Outsystem (Aeon 14) (26 page)

“Glad that actually worked,” Trist said.

“Me too, would have taken a lot more than silbio to glue us back together if it hadn’t.”

“What the…what did you do?” Trent asked, gesturing with his weapon.

“I fried the neural net their armor uses.”

“How is that possible? The RVI is supposed to be unhackable!
”

“
Advice to live by.” Trist glanced at Tanis. “Maybe he’s been having so much trouble taking you out because he can’t deal with reality that well.” She looked back at Trent. “Not only is it possible, it just happened.”

Tanis smiled evilly. “STR fixed all the reported issues. Since TSF doesn’t use that model, we didn’t feel the urge to report any weaknesses we found, especially since we usually encounter STR armor on the other side of a conflict.”

Trent barked a curse, and without any other fanfare fired his weapon. Tanis’ augmented vision flashed a warning the moment his hand tensed. She dove to the side, but not before a second alert fed into her mind that the pistol had fired a load of self-propelled ballistic projectiles. The alert came with a rather useless note about a velocity of 4000 meters per second.

Later she remembered the whole event in a surreal out-of-body fashion, the warning, the dive, and then the knowledge that her
right arm and the side of her torso were gone.

A combination of genetic alteration, training, and Angela shutting down all of her pain centers was the only thing that kept her from losing the rest of her torso as his next shot rang out. She lunged behind a plas display that took most of the blast; though it did fling some shrapnel into her, some making it through her armor and into her flesh.

While Trent was occupied with attacking Tanis, Trist took the opportunity to run toward the soldier that had taken Tanis’ sidearm. It was lying on a banister and she was only a meter from it when Trent spun and fired a shot into her as well.

The blast struck Trist in center mass and knocked her over the railing. Her body shook and convulsed while Trent turned his attention back to Tanis.

“Looks like this is the end for you.” He strode over to her, gun aimed directly at her head. “You were a worthy adversary.”

“Wish I could say the same for you,” Trist said from behind him.

Trent turned to see Trist propped up on the banister, gun in her hand.

“I…you…you’re dead,” Trent gaped.

“Again with the reality issues.” She fired three shots, all hitting Trent’s torso. He was wearing thin armor under his suit. It blocked the first and second shot, but the third shattered it and dropped him at Tanis’ feet.

“Needed him…have questions…” Tanis gasped.

“Oh relax, he’ll live.” Trist walked over, wincing.

Her shirt was torn, and under it the green phosphor-like glow of silbio stood out. “I guess I am a bit of the gummi girl now. Helps to not have any specific internal organs to get blown up when you get blown up.”

Tanis’s laugh became coughs and spasms.

STELLAR DATE
: 3227284 /11.27.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)

LOCATION:
Mars 1 Ring (MIR)

REGION:
Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation

Joe leaned over the transport cocoon the ring medics had settled Tanis in. Even in her current state she couldn’t help but notice the concern and moisture in his eyes.

“That was the worst ten minutes of my life,” Joe said. “I nearly died when I heard the shots.”

The tubes in her throat restricted her method of communication. She didn’t mind; it helped hide her emotions.

A look of anger flashed across Joe’s face. “I can’t believe that Trent is all you want to talk about right now. Look at you! You’re in pieces, and all you can talk about is your job.”

Grenwald stood across the transport cocoon and cast Joe an unreadable look before putting his hand on the commander’s shoulder.

“We’re all pretty concerned about you, Major. But don’t worry, we’ll do our jobs.” He nodded to the two of them and walked away to oversee Trent’s preparation for transport.

Tanis wanted to sigh, but it hurt too much. The pain in Joe’s eyes hurt too, she knew because she felt the same thing. What was the point of getting the
Intrepid
outsystem if she killed herself doing it?

“It seems that pretty much everything is easier than feeling for you.” He turned away as the medics began moving her cocoon into the ambulance.

STELLAR DATE
: 3227294 / 12.03.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)

LOCATION:
GSS Intrepid
, Mars Outer Shipyards (MOS)
REGION:
Mars Protectorate, Sol Space Federation

“Glad to have you back with us.” Commander Ouri smiled as Tanis entered the SOC. “You’re looking good.”

To the casual observer, she was at one hundred percent, in full control of her faculties. In reality, her new skin itched and her reflexes didn’t feel quite right in her fingers. Firing right-handed was definitely out of the question.

Tanis signaled Ouri to walk with her. “I’m feeling good. I’ve gone over the interviews with Mr. Trent and I see that we’ve not yet gotten anything useful out of him.”

“No, ma’am. He’s only been here on the ship for a few days—took forever to get him transferred up from the ring.”

They arrived at the conference room and Tanis took a seat.

“I know, I followed the progress; it was like pulling teeth.”

“Or new nerve clusters. What are you doing here?” Joe asked as he walked into the offices.

“Getting back to work; specifically, getting ready to have a chat with Mr. Trent.”

Joe’s expression spoke volumes. Ouri took one look at the two and excused herself.

Neither spoke for several minutes. Tanis looked down at the table, tracing the scratches in the surface with her eyes. Surprising both of them, she spoke first.

“I was scared. More scared than I’ve been in a long time.” She looked up at him, trying not to let too much emotion show on her face; mostly failing.

Joe sat down one chair away from her. She knew he was hurt, moreover he was scared. Probably scared he’d fallen in love with a crazy woman who would get herself killed any day now.

“Found out you’re not indestructible, did you?”

Tanis waved that aside. “I’ve been hurt before. Worse, actually.”

“You weren’t scared then?”

“Why would I have been? The military patched me up and sent me back to work. It’s what I do…what I did.”

“I don’t get you.” Joe sighed and leaned back in his chair.

Tanis waited for the
standard dry comment from Angela, but it didn’t come. Her AI had been strangely silent when she and Joe were together during the last month.

Joe
mistook her moment of contemplation for intractability and snorted. “It’s like talking to a brick wall.” He began to rise out of his chair.

“Wait.” Tanis reached out and put a hand on his arm. “Please, I’m trying. I’m just not that good at this. I haven’t felt
like this about anyone in a very, very long time. You must know that.”

“I’ve never looked at the personal parts of your file.” The anger had subsided and kindness returned to Joe’s eyes. “I only know the tiny nuggets of your past that you’ve shared.”

“Well, I’ve never had a serious relationship with a man.”

“What. Never?”

“Well, a fling or two in college, but nothing after that.”

“You’re seventy-two years old. Don’t tell me you’re a—”

“No.” Tanis chuckled softly. “I’m not a virgin.” Her eyes locked with his, a sliver of her contrary nature showing. “Why would you want someone like me? I mean you, you’re a hot vacuum jockey. You’ve had your pick, I know I’m no prize.”

Her hand was still on his arm. He looked down at it and placed his hand over hers. “You don’t get it, Major, you are
the
prize.”

She looked hard and long into his eyes. No trace of deception or malice showed. Not being able to help it she examined his skin texture, monitored his heart rate and looked for other signs of dishonesty. There were none.

“I still don’t get it.”

Joe gave his warm, resonant chuckle. The one she had first found so pleasant that day after the
Dawn
—still did. “It’s not something I can really just
tell
you. It sort of needs a nice long period of explanation.”

Tanis didn’t know how to do this. The emotions and reactions were unfamiliar to her. She had focused only on her duty for so long. Men were just teammates without breasts.

Except Joe wasn’t.

Not that he didn’t have a nice chest.

Tanis stop!
She got control of herself. Control was what she did, it was her game.

“Joe, you know I have feelings for you. I wouldn’t be such a blubbering moron at times like this if I didn’t.”

He smiled, though his expression showed that he suspected what was to come.

“But I can’t do this, not now. I simply don’t know how.”

His smile was warm and inviting. Tanis was getting the feeling there was nothing this man couldn’t just smile away? “Then let me show you how.”

“It’s too much. I do so well at my job because I restrict my emotions, I school myself. This is the endgame. I can’t get distracted now.”

Joe sat back, causing her hand to slide off of his arm. “You don’t give yourself enough credit.”

She wanted to, but she couldn’t afford the distraction. Not yet. “Once we get underway. I promise, I want it, I really do.”

Joe nodded. His eyes looked tight, his lips pursed like he didn’t trust himself to speak.

Tanis looked at his lips, almost losing herself in the desire to brush her own against them. She stood, forcing the emotion down, back under control. “I have to go speak to Trent.”

Angela actually sounded angry.

Tanis didn’t respond.

“Ah, Major Richards, I was wondering how long it was going to take for them to stitch you back together. I bet a lot of the original parts had to be replaced. Feeling up to a good bit of fun?” Trent spoke as soon as she entered the room.

Tanis tried to forget the conversation with Joe. She focused on the need to get the name from Trent. Once she had that things would fit into place.

“I’m feeling up to having a conversation with you…need you to answer a few questions about who you work for and what their agenda is.”

“And what makes you think you’re going to get anything out of me?”

“Well, I can think of a number of ways, but most of them take some time. I decided to go right for the throat—metaphorically speaking.”

At that prearranged signal, Kris was wheeled in, her naked form strapped to a chair. Tanis wasn’t looking directly at Trent, but she was watching him on several of the room cameras over the Link and saw his pupils dilate. Good. She’d called this correctly.

Kris wasn’t able to move, or—thanks to the seal over her mouth—speak.

“You may be interested in knowing that we’ve removed her AI. It seems that he had helped subvert the AI on those ships we had some issues with last month. The AI courts apparently weren’t too forgiving. Her Link has also been removed, as have most of her biomechanical mods. She’s as close to a vanilla human as you get these days, and now has a very easy-to-trigger pain response.”

Tanis reached over to Kris and grabbed an inch of skin on the inside of her bicep and twisted. The
prisoner’s eyes opened wide with tears glistening in the corners as she sucked a deep breath through her nose.

“It makes torture really easy. So many people shunt pain with their mods or AI that they’ve forgotten what it feels like. No tolerance at all.”

“She may not be used to pain”—Trent’s expression betrayed nothing—“but I’m certain it’ll take more than that to really hurt her. You can’t do anything to her or me; your precious rules and regs see to that.”

“I’m sure you’re aware that we’re on the
Intrepid
,” Tanis said. “The ship’s AI is really quite amazing; one of the most advanced and powerful ever created. He really wants to live and see the galaxy, something that you’re trying to keep him from. Now normally he would be impartial, but you see he has a very special connection with a woman named Amanda. She’s in a unique position, and has also come to view you with a certain amount of distaste.”

“That’s great,” Trent said. “I’m really happy for
her.”

“What you don’t get is that she has prevailed upon the
Intrepid
to arrange it so that we’re alone.”