The Syn-En Solution (17 page)

Bei winced at the reminder of the injured Syn-En. Although he hadn’t forgotten his men, Nell’s arrival had filled his thoughts since they’d found her. It was as if she’d climbed into his cerebral link and made herself at home. Still, that didn’t mean he trusted her. The more innocent citizens appeared, the more treacherous they proved to be. He knew that lesson well. Too bad it did nothing to curb his lust. “We have to keep Nell alive.”

Rome snorted. “At the expense of our own kind? Now you sound like a citizen.”

Idiot
! Shang’hai pinged the chief through the WA. “Nell Stafford is a symbol. Everything we’ve been taught since our induction has been about citizens. As much as you and I want freedom, the younger soldiers are still eager to serve, to prove themselves to the citizens.”

Bei grunted in approval at his engineer’s logic. Freedom was an abstract notion, but Nell was concrete. Something the Syn-En could see and touch. Bei rubbed his thumb over his fingers, remembering the feel of her skin and the soft texture of her hair. Well, maybe not touch. “You’ve decoded more of the flight recorder.”

“Yes….No.” Shang’hai twirled her fiber optic cable around her index finger. “We’ve decoded the writing on her stasis unit.”

“And?” Rome poked her shoulder, nearly sending her into the hall wall.

“And something completely unexpected. With your permission, Admiral, I’d like to save that until the meeting.” Shang’hai’s voice shook. “This is something you have to see to believe.”

Bei allowed her enthusiasm to wash over him. “Good news then?”

“Amazingly so.” She skipped a step. “I’ll never look at Nell Stafford the same.”

Neither would Bei, but he doubted it was for the same reason. His groin tightened at the memory of their time in the cargo bay. Her arousal had quickly become his own. So much so, he wondered if Doc had missed something in his scans. “Is it something I need to know now?”

He trusted his men, but he didn’t know if he wanted another surprise.

“Don’t worry, Bei.” Shang’hai’s eyes glittered. “It’s good news. I swear.”

At a bend in the bare, gray hall, three Syn-En crewmen fixated on their com screens. Spare parts littered the floor near their feet, no doubt meant to repair the broken relays in the wall. Instead of working, they replayed Nell’s speech. Her smiling face beamed out at them from the screen as she uttered those amazing words.

Chief Rome scrubbed his hands over his broad Germanic features. “Great. Three more skin junkies.”

Bei glanced at his head of security. Rome had been stripped of his captaincy when his team had arrived too late to save a powerful citizen’s kidnapped son. No one could have prevented the tragedy. The boy had been killed when he’d been snatched. Yet Rome had been blamed and the grieving parents had demanded a court martial. The Syn-En had allowed a letter of reprimand and a demotion for the head of the mission.

How deeply did the Chief’s resentment run and would it jeopardize the new mission or Nell’s safety? “I think it is her words that have them enamored, not her form.”

At first Bei’d been irritated that she had ignored Shang’hai’s prepared speech and had interpreted her resistance as citizen arrogance. But then, he’d registered her distress when she looked at the prompt. He’d never considered the possibility that she couldn’t read. Ignorance couldn’t explain it; those words she’d spoken were a thousand times better than anything they wrote. Everything she’d said hit him on a visceral level, and he wasn’t the only one affected.

Now, the atmosphere aboard the
Starfarer
was lighter, charged with excitement. More of his crew must have realized what the collapsed wormhole meant than he’d thought. Perhaps a higher power looked after the Syn-En and had sent Nell to them at this critical moment.

“Are you questioning the admiral’s loyalties, Chief?” Shang’hai stressed both titles as they stopped in front of the elevator doors.

“No, Commander,” Rome shot back, stabbing the up button. “Bei is more Syn-En than anyone aboard, but that means he’ll do just about anything to prove we’re as good as the citizens.”

The elevator doors snicked open and Bei entered the closet-sized space. “Nice to hear your faith in me is so unshakeable.”

The chief and Shang’hai squeezed inside, bracketing him. Their wide shoulders brushed Bei’s.

“You’ve saved my ass more times than I can count.” Rome smiled. “But I worry. You’ve cut yourself off from Syn-En flings, and then there was the Faso interlude and…” He shrugged, flashing his palms.

Bei stifled his irritation. The problem with growing up with your executive staff was they considered your personal life part of their own and tended to speak their minds. Not that they would disrespect him in front of others. They had been trained too well. But they also noticed small changes, like not participating in after mission comfort rituals.

“Stop nagging him like an anxious grandma.” Shang’hai reached around Bei’s back to shove Rome against the elevator wall. “Lots of the old Syn-Ens don’t participate anymore.”

“Old?” Bei straightened. He was in the prime of his life. So why had the orgies left him feeling more alone instead of part of something bigger?

Ignoring Bei, Shang’hai twisted to face Rome. “He has to conserve his strength. His legendary prowess in bed with several influential female citizens got him his promotion to admiral. The first Syn-En admiral.”

Rome grinned back and slapped Bei on the back. “That’s a benefit when half the appointment committee are women and want a one-on-one interview with our Syn-En Stud.”

Bei ground his teeth together. He had hated the nickname since Rome gave it to him when they were both sixteen. To hear it now and used in connection with those morally upright hypocrites on the review board… Hell, his reputation had almost cost him the appointment to the Admiralty, especially when the female citizens started comparing encounters.

Shang’hai’s almondine eyes narrowed. “You’re one to talk about stud service. You’ve slept with half the women in the Fleet. That’s why Havana didn’t want anything to do with you.”

Rome glanced over his shoulder as if expecting his lover, Commander Keyes, to be nearby. “I wouldn’t have slept with the others if she’d just once let me in her quarters. Hell, I knocked practically every night for two years.”

Shang’hai set her fists on her full hips. “So it’s her fault?”

“That’s enough,” Bei spoke softly. Their banter had fulfilled its purpose. Their emotions had been dealt with and they could move onto the next step. He doubted either expected what he was about to do, but then they’d been too busy with the citizen to look at the wreckage.

Both soldiers clamped their mouths closed and stood in parade stance. “Aye, aye, Admiral.”

Bei nodded, proud of their serious demeanor. Still, that comment about his age stung. He waited until the elevator slid to a stop. “As for my citizen conquests, you’re only half right. The Councilmen had very unhappy wives.”

The chief’s and Shang’hai’s shock lit up the WA as the doors opened.

Rome set his hand on Bei’s arm. “Be careful with her. I have a feeling even your experience won’t help you with this citizen.”

Shang’hai rolled her brown eyes, clamped onto the chief and dragged him onto the bridge. “Come on, Grandma Rome.”

XO Penig sat in the command chair in the center of the semi-circular bridge. Syn-Ens repaired five of the six damaged hubs arcing around the room. A fresh-faced, red-haired recruit manned the Science hub to the right of the elevator doors. His fiber optic cable pulsed blue, but the LCD above his station remained dark.

The fleet’s XO rose to his feet when Bei walked in. His head twitched when he saluted, proof that he needed more repairs. “Admiral on the bridge.”

Stepping onto the deck, Bei returned his XO’s salute. “Status, Penig.”

“All captains are in the briefing room, as requested, Admiral.”

“Shall we join them?”

“Aye, Admiral.” XO Penig’s head jerked to the right as he turned left. “Lieutenant Dublin, you have the bridge.”

“Aye, Sir. I have the bridge,” the red-haired Lieutenant Dublin confirmed.

Bei motioned for Chief Rome and Shang’hai to precede him through the double doors off the bridge. Excited chatter greeted him as he entered the rectangular ready room and scanned the occupants. Forty faces turned toward him as Bei stood on the threshold. Many he recognized, but most of the older Syn-En captains were absent. Had their class three enhancements failed? He turned to his XO, remembering that only the upgrades by a civie had kept the old Syn-En’s brain from frying in a surge.

XO Penig’s stride was jerky and tentative as he moved the five yards across the floor. “It looks worse than it is. I just need a few mobility programs reinstalled.”

Bei nodded and carefully blanked any emotion from his face. Come to think of it, Bei had been the last Syn-En in the fleet to have requisitioned upgrades. Even the younger Syn-Ens had sixth generation bionics. No one else aboard had seventh generation although they had been approved four months before the start of this mission. “Civilian Smith’s upgrades worked then.”

“Saved my life.” Penig patted the back of his neck as he entered the ready room off the bridge. “And they’re compatible with the newer software.”

Bei leaned close to his XO as the doors shut behind them. “Do you suppose the old war horses would be interested in similar modifications?”

XO Penig pinched his bottom lip. “We lost ten in Operation Blowback. Their hardware just couldn’t take the overload. Three more are critical. The civie thinks he can save them but…” Penig smoothed the fringe of white hair on his pale head. “My presence might convince the rest that Smith can be trusted.”

“Good.” Bei watched as one of the younger officers vacated her seat and slid the gray chair toward the XO. She sat on the floor in the fourth row of the executive staff.

Chief Rome worked his way to the back of the room to stand near the collapsed metal conference table leaning against the bulkhead.

Bei returned his attention to his second in command. “Oversee the rotation, but you’re to be repaired first. The Fleet XO should set the example.”

Penig’s joints creaked as he lowered himself into the chair and slowly wheeled it against the wall at Bei’s back. “Nothing like being a guinea pig for the cause.”

Chief Rome frowned as he glanced around the room.

Bei knew who his security officer sought. “Status of Commander Keyes?”

XO Penig set his hands on his knees and gingerly leaned back in his chair. “She’ll be rebooted in two hours.”

Rome winced.
Shit
!
She said she was undamaged. Damned hardheaded woman
.

Pings of sympathy passed through the WA.

Bei added his own to the mix. “Rebooted?”

Setting a neural link to its factory settings was a lot like stuffing a candle in an electrical outlet. You never got the results you wanted but did receive a nasty shock for your efforts. Add that everything got routed to pain sensors first and Commander Keyes would be hard pressed not to take off Bei’s head.

XO Penig studied his reflection in his black boots. “She kept trying to move, so I powered her down. I don’t think the chief has allowed her to get much sleep when she’s off duty.”

Hey, now, don’t blame me
, Chief shot back across the WA.
She gets her required four hours, just not all at once
.

Snickers rumbled through the officers as they picked up the exchange.

Tension bit into Bei’s shoulders as he surveyed the assembled Syn-En leaders. With what he was about to propose, he doubted their good humor would last long. “I’ll brief Keyes when she wakes.”

XO Penig scratched the white stubble on his chin. “Ahh, the pleasures of command.”

Pleasure? Hell, volunteering to talk to someone who’d just rebooted was a masochist’s wet dream. Bei waited for the chatter to fade before addressing the crowd. “Thank you all for coming.”

They nodded in unison.

“Before I begin, if you haven’t already done so, I’ll need a list of supplies on hand, status of all repairs, plus the names of the fallen.” Using the WA, Bei accessed the CIC and called forth his avatar. The little digital man crawled out from behind a mound of data bundles and began to sort and prioritize the information.

“Aye, Admiral,” the Syn-En chorused and the WA filled with other presences as those who just received their battlefield promotions sent the requested updates.

Biding his time until everyone looked at him, Bei noticed that the noise on the WA faded to background levels. Every Syn-En was listening. “Now as to the question of Citizen Nell Stafford, Engineer Shang’hai will fill you in on what we’ve learned so far.”

“Thank you, Admiral.” Shang’hai rose from her seat on Bei’s left. A holographic projector lowered from its cubby hole in the ceiling and a telescopic lens zoomed out, projecting an image of Nell’s stasis chamber.

Bei stepped to the left and stood on the opposite side of Penig, allowing the picture to cover the double doors.

Shang’hai flipped open the nail of her index finger and a red dot appeared on the image of the stasis unit. “During our search for the traitors, we discovered the citizen. Her life pod had apparently been scooped up with the debris of the
Perseus
. Nell Stafford is a one hundred percent organic human from Earth.”

A curly haired man in the back row leaned slightly forward. “I don’t recognize the writing.”

“It’s encoded.” With her pink hair standing on end, Shang’hai smiled. “Mathematical equations on the right side and text on the left. The math helped us translate the message.”

A woman in the front row stretched her legs into a patch of empty space and fingered her lieutenant’s insignia. “If Earth sent it, why was the message a secret?”

Before Shang’hai answered, Commander Brazil slammed his fist into his palm. The red button on his collar flashed in the dim light of the ready room. “What does it matter what citizens do? Admiral, are you really remaining in charge of the Fleet?”

Bei pushed away from the wall. Although wearing the red meant Commander Brazil had been charged with playing Devil’s Advocate in every executive meeting, the role could become quite tedious especially when someone relished the role as much as Brazil. “Yes, I am in charge.”