn’t speak for a moment…Lieutenant Collins would be all over his ass, the major would want a full investigation and the rest of his day would be shot.
“How could that slip by on the other end?”
“You gotta calibrate properly for silbio. The whole mess is technically organic, so it would just read as ‘alive’ to any regular scanner.”
Jens sighed and got on the Link to call in a medic team to take possession of the tub. The body was probably dead, and that was going to generate a mess of paperwork.
Petrov chuckled, “How the hell do you RMA something like this?”
STELLAR DATE
: 3227279 / 11.22.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION:
Mars Outer Shipyards (MOS)
REGION:
Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation
“When will she be conscious?” Tanis asked.
“Not too long now,” the medic said. “Her AI apparently linked in with some of the silbio and put her in a sort of pseudo-cryo; it used some of the
stuff to seal her wounds, too.”
“Have we got anything from her AI on what happened?”
“Not yet, the AI completely ran out of power trying to sustain the cryo. It’s in hard shutdown; it’ll take the girl’s command to get it to re-init.”
“It’s always something.” Tanis sighed.
The medic blinked rapidly. “Looks like she’s coming to; let’s go see what she has to say.”
The girl—woman, Tanis corrected herself—lying on the slab was shorter than average, probably only five and a half feet. Uncommon to see in an age when
nearly all children were more designed than simply “had.” She appeared somewhat dazed as she looked around the medroom; the one organic eye blearily attempting to focus on her surroundings.
“Hello, miss. I’m Dr. Anne Rosenberg. You’re on the Mars Outer Shipyards; you’ve been shot, but you’re going to be OK, thanks to your AI.”
“My AI? I…I can’t hear her! She’s not here!” A look of panic spread across the woman’s face.
“Relax,” Dr. Rosenberg said. “She ran your internal power down and you’re goin
g to need to run her through her startup sequence—though I strongly recommend that you don’t do that until you are better rested.”
“I’m Major Richards,” Tanis said. “We don’t have any ID on you and you really weren’t expected on MOS. Do you have any idea how you ended up here?”
“Name’s…Trist. I remember being on Callisto R14…I remember dying.”
“You would have if your AI hadn’t plugged you up with the silbio. Saved your life.” Dr. Rosenberg gave Trist a soothing smile.
“I’m guessing you weren’t in that warehouse on Callisto to give our shipment your seal of approval, were you,” Tanis asked.
Trist chuckled; it was low and throaty. “Only the best in the Space Force I see. Y
eah, I was there with my friend—Jesse—we were lifting some stuff.”
“The report I was delivered said that your friend took a bullet to the head. Care to elaborate on what happened?” Dr. Rosenberg shot Tanis an incredulous look and she realized perhaps a little more tact wouldn’t have hurt.
“Aw shit…Jesse.” Trist’s eye lost its focus and she shuddered, trying to keep control of herself. “Any chance I can just go back to being dead?”
“I don’t really think that’s going to get on the list of options,” Tanis replied. “I’m sorry about your friend…sorry I brought it up like that.”
Trist grimaced, but nodded slowly.
“Look, why don’t you just start at the beginning, and take me through it.” Tanis
said.
Trist didn’t say a word for several minutes, Tanis suspected that she was having a conversation with her AI about their options. Then, slowly, she
proceeded to explain how she had acquired the manifest of items being shipped to the
Intrepid
, broken into the warehouse and been ambushed by some unknown thugs. The last thing she remembered was being shot after seeing Jesse die.
“So I’m guessing that for whatever reason, the shipment still got sent here, and somehow, me with it,” Trist concluded. “How did that happen anyway?”
“Gunshots alerted a security drone that was patrolling the warehouse you had been in. It arrived on the scene to find a detonation charge planted on one of the opened crates. The charge was disabled and when crews arrived to check everything over they found that some items were in duffels, but otherwise all the cargo was still present. For whatever reason they didn’t see your body and just sealed the silbio up again—I don’t know how they thought that was going to pass muster. The official record was entered as some sort of dispute between thieves with one fatality. They surmised the other must have run off after the gunshots to avoid detection.”
Trist looked perplexed. “You’ve asked me a lot of questions, but I have one. How am I still alive? I have this distinct impression that I was dying when that loud-mouthed bitch shot me.” She ran a hand across her torso, almost as though she expected to find holes where the rounds had impacted her.
Dr. Rosenberg provided the answer. “Your AI managed to interface with the silbio and programmed it to form a seal on your wounds and put you into a semi-cryo state. It was really quite an ingenious bit of work; you are lucky to be alive.”
“Sue is pretty damn clever; I bet not any AI could have pulled that off.” Trist grinned.
“I wouldn’t get too excited,” the doctor cautioned. “No one has ever done what she did with silbo, Somehow the process has caused it to bind to your DNA with consequences I can’t quite foresee. You wouldn’t be the first human to be a bit more silicon than flesh, but this is different.”
Trist grimaced, and then gave a half smile, “so when someone asks animal, mineral or vegetable I can say all three?”
Tanis found the attitude to be a bit too blasé and Angela added her own internal comment,
accident.”
“I’m glad it’s so beneficial to you.”
The doctor gave Trist a caustic look. “I’d say that the majority of the benefit is yours. You’d be dead otherwise.”
“I do
kinda like being alive.”
Tanis took the opportunity to redirect the conversation,
“and while it’s great that you’re alive, you’ve got some things to answer for.” She kept to herself that this could actually be a blessing in disguise. This woman might have seen something that would help them. “There will most likely be charges of trespass from Callisto, and then there’s the cost of our tub of silbio. I think that it will run you about a century’s wages.”
Trist sank back. “I guess there’s no running from this one is there?”
“Not even the slimmest chance,” Tanis said. “However…” She let it hang out there for a minute, watching Trist grow agitated with interest.
“However what?”
Trist finally asked.
“Your testimony would be useful for starters.”
“Against who? Some guy who I can only describe as ‘the skinny guy with the bimbo squad’?”
“More or less,” Tanis replied. “We think we know who he is, and if we could
gain some leverage against him he could point us in the direction of who is calling the shots. Maybe then we’d have a chance to make some headway against STR.”
Trist rose up on her elbows. “You want me to testify against STR? Are you nuts?”
“You know, Dr. Rosenberg, I think we’ve bothered our guest enough for one day. I’ll come back to see her tomorrow.”
“I was about to say the same thing,” the doctor replied.
“Lieutenant Amy Lee will be getting in touch with you to transport our guest aboard the
Intrepid
. I don’t want any unexpected visitors ending her time with us.”
The doctor nodded and Tanis left the MOS north sector’s med facilities.
Angela replied.
Angela made a noise that Tanis had come to identify as her signal of frustration.
Tanis leapt on the back of a cargo hauler heading across the docks toward the
Intrepid
.
Angela and Tanis cut their conversation short as a call came in from Joe.
Intrepid
but also a pending extradition request from Callisto. They seem a bit uncertain about which to follow.>
Joe sounded worried.
“Just seems practical to me…” Tanis said to herself as the hauler sped across the loading dock to the
Intrepid
.
somehow both more and less formal with him than normal,>
Angela commented.
Tanis didn’t respond immediately.
Somehow the term seemed a bit more derisive than normal.
STELLAR DATE
: 3227280 / 11.23.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION:
GSS Intrepid
, Mars Outer Shipyards (MOS)
REGION:
Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation
Joe took a seat across from Tanis in her office. “I assume you actually have a plan now? One that isn’t just ‘we use the civilian as bait’?”
Joe, for his part, had been true to his word in demonstrating that they could work together and not have his feelings get in the way.
She was still somewhat uncertain about what tone her interactions with him should take, but it was becoming easier. Especially when she was deep in her work.
