Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework (14 page)

"I think that's why some ships carrying new
followers are being sent to another system now, closer to the New
Frontier. There is a greater purpose to Pandem, though. I'm sure
Hampon will enlighten-"

"I'm not interested in Pandem. There is one
thing I want from this solar system, and it’s something I already
own anyway.” She stopped in front of a large airlock door and
regarded Lina. “You’ve been sent to make sure I behave, and that
extends well past making sure I eat and sleep regularly. Who are
you, really, Lina?”

“I’m your loyal servant,” Lina said,
warily.

A flash of silver metal moved past the
transparent door of the airlock, and Lina flinched. She stared
through it a moment before her eyes widened. “That’s a construction
ship,” she said. “You’ve summoned it here against the wishes of our
Master.”

A surge of rage seized Eve, and she slapped
Lina so hard she was almost pulled off-balance herself. “Hampon
will never be my master!” she shouted. “He’s a deluded, diseased
waste of a being, and he won’t keep me from taking what’s
mine.”

Lina’s cheek was already turning red. As Eve
moved towards the airlock, Lina rushed into her path, punching the
disengage key as the construction ship tried to dock outside.

Eve tried to pull the shorter woman aside.
Lina turned towards her and pushed Eve’s hands away, preventing her
from getting a grip on her robes. “I can’t let you do this,” Lina
said. “The Virus!”

With a lunge, Eve caught Lina’s throat in
her hands and started to squeeze. “It’s a lie, he’s only trying to
keep me helpless. I won’t be in his thrall.”

“It’s true,” Lina croaked.

“You’re blind,” Eve said as she squeezed
harder and looked into the woman’s dull brown eyes. “You’re useless
to me.”

A harsh blow caught her behind the knees,
and Eve caught sight of a pair of armoured guards as she fell to
the ground. They’d come up behind her while she was focused on
Lina, something that would never have happened if she’d been in
direct communication with the system.

A flash of light from a high-powered stunner
blocked her vision and made her numb. Another flash rendered Eve
unconscious.

Agameg and Finn always found a way to
connect when their shift started in the morning, despite the
nondescript grey worker vacsuits everyone were sealed up in. They
were assigned to work on the Samson after a long argument with
their new head of intelligence, Jason. At first, Jason had them
running around from one random job to another, something different
every day, but on day six Jason’s system had Agameg and Finn
working on the same trash removal detail.

Finn recognised Agameg when he saw him shift
between the two forms he spent the most time in while hiding
amongst the workers. There were other issyrians on the detail, but
there was something about the way he shifted that suggested it was
him. When Finn caught him shifting into the shape of a portly man
behind a crate one afternoon, he couldn’t stop laughing.

“Apparently, you find fat people very
funny,” Agameg said.

Finn shook his head, then pointed at
Agameg’s knees. “I don’t think-“ he took a breath, “-don’t think
they’re supposed to waddle below the middle so much,” he managed
before another bout of laughter.

With a little help, Agameg shifted into a
more convincing portly human. No one seemed to notice that Agameg
could shift some of the bulk out of the way when necessary, so it
didn’t impede his work.

Separately, they may have never complained
openly about being kept away from the Samson, but together they
felt fortified enough to approach Jason Everin directly, and tell
him they wouldn’t go along unless they were allowed to participate
in the Samson project. Finn and Agameg, being two of the new
designers for the ship, were given a way to give orders and
instructions to other workers using proxies, so no one could tell
who the orders came from; all they knew was that they came from
someone with more authority.

In the weeks since, Finn and Agameg watched
morale plummet. Sealed vacsuits with blacked out faceplates and
instructions to keep your identity to yourself made for brutal
conditions. Hundreds of people worked on the Samson, and they
needed visible leaders who could be present. They also needed each
other for support and camaraderie, and to feel like a proper crew.
Finn hated Jason’s plan, couldn’t believe it had gone on for so
long, but he had to admit he was learning a lot about leadership.
He and Agameg used the proxy band not only to issue commands, but
after a few weeks they used it to cheer people up with comments
like, ‘Your Secret Overlords are highly impressed with worker 1128.
Please dance with them for one minute if you see them today.
Vigorously.’ One worker on ground duty, or ‘move and pile objects’
duty, was not only surprised but entertained all day, and Agameg
never stopped laughing when he saw someone stop and follow
instructions upon seeing that worker.

There were others, like making a few kiddie
pools out of scrap outside the hangar that were eventually used for
their intended purpose, but initially used by the more lighthearted
crewmembers. They didn’t use them to cool down, but to take funny
holoimages during breaks in their sealed vacsuits. Oz first noticed
them when one of the larger wading pools had as many people sitting
along the inside as possible. “I think the pretence of so many
humans who cannot feel the water relaxing in once place has broken,
Oz,” Agameg said as the Commander laughed so hard he had to sit
down. They waved, and beckoned for him to join them, making it much
worse.

Most of the ‘Overlord Gags’ as they came to
be called weren’t as elaborate. Though they did become a daily
thing, they could only do so much for morale. Agameg and Finn were
careful not to suggest anything that got in the way of the work or
put anyone in danger, and Finn was sure that’s why they were
allowed to keep it up for as long as they had.

Over several weeks, Finn had the pleasure of
watching the Samson get torn down to her skeleton then rebuilt. The
design was a collaborative effort between all their qualified
people: Ayan, Liam Grady, Laura Everin, Frost, Agameg, Captain
Valance, Finn himself, and others. They focused on a design that
would be quick to build, and it changed depending on the materials
available. The ship was going to be something very different,
thanks to her original, multipurpose frame design and the heavy
building girders they used to reinforce her.

All kinds of scrap metal was available,
thanks to a junk yard that encroached on the nearby forest. Alaka’s
team were incredible salvagers. Finn wished he could have gone on
more than one ride with them, but after a firefight broke out
between them and two other groups of scavengers, someone above
Finn’s head removed that option.

“I wonder how Ashley and Stephanie are doing
with their rotation?” Agameg asked over a private channel. “I
haven’t spoken to either of them in twelve days.”

“I know, this limited communication thing is
a pain in the ass,” Finn said, checking the connections on a
wormhole generator. It was originally intended for an extended
model Uriel fighter, but the Samson borrowed four. “Stephanie said
it wasn’t that bad when I got in touch with her last week. Ashley’s
learning a lot, but she doesn’t seem to like it much.”

“You spoke to her?” Agameg asked.

“No, she hasn’t spoken to me since this
started, but Steph gave me an update.” Finn sighed before going on.
“I guess there’s some residual weirdness after our last date.”

“I wish you humans had better senses,”
Agameg said. “You’d know if you were compatible right away.”

“That would make dating simpler,” Finn
replied. “Can you tell if people are a match?”

“Sometimes,” Agameg said. “I try not to let
people know I can smell their mood. I told Bella once, and she said
it ‘creeped her out’ so I keep that to myself.”

“Who’s Bella?”

“Oh, I suppose she left the Samson before
you came aboard. Very kind human, she enjoyed watching people, so
we were a natural pair,” Agameg replied, closing the casing of the
wormhole module. They walked down the hallway to a junction and
opened it. Hundreds of wires ran into and through the box.

“So, can you do it through a vacsuit?” Finn
asked.

“No, not if it’s sealed. Some humans are
difficult to read if they have only retracted their head gear,
too.”

“How easy am I to read?”

“You are,” Agameg considered his wording for
a moment. “More complex than many humans.”

“What about Stephanie? Or Frost?” Finn
asked, holding a band of metal up to a cable and punching a bolt
through it with a multitool so the power line was secured to the
inner bulkhead.

“Frost is almost always very relaxed, but
there is a bite to his fragrance that speaks of the warrior within.
Of all the humans I’ve ever met, he carries the least guilt.
Stephanie reads very differently when she’s on duty. Calm,
controlled, confident. When she’s off duty, she’s more like Ashley
than I would like to tell her.”

Finn wished he’d had that conversation weeks
before, and took the opportunity to ask about the one person he
wanted to learn of most. “What about Ashley?”

“She’s very smelly,” Agameg replied.

Finn doubled over with laughter.

Agameg stopped checking the cables running
from the junction and looked at Finn. “Smelly is the right word,”
he explained. “I just checked.”

“I know,” Finn replied, recovering. “It’s
just not the word I expected.”

“Oh,” Agameg replied. “Would ‘pungent’ be
better?”

Finn shook his head, “I get what you mean,
but she might not like the word. ‘Fragrant’, maybe?” He waited as
Agameg looked it up.

“I suppose, it is pleasant once you get over
the shock,” Agameg replied. “It’s difficult to put into words,
she’s like,” he hesitated, rubbing his hand up and down one arm,
something he’d started doing when looking for the right word or
phrase. “Like those long meal tables with different foods?”

“A buffet?” Finn offered.

“Yes! Her moods mix and change until she
seems to settle on one, then you can’t help but know what mood
she’s in. Her influence is greater than she thinks,” Agameg
said.

“So it’s a good smell,” Finn said.

“Yes,” Agameg replied. “That wasn’t
clear?”

“When you say ‘smelly’ or ‘pungent’ we think
about things like trash cleanup.”

“Ah,” Agameg replied, recoiling slightly. “I
am understanding why there are so many misunderstandings in your
language more all the time.”

Finn began scanning the wiring and nodded
down the hallway. “Check the one at frame nine, I can handle this
one.”

“You don’t want to know how you and Ashley
are together?” Agameg asked as he walked down the hall at a good
pace. Checking junctions and cable runs were necessary, but boring.
They both wanted to get it over with.

“I’m surprised you remember, we haven’t met
up in a while,” Finn replied.

“I’d never forget,” Agameg said. “When you
are together, and there is no one else near, there is a calming
fragrance. You have that affect on many people, but more so on
her.”

Finn thought for a moment, reassured by
Agameg’s interpretation. “Thank you, that explains a lot, I
think.”

A Stellarnet news alert popped up in the
corner of Finn’s visor. He froze at the sight of a shuttle with two
people in vacsuits affixed to the front burning through the
atmosphere. One was holding his arms up in front of his face, the
other struggled to break free of the sealant foam that held him
fast to the hull – not a good plan, Finn thought, but the man was
obviously panicking. The caption at the bottom of the alert read:
JACOB VALANCE RETURNS!

Finn checked the local air traffic and found
the shuttle, flanked by a wing of fighters and the rest of the
shuttles from the Enforcer. “Agameg!”

“I can hear you perfectly clearly over
comms,” Agameg replied. “There’s no need to yell.”

“Captain’s back, and it looks like he’s
changing the plan,” Finn said, making sure his scan was complete
and the wiring was correct before slamming a panel door and running
for the nearest exit.

“Oh?”

“He’s landing now, link up with the main
crew channel.” Finn nearly bumped into a crewman as he came around
a corner to one of the main debarkation ramps. “Sorry,” he said as
he pushed past. He followed his own advice and connected to the
main and command channels using his real ident. He wasn’t the only
one; he saw Stephanie, Frost, March, and a moment later, Agameg and
Ashley popped in.

“- won’t be happy about this,” Oz said over
the command channel. “Uh, hey guys, your idents are showing.”

“That’s over,” Captain Valance said. “If
they want to operate in the open, like I do, then they’re welcome
to. The plan worked for a while, I’ll give Jason credit for that,
but the idiots riding on the front of my shuttle found cracks, so
I’m calling it.”

Finn came out from under the Samson and
looked to the opening in the tall hangar doors. He was treated to
the sight of an entire wing of Uriel fighters, and over a dozen
shuttles landing all at once. The first to touch down was Jacob’s
shuttle.

He stepped outside a moment later, in a grey
vacsuit with burn holes at the shoulder, leg, and torso. Finn
joined the crowd that gathered around. Someone was broadcasting his
landing to the Stellarnet, and the video window on his visor showed
that viewership was going up by the thousands per second.

Jacob walked to the front of his shuttle and
faced the crowd with the two hanging men behind him. “These two
tried to kidnap me and claim the bounty on my head,” Captain
Valance announced. “The rest of the bounty hunters that came with
them didn’t survive.”