Relic Engine -- Prologue Pt.1

For Ashley...wherever you may be.

Prologue

He waited as long as he dared to, giving him time.
         At least an hour ago, Ayumu had checked on his troubled friend, standing outside the door only a moment to listen to the soft, piping tunes of the flute begin.  As was always the case, over these last two terrible weeks, what began was slow, strange, and chillingly gentle.  It was not the sound he was accustomed to hearing from the normally lively birdwing.  But after a time, the melodies would quicken, begin to dance and soar, as he imagined Ennio’s memories of her morphed from fear and sadness into affirmation of her beautiful life.  A life that still fought on, somewhere…
         Now, coming to let him know that their rendevous with the station was near, he heard not a sound coming from behind that closed door.  Often Ennio played for hours a time, lost in dark seclusion within their shut cabin, weaving the melodies of his kind, of his life, and of his missing love.  He was silent now, and that troubled Ayumu.  Things were happening within his dear friend’s head that no Seiyunteki could hope to understand, things that surely would have driven him mad.  He simply didn’t know what to expect, and he worried constantly for his friend.
         Their time for introspection, though, was now up. The station, their destination, gleamed through the forward port, directly ahead and growing larger by the moment.  The Horizon expected them, and they dared not be late.
         Ayumu tread softly to the door, wishing to allay the intrusion, but the automatic door had no such sensitivities, so with an abrasive hiss it slide aside to allow him and a bright shaft of light to enter the otherwise tranquil cabin.
         “Ennio?”
         Of his friend, there was no sign.  Ayumu let his eyes adjust to the gloom and peered around the sides of the bed, scanned the shadowed wall alongside the star-cast picture window.
         The room had been trashed. He picked his way through the mess, looking around and behind everything, careful of his footsteps. Nonetheless he did step on something. Kneeling to look, he could not see the thing, but his fingers found and recognized the thin, cylindrical shape.  The natural grooves of the Cech wood, the oddly spaced holes.  Ennio’s birdwing flute, perhaps his most cherished possession. Left on the floor.
         “Enn? Where are you?”  He felt ill.  “Please, talk to me…”
         As his eyes grew used to the darkness, he still did not see his friend’s small shape huddled anywhere in the mostly spartan quarters. Worry made him decide to turn on the light after all, and he was about to speak the command to activate them…yet as his eyes attuned to the gloomy serenity, so did his ears, and he heard an odd sound.
         His first instinct was that, somehow against all reason, there was a bird in the room. The sound was almost inaudible until he focused on it--- a fitful sort of squeaking and churring, drawn in short, uneven gasps. It actually made him think, incomprehensibly, of a small dog forcing little squeaks of air out of a leaking rubber ball.
         Unsettled, he pursued the source of the noise, identifying where it was coming from.  Perhaps it was a combination of the darkness and the eerie mood overlaying this whole mssion and Ennio’s deteriorating state of mind, but something within Ayumu made him not want to go into that closet. Not even to be in this room at all, feeling like prickling cold on his skin the shadows of things he could not comprehend.
         A stack of linens and spare clothing, previously stored here in neat stacks by the shuttle’s maintenance crew, lay piled in such a heap that he could not immediately get into the closet.  He saw at once that many of them were now ripped or shredded completely. He began to get a sneaking, unhappy suspicion as he pushed through the pile and uncovered the source of the strange sounds.
         He reluctantly drew aside the last covering, to expose a small, russet-furred figure. The peculiar churring was broken by fragments of whispered words, gasping forth in a tongue not native to him but that he was plenty familiar with, could understand:
         ….schh… schich ehh…es, es chu chiria, es chu chiria:
         My love.  Don’t cry….I’m coming, I’m coming.
         Ayumu stood, paralyzed, his hand an inch from his old friend’s back.  But he couldn’t touch him, would not.
         God help me, what am I supposed to do?  he asked himself.
         He didn’t have to come up with an answer, because Ennio knew he was there, sensed his friend was close.  The plaintive churring and the murmurs of his native tongue stopped, and Ayumu’s longtime friend---he of a people so different and so closer to nature than Ayumu’s own but possessing of a mind of great wisdom and intelligence---turned his head and now peered up at him with the green-glowing, panicked eyes of a wild animal. They were eyes that burned with desperation.
         Breaking free from his delirium, he spoke, breathlessly, and his words sent into a chill into Ayumu’s heart:
         “I can hear her…”

>> 3

         How odd…to think that he was walking these corridors for this last time!
         Well, perhaps not the last time.  Not if things went exceptionally well.  He knew that he might see them again, but if so he would not walk boldly as a respected officer.  He would be running, seeking out the shadows and hiding from his former comrades. Former friends.
         Major Legate Keane, however, felt all the wonder of this idea but none of the regret.  There was nothing to be sorry for, and certainly no reason to reconsider. Ironically this had made it easier, when his last shift came to an end and he said goodbye to those he’d grown close with these last few years.
         Would they hate him for his betrayal? 
He doubted any of them would ever know of his reasons, would ever know the pain in his heart that drove him to what he had to do.  There would be only confusion, disbelief, and disillusionment—the province of those who can never the truth and are sadly forced to suppose madness.
If that had to be his final legacy, he would accept it, if it meant he could somehow help to save her from whatever horror had found her, out there in the darkness between the stars.
         This end of the ring was nearly deserted, under the hush of artificial night.  The lights were dimmed accordingly, creating the best possible simulation of the eleven-hour darkness that their bodies were accustomed to.  Of course, outside the swiftly spinning rings of Horizon Point, the sun rose every two hours. The crew’s windows had to be blacked out while they slept or sleep would have been made impossible.
         Most of the pods in this section had, by this time, departed.  He saw only the occasional engineers and these were far down the long corridor, at least half a mile away.  Only once did he see a figure here or there wink into existence, appearing with the fairydust twinkle of teleport.  Most of the maintenance crew were full-time residents of this section, having little reason to travel to or from the opposite side of the ring.
         And so, there was no one around who’d be able to say where Major Legate Keane had gone; when and where he’d departed his military career for the labyrinthian underground of the station.  The small floor hatch closed and he vanished from the world he’d known to begin life as an outlaw.
         He descended into the great warren of tunnels. 
Beneath the floor and the tramping steps of many souls, the true nature of the station lay out of sight: a vast network of cramped passages, accessways, and computer stations.  In its entireity, the system of tunnels encompassed many more miles than the carpeted corridors above.  Here would be his last refuge, when his betrayal had been carried out.  Here would become his home for a while…so he had gotten to know it well.
         The tubes could be accessed by a larger Teki, of course, but it would be terribly uncomfortable, forcing a man of average height to either continually crouch, or crawl on his stomach.  For a Sune like himself, it was near perfect.  Keane scuttled quickly along on all fours, and found himself glad for the chance to walk in a way more natural to his form, which was so damn inefficient in the hands-on, collective world of Teki and Sune. He began to run, letting his instincts take over and finding it easy to adapt himself to the smooth, slick floor of the tunnels.
         Today, he was free to do what he knew in his heart that he must.  And now he felt the shackles of his old life, the responsibilities, the expectations, and the persona that had been forced upon him, falling away as he ran, deeper and deeper into the station’s depths.
         The great station was oddly decentralized.  It had to be, in a sense—the actual center of Horizon Point was a miniature sun.  The three concentric rings which comprised the station itself, rotated around this counterfeit star.  Therefore the station had no central point to which to tie all operations.  Crews worked in teams, each given jurisdiction of a section of the vast rings, and each section had the necessary controls, machinery, and built in securities, all of it housed down here in this seldom-explored labyrinth.
         It worked.  Now, why it did, exactly, was still largely a mystery to the Seiyu.  One thing that scientists had understood, since the first of the alien ships had fallen into their laps: everything was based on the gaisuto.
         He had avoided setting up shop at the core of the great computer mind, for a number of reasons.  On the rare occasion that maintenance crews did come down here, they would head straight for the gaisuto core, which by itself maintained most of the electronic wizardry and needed only periodic debugging.  It had taken him a couple of weeks to steal the necessary equipment, and then wait for opportune moments to slip away and haul it all down here.  So he’d built his impromptu command center in the most remote, useless location, and hardwired everything back to the shield controls.
         Within this cramped, tepid space, he felt strangely more himself, more focused, than even in the spacious security offices he was accustomed to.  It owed to his nature, of course.  In this new and sometimes cold electronic age, Sune ventured into the vast empty spaces between the stars, and embraced technology and progress, but still there was nothing more comforting than a cozy little hole to hide away in for awhile.  The flowers of his kind grew more colorful with every generation, but the roots remained the same.
         He powered up the systems slowly, letting the diversion of power from their normal circuits to his station occur almost seamlessly, in case anyone was paying too close of attention.  He hunkered between four separate touch-screens and got to work.
         Keane allowed himself to work to his comfort, with no need now for decorum or reservation. As a Sune, he was naturally able to use his agile hindpaws to work an extra two screens, with digits identical to those on his forepaws; nimble if rather stubby toes with a nifty, useful black claw tipping the end of each one, allowing him to tap the screens with wonderful precision. This was how he preferred to work.  It was rare, alas, that he did so.
         Although Teki had difficulty comprehending that Sune could use their feet as well as their hands, he had the same amount of dexterity in all four feet and that could be a tremendous advantage.  His eyes played rapidly over the multiple screens, letting him focus his full concentration on four separate tasks at once. 
It wasn’t like dividing his attention; a gift also unique to the Sune was the power to focus one’s mind fully on several different complex tasks.  If asked (and he sometimes was), he wouldn’t have been able to put the experience into words, except to suggest to a curious Teki that it was like performing complicated movements simultaneously with his ten fingers.  He simply…did it.
         Now there was no one here to nervously suggest he focus himself one one or two tasks, or cast looks over his shoulder to see how many mistakes he was making. He had long ago realized how it made some people edgy, even resentful of how he could double the work they managed, so he rarely worked in this way anymore.
         But damn…how much he missed it!
         It took only minutes to verify that his uplinks to the other shield modules were still in place. Then he flipped on a fifth screen, mounted behind the others.  This currently showcased the sealed and uneventful airlock. Through it his friends would soon come, and begin their gallant rescue.
         A new signal demanded his attention.  His wrist-comm lit up with an incoming call.
         {i{Here we go…
         He relayed the signal to the large viewer.  Ayumu’s smooth, fair Teki features filled the screen.
         “Are we ready to dance?”  Keane smiled at his dear friend.  But his smile soon melted before Ayumu even replied.  “What is it?”
         “It’s Enn.”
         Keane noticed for the first time, that he couldn’t see the Sune anywhere.  Had he gotten himself into some trouble back on Seiyu?  He’d been fiery of late, refusing to accept the tedious decision making and beauracracy that were stalling any attempts at rescue.
         Ayumu hesitated, searching for a dignified way to describe his failing.  “He’s in tremendous pain.  This…this connection with her, it’s like a waking nightmare for him.  He’s…he’s more there, with her, than in his own head anymore.”
Keane knew enough that he had a sense of what was happening to him.  Although more the stuff of myth than reality, this was not unheard of.  Neither of them could hope to relate to what their friend was going through. But Keane, as a Sune…he had at least touched, ever so fleetingly, the wonderful but frightening power possible in the union of minds…and hearts. 
         “When we left, he was, you know, a little spacey, but still in one piece.  Now…by God, Keane…what must they be doing to her, to be destroy him like this?”
         And who could ‘they’ possibly be? What did she find, so far out in the deeps?
         “There’s no question—we’re running out of time,” he decided.  “Can you bring him around long enough to make it through the station?”
         Ayumu shook his head. “I don’t think he’ll be right enough to walk on his own. Let alone be in a running firefight all the way to the ship.”
         A long pause.
         Then finally, Keane said, “Let me see him.”

>> 4

         “Well…find out who the hell changed the passenger manifest!”
         First captain Nira stared up her third in command.  Sgt. Tajt Deely just blinked at her, the young Teki baffled by her given order.
         “Sir, to what purpose?”  the Sergeant asked.
           A few feet away, a forcefield snapped into existence.  Nira reached down to her belt and activated her own frequency emitter.  Deely, however, ignored his for the moment. The captain noticed his oversight, and thought about how chagrined he’d be when he realized his mistakes.  These noobs were good for amusement.  Still…Deely was a new transfer, and a bright, accomplished sergeant even if he hadn’t figured out the ropes around here yet.  She stretched up tall on her short legs, reached up to his belt to activate his emitter for him.
         “Whoever altered that manifest,” she explained, “clearly has the security clearance to do so.  Thus they are either in league with this second-dweller, or aren’t aware that the person they gave clearance to had a hidden agenda.”
         Deely bowed stiffly, then turned to leave.  But he stopped just short of the forcefield, and by habit went to activate his emitter before trying to step through the field.  He almost switched it off instead, before remember Nira had activated it for him.
         He was a good man.  Nira made a mental note to meet with him later and cover some of the minor station routines that he was a little lax on.  It wouldn’t do for any of her young officers to scamper headlong into a forcefield and get the hell shocked out of them.
         All around her, the alarms continued to whine.  Beneath that sound she could hear another, like Ursitz crystals jangling in the breeze of an open run.  The air shimmered in front of the open door.  Despite their best efforts so far, no one could find the transmitter that was keeping the teleport constantly active. 
Worse, this was the receiving end.  Any test drones that had sent into it were immediately scrambled down to their base elements, exploding into metallic dust, gas and noxious odors.  No one was getting through that doorway.
         “Sir.”  A major her, a young, gangly Teki who was one of the up and coming crop of younger officers.  “What about a maintenance pod?”
         She nodded.  “I think it may come to that.”
         “It will take some time,” said her warrant officer and one of her good friends, a Sune named Scheda.  “But it’s the only way to get position to teleport directly into that room.  We can’t wait much longer, Nira.  He’s already gained access to two of our weapons systems.”
          “Get a team of six outfitted in EVA suits,” Nira said.  “We can’t protect them all, but if they port simultaneously and into different locations, he won’t have time to pick off more than one or two.  I hope.  I’ll leave the strategy for you to plan.  And major,” she sneered, “When you get in…blast him to the dark side of Luna.”
         “By your leave sir,” said the major, and hurried off to set things in motion.
         “Nira…” Scheda pulled her aside.
         She was so focused on this security nightmare, that she had almost forgotten about their own secret guests’ arrival until Scheda reminded her.
         “It might be wise to send them back,” Scheda whispered.  “After all, the manifests of every approaching pod will be scrutinized before they allow anyone else to land.  They might even—hell, probably will—station sentries outside every airlock to check IDs of everyone coming aboard.”
         Nira checked her chronometer.  “They’ll be here very soon, anyway.  No, if we tell them to turn around now it might arouse suspicion.”  She lowered her voice further in a conspirational whisper.  “Check their docking assignment, then make sure to shuffle the guard postings if they do post some.  Make sure no one’s on duty when they dock.  Our passenger transfer will hold up under examination, because  I arranged it myself.”
          Scheda smiled jubilantly.  “Heh…if I don’t get to see Amir soon, I may just try to teleport myself straight to his apartment groundside.”
         Nira laughed.  “Oh don’t do that.  He’d have to mop you up off the floor.  I’m sure he’d rather see you all in one piece.  Well get going…then come back here as soon as you can.”
         She mock-saluted.  “By your leave, sir.”


>> 5

         Keane was grateful that Ayumu had decided to leave him in peace, rather than try to bring him back to reality.  To a Teki in particular, different from the Sune in so many ways, it might have seemed more compassionate to try and be his lifeboat of sanity, and attempt to keep his troubled mind above the waves…but it was not their way.  The bond they shared went both ways.  As much as Snow’s pain and terror threatened to overwhelm him, so did Ennio’s sending of feelings of comfort and love give her something to cling to, on her own tortured seas.
         He waited for them to return.  There was still hope, he thought, that Ennio’s failing mental state might be held off long enough.  He would fight it—for Ennio, there was too much at stake, for him to allow his mind to fail him.
          The screen offered only a view of the empty bridge.  It was an interminable wait, and every minute that passed was an ill portent.  When at last the cabin door did open and his two friends emerged, he felt his heart sink.
For someone to carry a Sune—like a common animal—was ordinarily a dreadful intrusion of dignity.  That Ayumu reappeared bearing his friend’s smaller auburn-furred body in his arms, told Keane that the Sune was indeed losing his fight to keep control.
         He wasn’t unconscious, thought.  That made Ennio’s discomfiture harder for Keane to bear.  Had he been out cold, at least, some of his pride might have been spared.  Rather, Keane had to witness his brilliant, spirited friend reduced to a trembling wreck of a soul.
         That is still Ennio, he forced himself to remember.  Still my friend Merely trapped in a nightmare he can’t wake up from.
         He’s one to fight, though, with everything he’s got. 
         He needs help…he’s got to find his way back from where he’s gone.
         Ennio’s golden eyes were open, as Ayumu lay him in the seat where he could be close enough to almost touch the screen.  But though he was inches away from Keane’s digitized face, the troubled Sune’s eyes gazed into nothingness.  Or perhaps into the distance—to a place only he could see and towards a voice only he could hear.
         “Ennio, listen to my voice,” Keane said.  He didn’t really know where to begin with this.  Though they both were Sune—a people of rich spiritual essence, complex minds, and powerful emotional bonds, forged millenia ago in the harsh jungles—this went so far beyond anything Keane himself had ever experienced.
Ennio huddled in on himself, directing as he was every sense of comfort and soothing to his distant love.  It demanded every fiber of his being, every spark of his consciousness, drowning out, for him, his true surroundings.  He felt no shame, had no need for pride in the eyes of others, as he whispered and churred restlessly in the language of his native tongue.
         Whatever terrible experience she was going through, on the other end of that link…it so constrained all of his awareness that he was made powerless to help her in any real sense. 
         If there was a way to bring him back, it was by helping him to see that he, Ennio, was Snow’s only hope.
          Can he get a glimpse of what’s there?   he wondered.  What, in all the lonely cosmos, had found her. And how long she had.
         Apart from his trembling, Ennio had remained very still.
         Then suddenly he jerked violently, so startling Keane and Ayumu that they both jumped themselves.  Ennio flipped on his side, throwing his head back and shrieking until the cords in his neck stood out.
         Ayumu held him down to keep him from rolling backwards off the seat.  His worldess scream tapered down to a howling cry:
         “Stop!  Stop it, pleaaase!”
         ”What’s happening?”  Keane barked, his face pressed up against the screen now.  “Ennio, what’s happening to her?”
         “…in her head…” he gasped.  “cords of ice… cold fingers…”
         “Can you see something?”  Keaned pressed him for a real understanding of what was happening to her.  These vague metaphors! “Hands? Is that what you see?”
         “I can…feel them,” he sobbed.  “In her mind.  Carrying everything away.  Replacing her…her…with….”
         Abruptly he twisted his head towards the floor and retched.
         There was no more shouting.  He curled into himself again, shivering.  Ayumu, now as pale as a sheet, tried caringly to use a towel to clean off his face, but the Sune had already again curled up too tightly to make that possible.
         There was a long silence, where no one knew what to say.  Beneath the initial shock of this violent episode, he was aware of their carefully laid plans rapidly falling to pieces.
         They were no longer merely the supporting cast to his daring rescue attempt.  It was now the two of them who were the rescuers, and it was clear there was more than one life at stake.
         “We’ve got to move soon,” Keane said.  “It’s nearly time for our dock.  I suppose…we might have a chance still to turn tail, get back planetside before anyone gets suspicious enough to chase us.  Take time to rethink our strategy.”
         Ayumu agreed.  “I don’t see how just one of us can pull this off.  I can get over to the second ring okay, but after that, they’ll be on to me.  As soon as I try to jump again using their own ‘port bay they’ll know where to wait for me.  It would be suicide.”
         “Then the only way for you to get to the third ring, is if I set up the receiver ahead of time.  I know they’ll detect it once I do, that’s the thing.”
         He sighed.  “Anyone else you can pull into this at the last minute?”
         “Not that I would trust with your lives,” he said.  “Or hers.”
         There was a long silence between them.  This is your call, Keane was saying. We’re all of us together, as close as friends can be, but you are the one he sees as a brother.  He’d want you to decide.
         “Then we’ll wait,” Ayumu said.  We’ll find another way.  Any of us are willing to lay down our lives to save her, but I won’t throw them away senselessly.”
         Ayumu placed his paw on the screen, wishing he could touch his friend, offer some kind of meaningful comfort.  “I’m sorry, buddy…”
         He went to the controls and prepared to turn the craft back to the planet.  Where perhaps, given more thought and given time—oh and how  dear was that time—they could come up with another way. 
But then, as if Ennio really could feel his friend’s touch, he stirred, slowly turned his head to look at the screen for the first time.  His eyes were glassy, and still looked haunted, but Keane knew this time he was looking at him.
         “No…” he breathed.  Then, more forcefully, “No!”
         Ayumu stopped what he was doing, stared at the Sune.  Ennio still breathed heavily, and uttered forth fitful murmurs and coos, barely audible, that he seemed to emanate from him without his perceiving it, but he seemed suddenly to have focused something of himself onto the real world.
         He swallowed.  ”I can’t…close myself to her,” he said in a feverish, but sharply lucid, voice.  “Or stop what comes to me…
         Taken aback as he was by Ennio’s sudden, desperate clinging to reality, Keane began to feel an inkling of understanding.
He saw it in the way Ennio never seemed to really leave that other place. And yet how it still tore at him, behind the fitful twitching of his eyes, the almost unconscious whispers of soothing sounds he continued to send to his loved one.  Torn apart, clinging to precious scraps of two separate worlds.
         “Be in both places.,” Keane said.  Then, in the tongue of their kind:
         “Ssh cht hroo tch…rr tikt e arrah.”
         You are Sune.  Your mind has many eyes.
         “I think I understand now,” Keane said, explaining to Ayumu, who looked somewhat left out of this mystical exchange. 
         “There is no sense in nature giving her children such a powerful gift, of knowing when a loved when who isn’t near is hurting or in danger…if it paralyzes him into helplessness.
         “Our kind, we’re also given the power to focus our full concentration, not on just one matter but several.  I think he can do it…find a way to keep part of himself in the here and now, without pulling any of his attention from Snow.
         “Hold onto what you feel,” he spoke to Ennio.  His attention was still there, aided perhaps by a momentary, merciful respite from the horrors happening to his beloved mate.  “Don’t push it aside, don’t ignore it,” he advised.  He was really going out on a limb, delving deep into his own mind and intuition to find the way.
         “Give her all the comfort she needs, stay with her.  And use every feeling you get from her to drive you.  When you faced the reality that this rescue was about to end…” He smiled slightly.  “You found the power to fight back.  If you focus on how imperative it is to succeed here, I think you can stay with us.  Focus your mind, Ennio, on both of your responsibilities.
         “You’re Snow’s last hope, Enn.  Just like in -----, in the jungle, you are the only one who can hear her.  Well it’s a big jungle out there, and she’s calling out to you again to find her and bring her home.  Now focus on what you’ve got to do.”
         Ennio searched within himself, seeking that ancient power of survival buried within, a gift passed on from his primal ancestors.  It was there—like learning to walk.  Four feet, working together but moving separately.  So it was with his mind.
         A shift of balance, a path out of the fog.  Without pulling away the life-raft to which his love desperately clung, he found the wheel and discovered he could still steer this ship…
         Keane, his nose nearly pressed against the screen, watched as the soft blue electronic glow bathed his face.  After several long moments of watching, he smiled, and touched his paw to the screen to join his friend’s.
         They had a chance yet.


>> 5

         “What do you mean, ‘they were bumped’?”
         “Just what it says.”  Scheda sat alone in her darkened apartment.  The glow of her personal workstation surrounded her in a blue aura.  It fit her mood.  She complained, “They were bumped off the passenger list at the last minute.  It’s authorized. And—there’s no work assignment posted.  Looks like we’re not the only one entertaining special guests.”
         “And who authorized it?”  her voice crackled in over Scheda’s wrist-comm.  “I want to know who’s using their security clearance to arrange their own personal conjugal visits…besides me!”
         “It’s…um…authorized by Major Legate Keane.” 
         “Motherless…son of a…Must he always be in my way!”
         Scheda smirked.  “Should we recommend disciplinary action against the Major Legate?”
         Nira composed herself.  “We shall respect the esteemed commander’s decision.  The pompous pissant.”
         “How dare he spoil our fun so he can have his fun,” she agreed.  “Nothing much we can do about it though.”
         “Not…necessarily,” said Nira, after a pause.  “Bring up the security detail for that arrival.  Just for laughs.”
         She did.  “Hmm.  He also authorized to wave the security.  How interesting.  He doesn’t want his guests to be put through an inquisition, either.”
         “Oh, but they will be!” she laughed.  “It doesn’t require an authorization for someone to assign a security detail to meet new arrivals.  That could be amusing. Something tells me they won’t be prepared to prove their identities.”
         “Shall I arrange for it?”
         “Oh please do.  I only wish I could be in the detail to watch this go down.  Alas, we shall have to look at the security footage later, to see this for ourselves.  It doesn’t make up for the evening we’ve had ruined, but it will make me feel a bit better.  We’ll have a good laugh over it.”
         “You know…” said Scheda, “if they get busted, Keane is really going to be in some hot water!”
         “Let’s keep an eye on his guests,” Nira said.
         “You want to tap into surveillance?” Scheda replied.  “We don’t have clearance for that—“
         “No, we don’t.  So, if we catch Keane getting himself in deeper, maybe the good Major showing his—I’m sure, female—guests around some of the station’s more high-security areas, trying to impress them, well we can’t go saying we spotted it while doing our own surveillance.  We’ll have to catch them in the act, and use it as an excuse to examine their credentials.”
         Scheda was almost—almost—shocked at heir friend.  With an anxious little grin, she said, “You really are one devious girl.  It’s amazing you haven’t managed to push Keane off the top of that hill yet.”
         “It’s the alpha in me,” she snickered.  “We may travel among the stars now, and we’re getting a little better at working with one another, but I am still Sune.  And it can’t be helped that it is in my soul to be one to lead.”
         “It’s not as if he’s a poor leader,” her friend responded, though carefully.  “He’s done well, and so have you.  Do you really think it helps our common cause to discredit him?”
         “I have no interest in common cause,” she said.  “Our kind isn’t made for society and unity, Scheda.  I wish to lead because I can.  I am successful at every step because I do what I’m expected to and do it well.
         “I will continue to step up, until someone proves to me they are the better one to lead.  And right now…Keane is in my way, and he is about to be stepped on.”


>> 6

         “So how about it?”  Ayumu asked.  “Will this work for you?”
         Shifting around a bit, trying in vain to find a comfortable arrangement, Ennio tried to imagine himself storming the station in a setup like this.          
         “feel…like…” he articulated slowly, “I…feel like a furry backpack.”
         “Hey, you’re the fashion statement of the summer.  Everyone’s going to want one…when we tell the story of Ennio, the conquering hero.”
         Ayumu unfastened the shoulder straps, making sure to hold onto the cords so Ennio wouldn’t tumble to the floor.  Gently he disengaged the harness and lowered it to the floor.  Ennio preferred to help himself out of the harness, rather than have to be lifted out.
         He sat up on his haunches, which put him at about two and a half feet when sitting down, and three feet when he walked on his hind legs.  While he was more comfortable keeping to all fours, walking on two was something Sune had long evolved the ability to do as well.  It made carrying and handling things much easier.
         Taking the hastily built harness in his hands, he looked it over.  It was Ayumu’s best solution, a way to make their assault on the station as easy as possible for the still somewhat unbalanced Sune.  It would allow him to ride in a harness against Ayumu’s back, where he would not risk falling behind if disorientation overcame at the worst moment.  He would face outward, so that he could still protect Ayumu’s back side with cover fire, per the original plan.
         “Really, not bad,” he conceded, pulling at the cords looped together from various scavenged parts. “I’ll pick them off while they’re helpless with laughter,” he said.  Ennio favored his friend with a wink, finally showing a ghost of a smile.
         Ayumu laughed aloud then, and fought an urge to hug him.  “Ah, I missed your sense of humor.” 
         He became serious again.  “Hey.  How are you holding up, I mean really. Because if we go into this and you’re not sure you can get through it…you’ve got to tell me.  We can always come up with another plan. We’re no good to her if we get made dead, either.”  Using this silly phrase of theirs, he tried to keep a playful tone with him, although underneath he was intensely serious.  But the moment he made mention of a backup plan, he knew that the Sune would never go for that.
         Ennio stared him down. His golden eyes were bright, fierce.  “No time.  You know that.”
         Ayumu sighed. He admitted what he already understood. “Yeah.  Yeah, I know.”
         “Into the laundry, then?”
         “If you please.”
         Ennio gathered himself for a leap into the laundry cart, which typically wouldn’t have been a difficult thing for him.  But he blinked, trying shook his head trying to clear it, thought about it again, and reconsidered.  He clgreened up one of the posts and managed to get in without any assistance, although Ayumu was ready to help.
         “Strange,” he said, “As hard as I try…I don’t feel like my body’s altogether in this place.
         “Somewhere…I’m standing on different ground, breathing different air…” he paused on top of the pile of laundry, deep in thought, “and I don’t trust what I…feel…under my feet here.”
         “It won’t be much longer, old friend,” Ayumu said.  “Just take care of yourself.  We need you, to be able to find her.”
         The bag containing the receiver parts, a longer duffel concealing two laser rifles, and the harness he buried deep as well, leaving a hopefully inconspicuous cart of dirty clothing.
         “Keane…we’re ready,” he said into the wristcomm.
         The other immediately replied, “switching views now…wait, wait!”
         Ayumu wasn’t about to go through that airlock until absolutely all was set and perfect, but he asked, “what’s wrong?”
         “I called those sentries off!  Why are they there!”  Ayumu could hear him fussing with something on the other end, checking records.  “I don’t understand it.  All right. You have your ID. You’ll have to show it to them when you board.  Shouldn’t be any trouble, but, if for any reason there is…I’ll step in and issue direct orders to them.”
         “It’s your party,” said Ayumu.  “We’re just here to crash it.  Ready now?”
         From Keane, no rousing words, no rallying cheer, simply:
         “Boys…let’s go get her.”
         Walking backwards, Keane pulled the linen-loaded cart through the doorway. Immediately he sensed the sentries, flanking him. He pretended to pay them little notice until he’d pulled the cart out in the corridor.  The sentries stayed with him, though hopefully somewhat relaxed by the fact that this passenger showed little anxiety, seemingly old hat at these procedures.
         Ayumu presented his badge to the nearest guard.  Purposely he did not say anything, trying to look more bored than anything.  Keane would had set up the necessary details and background, all he needed to do was play the part.
         “That checks, mate” said the first.  “You’re clear to go.”
         Ayumu was just preparing to push off with the cart, inwardly surprised at how simple that exchange had been, when the second guard spoke up.  “We’ll need to check your cart, though.  We’ve had some…suspicious activity lately.  Manifests being forged, and the like.  Won’t take but a moment…” he stepped forward to sift through the laundry, and Ayumu’s stomach did a reverse backflip.  Thinking quickly—perhaps too quickly—he said:
         “I…don’t think you should do that.”
         A hint of suspicion crossed the second guard’s face.  “That so now?  Suppose you be telling me why?”
         “You…don’t want to put your hand in there.  These clothes are terribly soiled.  While we were in port, loading up…a drove of kurits got into the storage and into a lot of our stuff.  Anyway, when we tried to drive them off…well, you know what kurits are like.  These clothes…are…soaked from their urine, and we don’t know if they may be contaminated with vagracy.”
          They’re not buying that….
         Much too late, he was aware that these clothes, did not emit much of an odor at all. Pointedly, he gestured to the pile as he spoke.  On the side hidden from the sentries, he saw Ennio’s face peer out at him, as he was no doubt wondering how Ayumu could think this would work.  Ayumu, then, made a gesture that only Ennio could see, and he had to hope it would be enough.
         “I intend to dump the whole load rather than touch them and risk getting infected.  If you like, you can come with me to the incinerator and watch me unload everything there.” 
         Adding that last concession might have saved them.  Not as suspicious now, the first guard gingerly peeled back a layer of cloth, commenting, “I don’t smell any…”
         “Oh damn!” exclaimed the other.  “Cover it back up!” he grabbed the top layer of clothing and thrust it back over the pile.  “That is foul! Okay, something pissed in there, that’s for bloody sure!  And it weren’t human.  I didn’t know them things made such a stink!”
         “Yeah, well, the…the carriers do,” he agreed.  “That’s why I don’t want to touch it.  However if you’d prefer to get a haz crew, and observe as they empty the cart, I’ll be glad to cooperate.”
         “Might be a good—“ started the first.
         “We’re on a…bit of a tight schedule,” the other interrupted.  “All right, Ced, this one’s clear anyhow.  The one they’re all up in arms about, he didn’t have a check-in so that’s how he slipped by.  This fella’s legit.”
         “Aye,” the other agreed.  “No doubt you wanna be rid of this thing.  But before I can let you do that…” he began, crossing his arms and giving Ayumu a stern look.
         “I hope I make the point clear, that from now on you’ll kindly be takin’ care of your reference before you make port here.  Whether you get made late for your docking or not.  Now, go dump it in the incinerator and be rid of it.”
         “Thank you gentlemen,” he said, and at last they were off.
         When they were safely out of earshot, he heard a muffled voice from the cart: “Fair warning: when this is all over…” he paused and then said next in one breath, “I’m going to rip off your arms and beat you to death with them.”
         Ayumu checked over his shoulder, assuring himself that the sentries had wasted no time porting out to their next destination. And then he made a beeline for the nearest washroom.
         
>> 7

         “Hello, what is this all about!”
         They watched together with rapt attention.  Certainly neither of them had expected the Major’s special guest to be a yeoman hauling a cart of dirty laundry.           Nira glanced to the side, exchanging looks with her friend. 
         “Is our commander running a secret laundry business on the side?”  On the surveillance, the Teki arrival seemed unperturbed by the reassigned security patrol.  His ID was checked, and it seemed to fly, and then there was an exchange where one guard started to look through the cart but then changed his mind.
         “This is crap,” Nira snapped.  “Why would he go through the trouble to sneak a pile of pissed-on rags onboard?”
         “And…where’s the second one?”
         “The what?” She frowned.  “Yes, that’s right…”  To think, she had nearly forgotten about the matter  of the second passenger.  Those were details a highranking security officer was not supposed to forget.  “Pull up that manifest again.”
         She did.  “It’s changed!”
         “Changed…while it was in transit,” Nira agreed.
         “We…we should go to the Director with this,” said Scheda.  “We can say we discovered the change.  Without having to admit we’re spying.”
         Nira shook her head.  “No, I don’t think just yet.  This is very strange, but if Keane did actually have a good reason for doing this, something he can back up, then we’re going to look like fools.  We don’t know anything for sure.
         “But now we’re definitely watching this character.  Him and his dirty laundry.  Something stinks here...”