The Bounty Hunter: Soldier's Wrath (7 page)

The power supply was the largest
part of the modification. The shielding prongs were simply a transmitting
device for the power that the shielding unit supplied. She spent another hour
with a heated filing rod to make room for the prongs to safely extend. Only the
outer portion of the armor needed such heavy alteration but the armor was
exceedingly durable. Even the small holes she made, with the tool specifically
designed to make them, took patience.

When she was finished, she unhooked
one of the cables from the powering device. She inserted her arm slowly into
the armor, carefully sliding her fingers inside the hand portion and then
pulling the arm closer to her shoulder with her other hand. Part of the armor
was still exposed and she could hear the whirling and buzzing of the arm’s
mechanisms, responding to her as she curled her fingers and then twisted her
arm. The prongs ejected out when she twisted fast enough. She looked them over
and then tested the shield.

Without the rest of the armor to stabilize
it, the shield could only be sustained for a few seconds. The kinetic barrier
erupted from the prongs and spread over the arm like a wave of blue fire. The
shield was a curved surface, extending further away from the arm in the middle
of it. She ran a fingertip over the shield. It felt like warm glass. She
knocked on it with her knuckles and watched a ripple of resistance run over the
barrier.

“That looks good,” Cass said.

The shield powered down. Natalie
pulled the arm off with her other hand. She reattached the other cable and set
the remaining pieces of arm to slide back into place.

“It’ll use more power when it blocks
things, but when it holds nothing will break through it,” she explained.

She placed the chest piece back on
the legs in the middle of the room. She slotted the left arm into the torso and
left the rest of it on the floor. The arm needed to be connected to the chest
when she wired the new device to the main power supply. When she was finished,
she decided to install the tracking launcher later. She wanted Burke to be
asleep when she was working with Cass.

The crate of tools was refilled.
She placed the firearms back on the counter, remembering what order they had
been placed in before she moved them. There was a bag next to the crate that
she knew had her laptop and a few other things inside. She picked it up and
looked to the camera in the wall.

“Are you ready now?”

“Yes,” Cass replied.

Natalie slid the strap of the bag
over her shoulder. It was heavy, and she descended the stairs in the engine
room carefully. Once inside the back room, she opened the bag, removed the
laptop, and closed the bag again quickly. She placed the computer on the table
next to Lumen. She connected to Brisbane’s network and waited for Cass to
connect her to the multiple surveillance signals she had acquired on Frey.

“You hacked through half of the
city’s cameras,” Natalie remarked.

“It was nothing,” Cass said
modestly.

“I’m just glad you’re with us,”
Natalie laughed. “I’ll keep watch over this and the ship while you’re
navigating the neural link. Do you know what to do?”

“I think so,” Cass said. “Yes.”

“Be careful when you draw away from
the link. You’ll need to put yourself into an immediate maintenance cycle in
order to fully separate yourself from the body in these early stages. There’s a
lot more involved with this than switching between the aegis and the ship, for
example.”

“Okay,” Cass said slowly. “I’m a
little nervous.”

“You’ll be fine. Familiarize
yourself with what you find. Implant a small memory. A piece of music or video.
Something small that you can test to see if it remains there after you come
back out.”

A few minutes passed before Natalie
saw on the laptop screen that Cass began transferring herself into Lumen’s
mind. Natalie watched anxiously as the transfer went through its initial stages
and then registered as complete. She made herself wait a few minutes to be
certain. Then she made herself wait a few more. She strained her ears to hear
if anyone was outside the door. When she could find no excuse to delay any
longer, she raised her head and looked to the camera in the room.

“Cass?” she said.

There was no answer.

She looked over Lumen’s body. She
stared at one of the wires in the shoulder socket. There was nothing wrong with
the connection point, but she made herself stare at it as if there was, mocking
interest and concern.

“Cass,” she said again. “Cass.
Help. Sorry, but I need help.”

There was no answer. Cass was fully
integrated with Lumen. The only way to contact her was through the laptop or
Brisbane’s computer system. Natalie let another moment pass. She breathed in
deeply and then slowly let out the breath. She knew she had time but she made
herself rush. She wouldn’t risk anything.

She opened the bag she had brought
with her. She took out two small, circular devices. One she had been instructed
to take with her. The other she had decided to bring herself. One was put
between her teeth and she held the other in her left hand. She propped herself
up next to Lumen, standing on the bed and reaching up to where the wires hung
down from the ceiling. She had familiarized herself with the type of connection
she needed to find ahead of time. She sorted quickly through the wires until
she found the right cable. It was a small one, included as a backup in the
event that one of the larger connections failed. She reached farther into the
ceiling compartment and pulled it from the nearby socket.

The device in her left hand was
installed quickly. She slotted the wiring into it, activated it, and then
pressed it back into the socket. From a distance, it looked like nothing had
been added to the wiring at all. The socket looked a little bulkier up close,
but only if you knew what you were looking for.

The second device was larger. She
grabbed it from between her teeth and selected another piece of cable. She knew
the second device needed to be able to interface with Cass’s systems but also
needed to go undetected. It had been her own decision to bring the additional
hardware and she repeated the explanation to herself if it was discovered. She
had no idea if Cass would be able to notice it or not.

She tucked the cables back into the
ceiling. She jumped down onto the floor and stood still in the room. She
listened, again, for anyone outside the door. She had expected someone to walk
in on her at the last moment and force her to explain herself. The plethora of
lies she had prepared ahead of time suddenly went to waste and she tried to be
grateful. She closed her eyes instead, unwilling to look up at the ceiling and
her handiwork.

She felt terrible.

* * *

Burke woke up before the Brisbane
reached the jump gate. He stood at the helm, arms crossed behind his back, and
watched through the main screen as they made their approach. Every heavily
populated system contained at least one gate that was linked to another nearby
system. They were constructed to reduce the travel time from months or years
down to a matter of days. Prime, the star system they were currently in, had
six gates in total, one of which led to the Sol system and Earth. The one they
approached led to the Tali system.

The number of jump carriers coupled
to a gate varied, usually determined by how often ships traveled through the
gate. Tali was a well populated system and its gate had a minimum of four jump
carriers operating at any given time: one on each side of the gate and two in
transit. Each gate was constructed specifically for the required jump and the
sizes of them varied; however, even the smallest of them dwarfed most space
stations. Small ships docked inside of the jump carriers while large ones
latched onto the carrier’s outer hull. The massive carriers would circle the
gate over a span of twenty hours between each jump.

The interior of each gate was a
beautiful contortion of light and energy, pulsing as it communicated with the
rest of the system and its partnered gate on the other side of the jump. The
gates doubled as a relay for all communication between systems and was how the
internet persevered over the vast distances between each system. Information
could be sent instantaneously but physical ships took longer. The Brisbane
would be docked within the carrier for three days while it made the journey.

“Is Cass available yet?” Burke
asked.

Natalie stood in the command room
behind him. She was looking over the diagnostic data on Cass’s systems floating
above the central podium in the room. Rylan was seated in the front chair. The
pilot had little to do. The ship’s autopilot took over whenever they approached
a jump carrier. The carriers were too expensive to risk any accidents. The
computers of each vessel took over everything.

“No,” Natalie replied. “Another
hour. Maybe two. She was successful with Lumen, though. There’s nothing to
worry about.”

Burke nodded. He turned to the
screen. A communication from the carrier appeared over the window, explaining
that payment for the jump was to be withdrawn from the ship owner’s account if
they did not request to turn around within the next minute. When they continued
to approach, an identification scan commenced over the ship and all of the
occupants. Every human and alien contained an identity implant that was tied to
credit accounts, criminal history, and other social records. Wanted criminals
were unauthorized to use jump gates and could be arrested in the attempt.

Despite how many jumps Burke had
done since he acquired his new identity, he still tensed up as he stared at the
screen.

SCANNING.

THREE HUMANOID LIFEFORMS DETECTED.

CONFIRMED AS RYLAN SCOTT.

CONFIRMED AS NATALIE AMBROSE.

CONFIRMED AS JACK PORTER.

JACK PORTER CONFIRMED AS REGISTERED
OWNER OF SHIP.

PAYMENT WILL BE WITHDRAWN UPON
DOCKING.

THANK YOU.

Burke relaxed. He stared at his
false name on the main screen. He saw Rylan’s eyes meet his in the reflection.
Burke gave a short nod to the pilot. He nodded back.

“Call me Burke from now on,” he
said. “Jack when we’re around strangers.”

“Yes Captain.”

“They must have removed whichever
limb contained Lumen’s identity,” Natalie said. “The augmentations must be more
than even the scanner is used to.”

“What do you mean?” Burke asked.

“It didn’t even detect her as a
lifeform,” Natalie explained. “I was worried we might have to turn around and
wait for Cass to scramble Lumen’s signal. I’ve never seen the scanner fail to
register someone like that before.”

“They butchered her,” Burke said
lowly.

“You told me what happened,”
Natalie replied. “They thought she was dead.”

Cass came back online shortly after
they completed docking into the carrier. She appeared unsteady and distorted
over the podium for a second until the holographic projectors settled. She
looked around the room, resting her eyes on Burke at the end.

“How did it go?” he asked.

“I didn’t do much,” she answered.
“It was more complicated than I thought. The neural link gives me access to how
her brain stores information biologically. I’m amazed you can remember anything
at all in that mess.”

Natalie laughed.

“I’m going to look deeper into
Spectrum’s records on Lumen,” Cass continued. “If I can find more about her history,
perhaps I can set up the same foundation she had before. It might help her
become as close to her old self as she can be.”

“I’d advise against that,” Natalie
said. “Better to go with something new if you can make that feel more real to
her.”

“I’d like to at least try,” Cass
said. “She isn’t going anywhere. We have time.”

Natalie opened her mouth and
hesitated. She nodded a moment later, albeit reluctantly.

Burke looked through the main
window of the ship. The interior of the jump carrier reminded him of a space
station. There were extravagant facilities and amenities within the deeper
levels of the carrier; it was not unlike a cruise ship, a popular vacation
choice for planet dwellers that rarely went into space.

“If you head out, bring back the
usual supplies. I’ll reimburse you,” Burke said to Rylan.

“I’m still allowed to leave the
ship?” he asked, blinking.

Cass and Natalie both turned to
give the two men their undivided attention. Burke could practically feel their
eyes on the back of his head.

“Is there a reason I shouldn’t let
you?” Burke asked.

“No,” Rylan said quickly. Then,
slower: “no, Captain.”

The pilot climbed out of his chair
and walked out of the room. He turned to the right at the first door in the
corridor and walked into his quarters. Burke turned to watch him and saw Cass
beaming at him from over the podium.