Gunship (57 page)

“Seth left on his own,” Zain said heatedly. “He stole a gunship and evaded the team I sent to recover him.”

“I know. Captain Callum met us when we jumped out. Seth passed us his previous jump coordinates during the battle to get us out of range of the fleet. And to make sure that we had adequate backup.” Tiny gave the Commander an accusatory stare to which he didn’t respond.

“How soon before you arrive at our new location?” Zain demanded.

“We had to stop on Roen to refit. We leave tomorrow.”

“So Callum is still with you?”

Tiny paused, deciding how much to tell him. “Yes and we have recruited a few other ships from Roen to join us.”

Zain looked interested. “How many did you get?”

“Actually, Captain Campbell recruited them. It looks like enough for a wing, including two gunship squadrons, one for her and one for Captain Callum.”

Irritation and…fear…Tiny realized both of these reactions were what she read briefly on Zain’s face as he hid them with a quick smile.

“Good, good. We can use the help. You have a method to weed out any potential implants?”

“I do, although if there are any here I haven’t picked them up yet. We’ll use it when we head out tomorrow. Captain Campbell has already briefed the other ship captains, and while they aren’t thrilled about it, they all agreed that they don’t want to have to deal with any saboteurs.”

Zain nodded briskly. “I expect you to check in individually when you arrive at the beacon. If I can find Seth, I’ll need you to recover him and bring him back here. The doctors believe he may have suffered from faulty programming and require medical attention.”

Faulty programming my ass!
Tiny thought as Zain tried to brush off his illegal programming methods as bad code. She nodded stoically and then signed off, slipping the handheld into her pocket. The pain in her temple was gone now, but still she gently rubbed the spot. She walked back down to the bay where Ty sat messing with his rifle. It was obvious he was not really focused on the job, though, because he set the weapon down and looked at her expectantly.

“So what the hell was that? Some kind of weird Gaiden migraine?”

It bothered her sometimes when he made jokes about her being a Gaiden. Tiny knew he didn’t mean anything by it, but the words were still a reminder of the differences between them. She shook her head, irritated by the situation and by Zain. The sick feeling in the pit of her stomach was growing every time she talked to the Commander. If she did find Seth, she was pretty certain that bringing him back to Zain would be a low priority for both her and the crew. There may be ways that she could help him herself, without Zain’s interference. She turned her attention back to Ty, who was still waiting for her to respond.

“It was a signal, part of Gaiden programming. If I don’t check in regularly enough or if Zain needs to reach me, he can send a code. It causes a significant jolt of pain just behind the right eye and serves as a reminder to contact him as well as a warning in case I decided to go rogue and operate against him.”

“And what would happen then? If you went rogue, I mean?” Ty appeared calm, but his eyes were cold.

“Zain could trigger a code that would either disable me or terminate me,” Tiny said simply.

Ty took in what she had just said. “So Zain can kill you if you don’t do what he wants?”

“It sounds worse than it is. We are afforded a certain measure of discretion and flexibility in our work, but yes, if I were to disobey a direct order from Zain or became a threat to the rightful government, he could control me or kill me.”

“It doesn’t sound worse; it sounds exactly as it is!” Ty snarled. “So basically you’re no better than an implant!” He got up and paced angrily across the floor.

Tiny watched his reaction with shock. The way Ty made it sound, it was as if she were a slave. True, the control code was a new addition to the training program following the revolution, but it was a safety measure, not one that was meant to be abused. His anger made sense, especially in light of what she had revealed about Zain’s programming of Seth, clearly a gross violation of the training regulations. A disturbing thought pushed its way to the front of her mind. What if Zain decided to use her own programming against her? She shrugged it off, convincing herself that it wasn’t possible, that the Commander was committed to doing the right thing. She almost bought it for half a minute before giving in to the possibility.

“You may be right,” Tiny admitted. “Zain has already shown he is willing to take drastic measures to get ahead in the war, even if they are against regulation. But I don’t think he would attempt to do that with me.”

“Why not? He’s willing to do it with his new trainees, so why not with the others as well?”

“He won’t do it because he knows he made a mistake with Seth. He defied the rules of the code and removed the normal controls. He created a warrior who is a danger not just to him personally but to the government he is fighting to protect. Zain is no fool. He knows that if we win this war, there will be a reckoning, and he will be held accountable for what he has done.”

Ty snorted. “By who? The government?”

“By me,” Tiny said. “I should have paid more attention. He wouldn’t have been able to do what he has done to Seth. He will answer for that when the time comes. I owe it to Seth and I owe it to his father as well. Zain will answer for his actions. I swear it.”

Ty looked at her face, grim with determination. She was serious and so was her oath. He nodded and reached out towards her.

“I’ll help you,” he said as he gripped her arm, “for Seth and Duv.”

She looked at him wordlessly, then gripped his arm back in return. “We’ll do it together.”

“Together,” Ty agreed.

Tiny picked up the rifle and finished tweaking the lower receiver, then loaded some blank test rounds and handed the gun back to Ty. He flipped the gun to automatic and hit the trigger as the blanks sprayed, emptying the magazine in a matter of seconds. He smiled and looked back over his shoulder.

“I like it! Let’s do the rest!”

Tiny began pulling the battle rifles out as Ty contentedly started to dismantle each and ready it for the modification. He glanced over and watched Tiny work on the first gun as he continued opening the rest, her fingers flying over the mechanisms, making the necessary changes. She was amazing with weapons. She could modify almost anything to make it more lethal. Ty had found her to be an exceptional instructor as well. In a day, she had taught him several new techniques to get a weapon on target faster and more accurately, precious seconds that could save lives, his included. She had already saved his life once, but even if he hadn’t owed her a debt, his mind still would have been made up. If she was going to take on Zain, then he wasn’t going to let her do it alone. The Commander had picked the wrong crew to screw with.

—————

Duv sat with Marek and Chang at their usual table in the corner. To their left, Nado and the rest of his crew sat playing cards or watching the Armistice Day fights in the temporary ring set up where the dance floor normally existed. The atmosphere was festive with people cheering on their favorite fighters, drinking, and playing cards. Only one thing was missing: Holly still hadn’t shown up. Duv fidgeted in his seat while he thought about all the messages he had posted to her. Maybe it had been too much, he had been too open. Of course he never dreamt that the messages were actually reaching her. He felt like an idiot, pouring his soul out like that. He should have known better than to put what he was feeling into writing, let alone post it to his old blog for Seth to find. Why that boy had felt the need to send them on to Holly was beyond him. As far as he knew, Seth was fairly oblivious to their relationship, but then again, kids watched everything. Seth was sharp enough that he would have been able to figure out something was going on. Duv thought about his son, wondering where he was and what kind of mission Zain had sent him on. He hoped he was all right. Duv looked up as Chang continued to nudge him in the ribs.

“What?” he asked as he picked up his head, irritated at being disturbed.

And just like that, there she was. She looked down at him with that same soft smile as his face registered surprise, relief, and joy all at the same time. Before she could say a word, he had picked her up and swung her around while she laughed at him. When he put her back down, she leaned in and stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss. Duv returned the kiss and pulled her in tight while Chang and the rest laughed and clapped at the display.

“So you missed me, then?” she asked, a mischievous smile playing across her lips.

He grinned back. “Hell yes, I missed you!” He pulled her in close again for another hug before turning her loose, but he made certain to keep hold of her hand.

“Hey! Get a room, you two!” Lee Roy yelled at them while Marek choked on his beer from laughing too hard. Duv waved them off in mock disgust as he sat back down and pulled Holly onto his lap. She smiled back at him apologetically.

“I would’ve been here sooner, but my cousin was pretty sick, so I was helping out with the kids. She finally got to feeling better today, and when she heard you were here, she had her sister come over so I could break away for a visit.”

“I’m really glad you did. I was beginning to think it was something I said.”

Holly shook her head. “No, nothing like that. I did get all of your posts and I wanted to reply, but your account ID was blocked. Anything I tried to send just bounced right back. I’m so sorry about Seth. Have you heard anything else from the doctors?”

Duv shook his head, eyes down. This was the one thing he hadn’t been totally truthful on. How could he tell anyone outside the crew that his kid was now a Gaiden and hope that they would understand?

Holly gently tilted his chin up until their eyes met. “They’ll take good care of him. I know you miss him being around, but hopefully you’ll get to see him soon. Until then, you’ll just have to make do with me!”

Duv smiled at her again. She had such a natural way of making him feel better. He pulled her in close as they watched the fights and she filled him in on local gossip. For a brief moment, he closed his eyes and it almost felt like being home.

The others continued to cheer on the fights. Marek and Lee Roy joked as they played cards. Before they knew it, the three hours were up. Lee Roy agreed to come back to the ship for a few more hands and some stories. Duv looked at Holly.

“Do you need to get back to your cousin? Or can you come spend a few more hours with us?” he asked hesitantly

“Us? Hmmm…actually, I was hoping to spend a few more hours with
you,
if I’m allowed!” Holly started to laugh as a huge smile lit Duv’s face.

“What’s wrong with us?” teased Marek as they walked down the street towards the docks. “We’re way classier than Jackson!”

“And we’re a hell of a lot more fun!” Lee Roy shot her an impish grin, and they all began to laugh.

Duv and Holly walked hand in hand towards the ship while the rest of the crew continued to joke and cut up. They didn’t speak, but they didn’t need to. It was one of those rare moments when the world seemed just about right, and neither of them wanted to ruin it with words. They walked up the ramp and then on to the common room to continue catching up. Ty and Tiny were working on some rifles in the bay. Tiny waved distractedly as the group went by, calling out hellos while Ty gave Duv a half-hidden thumbs-up and a wink. Duv grinned back and held Holly’s hand a bit tighter. She looked at him and smiled. She knew in her heart she really loved this man. He had been through so much, but here he was, still moving ahead. Of course, that was why she had to kill him, to stop him from feeling the pain and to make Reilly Campbell pay for what she had done. Holly sighed contentedly. If only everything in life were so clear!

Proximity alarms woke the Tether from his sleep. As he stood up to look at his holoscreen, a loud banging began on the door to the back of his ship. He could see a sizable crowd of locals outside, armed and surrounding him. Several were covering down on the front of the vessel with blasters as others ran up and began to bang on the hull. The Tether relaxed and sat back down at the controls. They would be unable to get in, and he could just take off. All of his implants had already been tasked, so other than his goal of bringing in Campbell, there was no reason for him to stay. He was annoyed that the locals had found him and interrupted his plans. He began the flight sequence, when all at once three separate explosions hit, blasting him to the floor. A gaping hole loomed through the smoke and debris, and he struggled as hands grabbed him and held him down, searching for and removing all of his weapons.

“We got him, Shep! What do you want us to do with him?” one man called out.

Shep walked over, armed with a battle rifle, and looked down at the Tether. Their eyes met and the Tether bared his teeth, snarling in a dangerous grin. Shep looked at him for a moment more and then shot him in the head. The men holding him down stood up slowly, some of them a bit shocked.

Shep spit a wad of chew out on the ground and safed his gun before slinging it again. Then he looked around at the others, steadily meeting their gazes.

“You see this?” he said as he kicked the dead Tether’s body. “This is space trash, a parasite that came down to kill us. You find any more of these on patrol, you let one of the patrol leaders know. We’ll come out like we did tonight and kill it. You don’t give it mercy, and you don’t listen to its lies. If you do, you’ll be dead before you can blink. There will be more that show up like this one, maybe some other weird shit too. You find it, you call it in. Keeps you safe and keeps your families safer. Understood?”

The men nodded or “Hooahed” in response before breaking off into their teams and heading back out into the desert on patrol. Shep waited a moment longer with his team as they searched the remainder of the Tether vessel. One man came back with an active handheld that he passed to Shep to examine. Shep scrolled through it, nodding to himself, then pocketed the thing and waved the team ahead as he began moving back towards town.

“C’mon, boys. It looks like someone is determined to keep messing with Captain Campbell and her crew. You’d think by now they’d have learned”—Shep shook his head as they scanned the landscape for anything unusual—“but then again, some folks just aren’t as smart as others.”

The rest of his men gave an appreciative laugh but remained focused on the terrain around them. If someone was messing with Captain Campbell, then it was certain that before long they’d wind up messing with Shep too. Which meant the fight was coming to them, like it or not.

—————

Reilly was surprised when Trace shook her awake. She realized that the crew had returned and then jumped, worried that something had happened.

“No, everything is fine,” Chang said, recognizing the look in her eyes. “But Shep has come by with interesting news that you need to hear.”

Reilly looked around to find Shep and two other men she didn’t recognize standing off to one side. They were dressed in desert-night camo and tactical gear with battle rifles slung on their backs. She pushed aside the military blanket and gratefully accepted a cup of coffee that Trace pushed at her. The old metal military clock told her it was around three a.m. She accepted a silver handheld from Shep as he sat down on a nearby chair and began to talk.

“When you landed, we had already seen enough strange activity to reactivate full patrols. So my men were watching for anything or anyone that stood out. Sure enough, they see this guy checking out your ships. It looked like he was checking your perimeter security on a handheld. So they followed him. Turns out he’s a Tether. We went back and finished the job this evening, but when one of my boys found this, I wanted to make sure you saw it too.”

Reilly had already found what Shep wanted her to see. She set her coffee down and flipped through the screens.

“No pictures and only partial names,” she noted, handing the device over to Chang. “Still, it tells us that he had eight implants here. I was hoping to not find any.”

“I have my patrols watching for any additional Tethers, but we are stuck on the implants.” Shep sipped from the mug Chang passed him. “Any ideas on how to find them?”

“Yeah, but it won’t be pretty. Gunny, can you find Tiny? She’s the one who came up with the plan, so I’d like her to explain it.”

Chang nodded, handing off the device to Trace as he headed down to find Tiny. A few minutes later, they were back. Tiny looked as if she had already been awake. She nodded curtly to Shep and the others, then looked at Reilly, who passed her the handheld.

“Looks like eight implants. Shep thinks there may be more. I’d like you to share what we know and some techniques he and his teams can use to help identify them.”

Tiny continued to play with the handheld, looking at the names. The Tether had shortened them, which would make it harder to identify who they were, and that left them with limited options.

“I have created a gate. As you know, Gaiden are also coded, and while we’re not implanted, we are susceptible to gating as well.”

“A gate?” Shep looked confused. “What does that mean, ‘gating’?”

“It is one of the few ways an implant or a Gaiden can be killed.” Tiny looked over at Reilly. She had found the gate equipment soon after becoming part of the crew. It was in fact what had tipped her to the possibility that her cover had been blown and that the crew knew what she was.

“Gating was designed to remove implants quickly in order to prevent them from getting into the regular population and causing chaos. Later, it was used during the Rebellion to kill off Gaiden who opposed the AOC. A gate consists of four points that connect four directed-energy weapons. It can be made to be any size, small enough for a person or large enough for a ship. A normal person can move through the gate with impunity. An implant cannot. The gate has a detector that will sense the coding in the brain. In turn, a signal is sent to indicate that a threat is present and the gate immediately goes active to neutralize that threat.”

“Neutralized how?” Shep asked.

“The implant is hit with the beams of all four directed-energy weapons at the same time and killed instantly.”

“And there are no other ways to remove the implant from the individual?”

“Yes, but they are more time consuming. If you are able to identify an implant, the device can be removed surgically if it is near the skin. All implants are programmed to attack when attempted removal of the device occurs, so you must dose them and keep them under until the surgery is complete and their brain chemistry returns to normal. If the device has a kill switch, it may detonate, killing the implant as well as the surgeon. These must be defused before removal. I’m not certain what types we are dealing with here, but I know if we start to remove them successfully, Welch will simply turn to the kill-switch-enabled implants to stop us.”

Shep ran a hand through his tangled hair and put his patrol cap back on. “Well, it sounds like we are going to be limited then on options to save individuals. Let’s focus on what we can do to stop them. How can I identify them?”

Tiny pulled out her handheld and hit a button. An application popped up, and she showed it to Shep and the others. “You can install this on any handheld. I modified the code from an older program. It will recognize any coded individuals in a specific area. For example, if I search the area of space occupied by the ship, I will find one coded individual, myself, reflected in that space as indicated by a red dot…”

Tiny trailed off, staring at the screen. All of the people on the ship showed as blue dots. She showed as a red dot in the middle of a bunch of blue dots. But just down the hall, there was one blue dot and one red dot as well. The list of partial names ran through her head again. Trv, Lam, Zed, Hly, Crs, Brt, Knh, Mcl.

“Duv!” Tiny and Reilly were both on their feet and sprinting down the hall as fast as they could. Tiny pulled open the hatch to Duv’s bunk room, hoping they weren’t already too late.

—————

Duv felt strange. He and Holly had gone back to his bunk and started talking about everything that had happened since he had left. It was so easy for him to talk to her that he found himself telling her the truth about what had happened to Seth, his drinking, his fight with Tiny, everything. She sat and listened, sometimes asking questions but mostly leaning her head on his chest while they sat on the small sofa at one end of the room. As he finished, she leaned up and kissed him again. Before long, they were both lost in each other, and the last thing Duv remembered was wrapping Holly up next to him and drifting off to sleep.

Now he thought he was dreaming but he wasn’t certain. For one thing, he couldn’t move at all. He watched Holly smiling sweetly at him as she sharpened a knife, talking to him softly, telling him how much she loved him and how she was going to protect him from all the pain he had been through. No, he knew it had to be a dream. He laughed as he heard a loud crash in the background. Tiny and the Captain appeared, and some other people too, then oddly enough Holly tried to fight the Captain with the knife. It must be a show, a demonstration fight. He wondered at that, since he knew Holly couldn’t fight. Everything moved very slowly as the Captain knocked the knife from Holly’s grasp and Holly tried to punch her. Then Tiny moved in and pinned Holly to the wall. The Captain looked very big to him now, and she was asking him something but he couldn’t understand the words. When she looked away, he could see Holly was still fighting like a wildcat as Tiny forced her to the floor and held a knife to the back of her neck. The Captain went over and pushed her back down. Duv was feeling more uncomfortable now. The dream didn’t make any sense, and he could smell blood as Tiny dug the knife blade deep into the back of Holly’s neck. A moment later, she pulled something out and held it to the light. The Captain took it and pocketed it. Holly staggered up, shaking her head and looking confused before lunging back towards the Captain. Tiny grabbed her arm again, pushing her down to the floor as she tried to fight her way to her feet. A distinct snap rang out, and then Tiny let Holly fall. Duv was angry now. He wanted to get up, but he couldn’t move. He needed to reach Holly. Tiny filled his entire vision now. She disappeared as a blinding white light hit his eyes, and then the room went dark. Duv relaxed again.
Definitely a weird dream,
he reassured himself as the smell of the blood began to fade. He hoped he would wake up soon.

When he finally did wake up, he found he was alone in his bunk. He looked around the room. Holly’s jacket was still next to his on his locker door. Duv sat up as his head rang out with pain. He shook it gingerly before standing and looking at the metal floor. His eyes were a bit blurry, but when they cleared, he could make out the spot that had been scrubbed clean. He pulled on his tac-pants and boots, threw on a shirt, and practically ran up the ladder towards the common room.

Chang saw him coming. “Slow down!” He put a hand to Duv’s chest to stop him from pushing by towards the medical bay. “You were drugged. You need to move slowly!”

Duv pushed Chang’s hand away. “I thought I was dreaming. What happened? Did that fraggin’ Gaiden kill Holly?”

Before he could say anything else, Ty had him backed up to the wall. “Tiny didn’t kill anybody. She saved you and your girlfriend’s life. So whatever wacky shit you saw while you were drugged up, you’d better forget it, because it didn’t happen!”

Ty held him tight until Duv nodded, then slowly let him go. “I saw her stab Holly with a knife in the neck and then she broke her arm. But it was all from the drugs?”

Chang grimaced. “No, that actually happened.”

“What? Why?” Duv asked angrily.

“Because she came here to kill you, Duv,” Ty said bluntly. “She was one of the implants.”

Duv shook his head and then gave Ty a shove, trying to get by him again. Ty pushed Duv back against the wall, using his forearm to hold him. Chang tried to calm them all down, but the noise drew the rest of the crew to the common room. Duv was pushing Ty and cursing at him. Ty was telling him to shut up and relax. Reilly and Tiny came in at a jog as Marek stood, his arms folded, shaking his head in frustration, just inside the hatch.

“Duv! Duv!” A lone voice cut through all the shouting, and Duv turned to see Holly come through the opposite hatch, one arm in a sling, looking frightened. He elbowed Ty off of him and sprinted over to her. The room got quiet.

“Are you okay?” he whispered, holding her face in his hands and touching her head, shoulders, waist, and then her arm gently, checking her over unconsciously.

“I’m okay.” She gave him a shaky smile. “The Captain and Tiny have been taking good care of me while you were…out. Duv, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to…”

Duv hushed her, glancing back at the others as he pulled her in. “I know, I know. It wasn’t your fault. Shhh! It’s okay, I’m not going anywhere, you’re okay now.”

He walked her over to the sofa and helped her to sit, gently wiping away her tears as he placed one arm around her protectively. He looked over at the Captain and held out his hand. She tossed him the implant that Tiny had removed. He looked it over. The small silver capsule felt hard and cold between his fingers. He reached up and brushed Holly’s hair aside and looked for the knife wounds, but found nothing but new, smooth skin. Holly looked at him tentatively and then gave a soft smile at Tiny. Duv met her glance and then looked over at Tiny and gruffly nodded his thanks. Tiny walked over and delicately manipulated Holly’s arm while Duv watched.

“The incision was easy to heal and left no real scarring. I used a cold laser on the arm. The bone is healing nicely, but she’ll need the sling for another week at least.” Tiny frowned, remembering the unnatural strength Holly had exhibited even after the implant had been dug out. “I did not want to break it, but she was still under the effects of the implant. She would have continued trying to attack all of us until it wore off. I had to stop her from getting up and trying again. I’m sorry I had to do it.”