Rayne

  “What about the pilot?” asked Davis.

  “We don’t have to worry about him. He always locks the cockpit door before the op starts.”

  “Good. I guess we don’t have to kill him then,” Davis replied.

  Mike hoped he was joking.

  ***

  Sgt. Weber sat quietly while Captain Gault read over his after-action report. He normally submitted his report electronically but the captain had asked him to his office and that made him extremely nervous. Sgt. Weber was worried the captain had somehow caught wind of Rayne’s involvement in the raid, and he shifted nervously in his seat. He figured on taking some heat for her coming on the shuttle, but if the captain found out she’d killed more than half the pirates after escaping Lena’s care, he’d really be in some hot water. While he might try and justify that the deaths had been those of Tau Ceti destined to die anyway, the counter argument would likely have come from the “what ifs.” That was the benefit of hindsight. You could think of half a dozen different ways to have handled a particular job with the benefit of time and the collective opinions of those sitting around a room after the fact, but when you were on your own, with only seconds to make a decision, you usually picked the first thing that came into your head, and then prayed everything turned out alright.

  Mike hated those self-righteous bastards that sat back in the soft, comfortable chairs and issued judgments on your choices. If they ever had any real life experience it was forgotten in years of sitting behind a desk. They’d forgotten what it was like to make those critical, life-altering, snap decisions; and the worst ones were those who made no allowance for the chaos that was combat. He could swear command caused mental retardation. It seemed the higher the rank, the less common sense had any sway. There were some, though, like Cpt. Gault, who understood you sometimes made bad calls. It happens. When it did, you changed course and moved forward to your objective. Still, the captain was a stickler for procedure and letting Rayne on the shuttle would get him in trouble, which is exactly why he had omitted that little detail. It wasn’t exactly pertinent to the op as long as you were careful how your rationalized it, and what the captain didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. However, it was a small ship and if word got back, he would have some explaining to do. He already had a speech waiting and felt confident he could defend his position with a couple of carefully omitted facts.

  Captain Gault finished the report and looked up for his data console.

  “Good work sergeant.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Mike shifted uneasily.

  “Nice and clean. No injuries and a bunch of dead Tau Ceti. I can’t think of a better resolution.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The captain sat quietly for a moment in silent contemplation before speaking. If Mike wasn’t nervous before, he certainly was now as the captain eyed him with a contemplative stare. Oh, boy. Here it comes, he thought to himself.

  “I’ve got a request for you, sergeant.”

  “Anything, sir.” Mike didn’t feel he was in a position to deny the captain anything and intended on being very accommodating until he knew he was in the clear.

  “Don’t agree too quickly until you know what it is I’m going to be asking of you. I want you to be fully informed before you get involved.”

  Mike was a little confused, having never been approached by his captain, or any other commander, like this before. The captain was a tough man. Mike respected him and would follow his orders, but his loyalty wasn’t so strong that he would do something to jeopardize his squad or his career on behalf of the captain for anything less than a legitimate military objective. He was protective of his people and would not allow them to be used that way, not even by the captain. If he had to stand up to him, or anyone else to protect his marines, he’d do it without hesitation and the consequences be damned.

  “Do you know why we were re-assigned to Alpha Centauri?” The captain cleared his console with a swipe and leaned forward with his arms on the desk.

  “I assume they needed the bodies in that part of space, sir. I’m a grunt and don’t really pay attention to that kind of thing. I go where I’m told.”

  “So it doesn’t seem a little odd that they’d move a small scouting vessel like ours over ten light years away?”

  “I hadn’t given it any thought, but now that you mention it, I guess it doesn’t make much sense at all.”

  “No it doesn’t sergeant. I have been in this fleet for a long time and this is the first time I’ve experienced it or even heard of it happening. Alpha Centauri and the surrounding systems are full of human habitation and the resources to go with it. Believe me when I say they have vessels such as ours to go around and then some. So the reason for doing so can only have one explanation. There is something…” he paused dramatically, “…or someone, aboard this ship they want.”

  “Rayne.” What else could it be? Everything was odd about that girl from the get go. Her presence on the planet, how she ended up in a T80, in addition to being seriously messed up. The mounting number of oddities surrounding her didn’t add up.

  “I believe so. She is the only new element in the equation that would spark anyone’s interest.”

  “Moving a ship and its crew that far seems a little extreme, doesn’t it?”

  “To people like you and I, yes. But believe me when I say, there are people where such a move is made on a whim, or to satisfy a point of curiosity. People who have enough clout to make it happen with nothing but a call.”

  “I know the kind of people you’re talking about, sir. And you think they want Rayne? Why? I mean she may have one of the highest kill counts I’ve ever seen, but she is seriously unbalanced.” Mike couldn’t see why the girl was important enough to be sought in the manner that she was.

  “Yes, unbalance, but there is a whole lot more to the girl than what you know, and I suspect more than what I know.”

  Mike shifted uncomfortably. Based on some of what Lena had told him, he guessed as much, but he couldn’t reveal it without landing himself in trouble. Best to play along at this point and pretend he was completely ignorant.

  “Dr. Little has been doing regular exams on the girl for the last several weeks and has been reporting his findings to me. He has discovered quite a number of anomalies, or changes, in the girl he doesn’t have the expertise to explain.”

  “He doesn’t have any idea what he’s looking at?” He thought about Rayne’s lightning fast speed and her reported ability to see in the dark without IR.

  “He has a few guesses, but I won’t attempt to explain them. What’s important is that this information has somehow made it to Alpha Centauri.”

  “That’s crazy. They’re moving a single vessel and its whole crew just to get to one person? Why not just put her on a shipping vessel?”

  “Partly chance and partly my fault. When Procyon Station first received Rayne for treatment, she was admitted as a Jane Doe, because we had no other information on her. Since then, using the transponder ID, I’ve been able to identify Rayne and her parents and any other pertinent data. When it became apparent early on that there was more to her than met the eye, I withheld that information.”

  “Is it possible she was already some kind of military experiment?” Mike had been convinced this was the most likely scenario for a fourteen year old girl ending up inside a T80 with such a high kill count. The military had been known to do some outlandish stuff in the name of building the better soldier and he wouldn’t have put it past them.

  “No, I don’t think so. Otherwise, she would have been fitted with the standard chip like the rest of us. It would have been encrypted certainly, but it would still have been there.”

  In Mike’s mind that left only one other possibility. In some outlandish scenario, Rayne had ended up in the battle suit and fought her way through the most unimaginable and impossible circumstances possible to make it to the other side, to then have the
fleet science weenies try and dice her up like a lab rat. That didn’t sit well with the sergeant at all. He’d had a couple of buddies from basic who’d been “volun-told” to sign up for this special project or that research study and ended up coming out the other side good for nothing but collecting a disability check.

  “You want us to help keep Rayne away from them.” It wasn’t a question. He could see where the captain was going and he agreed with it whole-heartedly. He still felt some loyalty to the girl for her willingness to protect two of his marines during her rescue, and there was no way he’d abandon her to the butchers if he could help it. But with the resources pitted against them, he didn’t see how they could win the fight.

  “Yes. Are you willing?” The captain sat back in his chair and waited for Mike to respond.

  “How far off the reservation are you going to be taking us, sir?” Mike liked his life in the marines. He liked the training, he liked the people, and he loved the combat. He was a risk taker, an adrenaline junkie and he loved the thrill of it all. He’d always figured the captain for a straight shooter, but this had all the hallmarks of a really wild ride. It sounded like fun and he’d be accomplishing two other things in the process. First, he’d repay a debt he felt he still owed Rayne, and second, he’d get to poke some scientists in the eye.

  “I don’t think we’ll have to leave the reservation at all, sergeant. If we play this right, we’ll not have to do anything that will get you or anyone else court-martialed. At the end of this, I’m hoping to see Rayne starting a new life that doesn’t involve being a lab rat.”

  “Count me in, sir.”

  “This is going to take more than just us. Can we get some help from your squad? Three or four should be enough.”

  Mike was fairly certain Lena would be in, but he wasn’t sure about the rest. As it turned out, he needn’t have worried; the entire squad with the exception of Jefferson and Callahan, who had family obligations to meet, all volunteered.

  CHAPTER 6

  The ship moved slowly in-system as it approached the outer planets. Alpha Centauri was a major hub of activity, and commerce and space traffic was heavy. They’d hailed Fleet-Com as they approached the outer reaches of the system and had been directed to one of the several military lanes in use. With the exception of earth, Alpha Centauri was the largest center of human-populated space, and as such, the military maintained a large presence. It had started out as one of the first military and exploratory outposts and then grown from there. The shipyards, weapons research and development, and government-funded space exploration projects had given rise to a thriving, private economy that fed off them. Whether you were employed by the government or not, you made your money from their presence. With twenty billion people living in the system, the opportunities to make money were inexhaustible.

  That many people occupying the same system made the space traffic heavy, no matter where you were. Even with the use of the military traffic lanes, things were tight; much tighter than the crew was used to and it made them nervous. Procyon Station was the busiest hub of activity they’d had to travel through, but the number of contacts on the navigation screens was impossible to track. Without the AI operated traffic controller there would be total chaos. Naval ships, cargo vessels, small shuttles and mining tugs, swarmed the system like bees around a hive. The Fleet-Com AI controlled the movement of all the ships in-system. Nothing moved without its say so, and there was no deviating from the authorized course without permission. While it rankled ship captains not to have control over their own ships, there was really no other way to keep the multitude of inbound and outbound ships from colliding.

  Their destination was the Alpha Centauri Naval Station, a mammoth facility which sat in geostationary orbit high above the system’s only habitable planet, Athena. As they neared, the planet turned from a bright star on the view screen to a shining blue ball floating in space. Several large oceans spread across the surface and clouds swirled through the atmosphere. On the dark side of the planet, billions of lights shown in the population centers and the space traffic increased exponentially. Several large carriers moved slowly past, dwarfing their small scouting vessel as it passed. The views were breathtaking, and windows and viewports were crowded as the crew fought for the best view.

  The naval station became larger and larger as they approached. Its scale was nearly incomprehensible, nearly the size of a small moon. Ships of various sizes came and went as many more sat at dock on the surface of the station. Maintenance shuttles and droids dotted the space like dust as they were moved in closer to their assigned berth. Electromagnetic locks engaged and the ship came to a stop.

  The captain gave the command relieving all non-essential crew, leaving them free to their own devices. Their re-assignment orders had said nothing other than to respond to Alpha Centauri. Without any kind of timeline, the crew would be on leave until recalled. Essential personnel, which included mostly engineering, would be rotated through duty assignments as required. The ten-lightyear journey had nearly depleted their fuel and that would be their main function until the task was complete.

  The non-essential crew included the marines, and the captain had given Sgt. Weber instructions to get Rayne off the ship and planet-side as quickly as possible. The station was big, but not big enough to hide in forever. He needed to get Rayne down on the planet where hiding in the midst of its billions of people would be easier. In the meantime, he would conduct the business of the ship and delay whatever greeting party awaited them. If he knew his ex, she would show up in person. She’d want be the first to see her new lab rat.

  The captain went to his office and notified command that he had arrived at his new duty station. They likely already knew, since it was the fleet’s own AI that had brought them in, but it was procedure and they did like their procedures. He sent an additional query asking for pending task orders. He was told to hold his position and await visitors. That response alone confirmed his suspicions. Not only had they been moved halfway across space to get here, but once arrived had not been given any orders other than to stay put and wait for someone to show. Not very subtle.

  He confirmed receipt of the order and waited. He’d half expected her to be on the station platform, waiting for the door to open. That’s why he had dismissed the crew so quickly--to give the marines a fighting chance at getting Rayne out. Fortunately, the ex wasn’t waiting and had probably just been notified of his arrival. He assumed it would take several hours for her to hijack a shuttle and make it to the station. That should be just enough time for the marines to get a shuttle planet-side without even having to get creative.

  ***

  Rayne walked in the center of the knot of marines as they walked through the station’s enormous bays and corridors. Other people, maintenance robots and lifts moved about in the thousands as they made their way through the chaos. They had slipped out one of the ship’s small, side accesses, but they needn’t have bothered. There was no one waiting to take Rayne into custody or anyone at the main access preventing any of the crew from leaving. From there, it was an easy matter to lose themselves in the chaos of the station and its thousands of inhabitants.

  Rayne breathed easier in the expansive interior of the station. The cramped confines of their small vessel had been fraying her nerves and she had begun to pace the decks like a caged animal. Lena had worked overtime to keep her busy and occupied, but it hadn’t been enough and Rayne felt ready to explode from the tension.

  The marines kept a casual but tight formation around her and she found it difficult to see over their heads at the chaos. So many people and so much movement; it was hard to take it all in. Another large contingent of marines marched past in formation, shouting cadence as they went. A large cargo trolley rumbled slowly by carrying fuel rods for the newly arriving ships. Station crew members of a dozen different designations hurried by, intent on their assigned tasks. There was such a v
olume of talking, shouting and the hum and rumble of light and heavy machinery that it was finally a relief to reach the narrower, less busy corridors that would take them to the shuttle bays.

  Rayne hadn’t been told where they were going. Sgt. Weber had thought it best not to upset her or put her on edge by telling her she was being sought after. He worried the increased anxiety would make her more likely to strike out at any perceived threat. It had taken some convincing to get her to leave behind the batons. Weapons of any kind were prohibited by anyone but station security and they wouldn’t be allowed to move through the station with them. After some quiet discussion, Lena had finally convinced her. It was that or stay cooped up in the station and so, while she was loath to give them up, the trade-off was worth it. She could always pick something up later when they reached the open skies of the planet.

  Sgt. Weber led the group as they moved through the crowds. Now that they were off the ship and into the interior of the station, he felt confident of being able to reach the shuttles without being stopped. Getting off the station would be relatively easy. There was no requirement for anyone leaving the station to have a military ID chip or visitor pass, so all they had to do was hop on the next shuttle and disappear. The trick was going to be confusing the eventual pursuit. The ID chips could be tracked, and it wouldn’t be the first time they’d been used to find a wayward marine in a civilian jail or AWOL. Like all tech, there were ways to get around it, but nothing they currently had available to them. So for now, they would have to improvise and confuse the pursuit until a better alternative could be found.

  They stopped as they reached the shuttle bay access and Sgt. Weber repeated their instructions. They had discussed the options earlier and toyed with the idea of having each marine go their different ways, on a different shuttle, to a different destination. After some discussion the plan was revised. They reasoned that even to the casual observer, a squad of marines splitting up individually would tell the pursuers they were deliberately trying to evade them. Marines didn’t behave that way. They went off as a group or in twos or threes, and to do anything else would let those searching for them know that they were being deliberately evaded. From there, it was simply a matter of deciding who would go with who and where. It was decided Rayne would go with two other marines, but the difficulty was deciding which one of them could handle her. While Lena had the best handle on dealing with Rayne, when whatever goons started looking for Rayne, they’d start tracking Lena first, so that eliminated her as a possibility just as it eliminated the sergeant. They ultimately decided on Abena and Taft, who seemed the most unlikely candidates and would be the last to be tracked. Lena had made every effort to bring the two into her circle with Rayne with limited success. Rayne would talk to Abena and even allow physical contact, but she merely tolerated Taft’s existence. Fortunately, Taft’s main role wouldn’t be dealing with her anyway; his primary function was protection and counter surveillance. While most of the members of the squad were more suited to the protection aspect of the assignment, Taft was actually quite adept at counter-surveillance.