Assault on Ambrose Station: A Seth Donovan Novel (7 page)

10.

We had synchronized our ship’s clock with the stations, so when I eventually awoke it was well into the next day’s morning. I got up, showered and headed down to Deck 2 for chow. I smiled to myself as I thought that,
chow
. I was already falling back on my old marine thinking. We called it
breakfast
here on the ship.

“What are you smiling at, loverboy?” teased Artemis as she looked up from her plate of toast and coffee. There were several puddles of spilt coffee around her mug.

“Nothing. Do you have to spill your drink every time you have something?”

“Yep. I’m a messy drinker.”

“Kind of like me and eating?”

“Sure. We’re perfect for each other. Let’s elope.”

“No thanks.”

She pouted at me, “Loser.”

“Bitch.”

“Ha. What have you got planned for today?”

“You first. Made a move to secure that patrol data, yet?”

“I will. Waiting for this young officer I met yesterday to get sweet on me.”

“You’re a terrible role model, you know?”

“But I’m a great lover.”

“Says you.”

“Hey, I offered. That boat’s sailed, loverboy.”

I smiled at her. She was always like this, you never knew if she was flirting for real or was just yanking your chain. I knew for sure that I’d dodged a bullet with her. When we’d first met there was a certain…
chemistry
, I will admit. She was dangerous, confident, seductive and manipulative. How could a man
not
find her attractive? She was also one hell of a fighter. She was my current sparring partner, since Crege was wounded. Our relationship was complicated. On one hand, she was the agent of Benedict Jenner – the instigator and protagonist who had pushed us into the most dangerous system in the Network. On the other, she was a kindred spirit, a freelance active who worked for whom ever she chose and she was good at it. I don’t know that if I’d gotten close to her, could I be inspired enough to get through this job? I was certain that any attraction I felt towards her was purely lust and nothing more. I could never love someone like her; she was too much like me.

Zoe, though…she was most definitely
not
like me. She was innocent of much of the darkness that was in Artemis and me. I was a killer, a trained solder and veteran of violent encounters. I needed someone who was not those things, to remind me of who I am as a person. Of who I should be. I’d chosen wisely, something I rarely do when women are concerned. Just thinking about that reminded me of a choice that needed to me made, soon. I could lose Zoe, despite things going very well between us.

“What’s gotten into you?” said Artemis. She must have seen my face fall.

“Nothing. Just thinking.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Does what hurt?”

“Thinking.”

“Nice. You should try it sometime.”

“I think all the time.”

“Of something other than sex.”

“Hey, a woman has needs. Not getting anything on this boat, have to go station-side for my nookie.”

“Okay, think I just lost my appetite.”

“Nonsense. Go get yourself some black meal and tell me about your day.”

I did as I was told, grabbing a large bowl of a special cereal that helped me improve my nanite generation. My nano-proliferation implant required certain dietary supplements, mostly minerals and vitamins, in order to function efficiently. Black meal was one such foodstuff. It tasted like regular wheat based cereals, but had a slight metallic taste to it. It was malty, sugary and not too bad a taste, overall. I’d always been a cereal eater, when I wasn’t cramming bacon and eggs into my face.

I shoved a few spoonfuls into my mouth, told her about my ‘meet and greet’ with the dealer later today. I soon had my own puddles of milk and cereal on the table to match Art’s coffee. I told you we were alike.

“You need someone to watch your back?” she asked.

I thought about it, “I should be okay. I don’t want to spook the dealer.”

“I can be real quiet.”

“Well, Max would probably get up me if I refuse the support. It won’t impinge on your own activities today?”

“Nah, best to keep that officer waiting anyway. Will entice him more.”

“You’re hopeless, you know?”

“Men are easy, Seth. It’s what I do.”

“Okay, but I don’t want to start a gunfight. Just run interference if I get into trouble, alright?”

“Aye, aye, First Mate.”

I sighed. “I suppose I’d better get my arse into gear then.” I stood to leave, but she gestured that she had something more to say.

“We need to talk, later.”

“About?”

“Strategy.” As if that explained everything.

“Care to elaborate?”

“Finding Osiris, getting to Ambrose without an army of Ghantri hot on our heels. You know, strategy?”

“It’s a little premature, don’t you think? We’ve at least half a dozen major obstacles to get past before we need to think about that.”

“Still, I like to know what we’re doing before I commit myself to an operation.”

“Alright, we’ll talk. Later.” I left, then. I went down to the armoury in the forward cargo hold and started to go through my load out I was taking into the station with me. I thought my ensemble I had worn the day before was a little to bold, too put on. I certainly did not want to draw attention to myself this time, so the gong was hidden away beneath my shirt. I stuck with a sidearm again, only this time I opted for a more subtle shoulder holster. It was slower to draw from, but I didn’t want to advertise that I was packing. It might give people the wrong idea. Besides, most people who knew what to look for can tell right away, shoulder holster or no. As I knew I’d be firmly ensconced within a stronghold of ‘friendlies’ I couldn’t very well take shots at them, so I drew one of only two non-lethal weapons the Dreaming carries.

The Armatek Electron Gun was a little old, but of sturdy design. It fired a beam that stripped electrons from whatever it hits, causing a sudden burst of electricity to shock the target. It reminded me of the Stun Paradigm that my Nano Proliferation could generate; only this didn’t sap my body’s energy. I preferred this model over variants that are more recent because it caused a shock that was borderline illegal. There had been a number of deaths in the past that had caused the Armatek manufacturer’s to pull the line, but I’d scored one several years ago from Cortez’ Armoury on the Corus Cluster. It was handy being on the favoured customer list of a weapons and armour shop.

I also opted to forgo carrying the
lurzak
blade. It was a purely destructive weapon with no less than lethal purpose. I would be going without a blade this time, but I did not believe I would need it, for the same reason I did not need my PX-2.

Turns out, Artemis’ idea of
later
was sooner than I had expected. As I made my way out of the ship and onto the dock, she caught up with me. She wore a form fitting one-piece jumpsuit that appeared to be made of shiny rubber. She topped it with a loose red blouse, and knee length boots.

“What do you think?” she said, giving herself a twirl.

“How do you expect to keep a low profile in that?”

“Watch!” she stood with her arms on her hips and in a second, the shiny material faded to a featureless matte black. “Stealth suit, urban camouflage fashion line.”

I stared at it, and I had to admit, there was a property to the material that seemed to pull the shadows around her. I had trouble focusing on any features; it was as if I was looking into a darkened room.

“What is that material?”

“Endro-weave.”

“Never heard of it.”

“It’s an Inner Systems technology, all the rage in some of the Esper courts right now. Usually they’re bright, vibrant colours that shimmer, but if you use black as the colour instead it has this effect. The tactical applications are obvious.”

“Looks expensive.”

“Oh it is, but a girl will spend a lot on fashion, my dear.”

“…And I’ve just spent the last thirty seconds discussing fashion with you.”

“Yes, you have, loverboy.” She giggled and followed me off the ship.

I could tell right away that there had been progress made. There were several scaffolds erected around the ship and a few pallets of raw metals and nano-containers were already sitting on the deck. It seemed that Chief Markum had kept his word and repairs to the ship were already underway. My spirits lifted immediately.

Since I had evidence that the Chief had honoured our arrangement, I felt honour bound to return the favour. I called up the directions the Chief had given me for the meeting and started on my way. Artemis kept up, bringing up the topic of our impending assault on Ambrose Station.

“So, I’ve gone over the specs of that Eclipse Fighter,” she began, “And I think it just might work. A couple of questions though.”

“Uh ha.” I grunted.

“How do you plan to evade Ghantri air superiority patrols?”

“I don’t. Not really, anyway.”

“You got to tell me more than that.”

“I plan on letting them shoot me down, or at least make them
think
they’ve shot me down.”

“A crash landing?”

“A controlled landing, with a bit of subterfuge.”

“They’ll still send a ground patrol.”

“No they won’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“Have you any intel at all on Ambrose Station?”

“A little.”

“A little?”

“Not much. What am I missing?”

“So the station is this giant habitat, right? About forty five percent is land mass; the rest is the station infrastructure.”

“Yeah I know that.”

“Well the Ghantri don’t use the habitat ring.”

“What? Why not?”

The habitat ring was artificial planetary landscape that the land mass within a torus habitat generated. There were large tracts of terrestrial soil and vegetation that ran the length of the inner edge of the torus. This presented the most comfortable living conditions on a space station to date, one that was nearly indistinguishable from real planetary living. The station’s infrastructure and machinery operated ‘below’ the land mass and took up the remainder of the station’s mass. There were rarely the large skyscrapers prominent on planets – you simply build ‘down’ towards the outer edge of the ring.

“The Ghantri use the habitat ring to house their slaves. They just lock them on the land and come get what they need, when they need it.”

“So the people there are free to roam?”

I nodded. “They just have very basic tools and farm the land to survive. The Ghantri drop in with assault shuttles and round them up like cattle when they need slave labour elsewhere in the system. If they do a flyby after we crash and see a smoking ruin, they’ll just leave it and won’t care. They never venture into the habitat ring unless they absolutely have to.”

“Why is that? Shouldn’t they at least try to control the population there? What if there’s an uprising?”

“There have been several, actually. Mostly the prisoners just get hammered from the air. The Ghantri drop supplies periodically, things that cannot be grown like protein packs, medicine and tools. When the prisoners misbehave, they stop dropping them for a few weeks and burn crop fields when they find them. Things get real compliant after that.”

“Okay, so once we’re in the land ring they won’t follow us. How do we get there?”

“There are several debris fields near the station. I plan to use one as cover for as long as we can. We can fly the Dreaming to the outskirts of one, and then use the Eclipse the rest of the way.”

We walked in silence for a while; a quick glance at her told me she was deep in thought. I decided I would probe for information myself.

“Have you thought about how we’re going to find Blackburn?”

She looked up at me then, a look of annoyance on her face. “I always thought there’d be some local surveillance system we could jack into, or a prisoner database.”

“Like what a regular prison would have?”

“Yes.” I could tell the line of thinking troubled her.

“You really haven’t thought it through?

“Planning for this part was always going to be organic.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We didn’t have the Intel to make detailed plans when we got here, that’s why I’m here.”

“And?”

“I need more intel.”

I stopped walking and she almost bumped into me. “You have to do better than that. I lost a friend getting us here, and now you tell me you don’t know what you’re doing?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“It is.”

“Look, I’ll put together something before we get close. I just need more time.”