Ascension_Age Of Expansion_A Kurtherian Gambit Series Read online

  “Yeah. I just have a few more questions for Ekks, that’s all.”

  They arrived at his office and walked straight in past the assistant’s desk, which was partially blocking their path. Ekks’s assistant got up from her console and started to protest. “You can’t go in there…”

  Molly shifted her energy and silenced her without having to say anything. Knocking, they entered without waiting to be invited.

  “Ekks,” Molly greeted him dryly. “I’d say good to see you again, but this is never my favorite part of the day.”

  Ekks glanced up from his holo, bamboozled and simultaneously dismayed. After a second to recognize what was happening, he sprang to his feet. “What is the meaning of this?” he demanded. “Patricia! Patricia!” he shouted for his assistant.

  Molly pushed her will. “Hey Ekks, it’s me, relax.” Straightaway his demeanor shifted and he quieted down.

  “Sit down,” she told him. ‘’It’s time for our talk.”

  Obediently he sat down again while Molly and Sean stood in front of his desk, looking down at him.

  “So, how’s the bylaw coming?” she asked.

  “Still on hold,” he grumbled. “Seems you make a convincing argument. Haven’t been able to figure out how you convinced me… or how I didn’t see those other options in the past… but still. It’s on hold and I haven’t changed my mind since last time we spoke.” He looked resentful for a moment, before the creases on his forehead suddenly relaxed and smoothed out.

  “That doesn’t mean that I like what you’re doing. But you were right about it being bad for me politically,” he confessed.

  “So the liquid democracy seats are safe still?” she confirmed.

  He nodded, the tension in the rest of his face evaporating too. “Yep. Safe and legal. The bylaw confining candidates to only vote within party lines would have been unconstitutional anyway.”

  “Good… I’m glad that you see that now.”

  Sean shifted his weight, watching Molly one moment and the changing reactions of Ekks the next. He shook his head in amazement. “Looks like it’s still working,” he added softly.

  Molly nodded, her attention still on Ekks. “I’ve just had word that something’s happened to your adversary: Romero,” she ventured, changing the subject.

  Ekks barely paused. “An unfortunate accident.”

  “So you’ve heard about it already?”

  “I hear about everything that is relevant around here. Is that why you’re here?”

  “No, I’m here just to make sure that we still have an understanding. So what can you tell me about Romero’s accident?”

  “Nothing,” he said, shaking his head, eyes wide as innocently as he could manage. “I don’t know anything about it.” For a moment he looked more like a person than a Commander. Molly wasn’t sure if it was his earnestness, or a sign of weakness.

  She narrowed her eyes, deciding to dig deeper. “I must say, him being out of action for the Senate’s final vote will be quite convenient for you.”

  “What are you implying?”

  “I’m not implying anything.” She rocked slightly onto her toes. “Got to say though, it helps your cause… not having that kind of resistance in the House.”

  “Well, this is true,” he confessed, strangely innocently. “But I had nothing to do with what happened to him.”

  Sean glanced at her sideways and leaned closer to Molly. In a low voice he whispered: “Do you think he is able to keep a secret from you?”

  Molly shrugged. “I’m not sure. Changing someone’s mind is different from trying to get them to tell the truth.”

  “Unless you want to convince them that they need to tell you the truth.”

  Molly smirked. “Ahhh...”

  ***

  Ten minutes later Molly and Sean exited the commander’s office.

  “I hope it holds,” Molly muttered.

  “It should do. It’s worked all this time.” Sean did a quick calculation in his head. “About sixty-two days.”

  Molly shrugged. “Under normal circumstances I’d like to test how long until it starts wearing off. But in this instance we can’t risk it.”

  Looks like we missed someone.

  What do you mean?

  Sounds like someone is calling security over the internal network.

  “Shit! Sean, we gotta move.” She picked up the pace as they hurried out of the Senate building.

  Sean glanced down at his bloody knuckles and wiped them surreptitiously on his atmos pants.

  “You hurt?” she asked as they hurried down the stairs to the foyer.

  “No, it’s not my blood.”

  Suddenly an alarm went off.

  Sean grinned. “Clearly you’re getting complacent.” He chuckled as they hurried out past a bewildered-looking receptionist and back out onto the street.

  “Shit,” Molly muttered again as the pair bounded down the front steps, two at a time. “Well we will just have to come back to see him again tomorrow. Just to remind him of the good decisions he made today. And maybe expand the scope of our questioning in the future, see if the asshole is planning on hitting anyone else.” She shook her head. “Clearly I didn’t see that coming.”

  Within minutes the two were clear of the Senate building and striding across the street to the alley where they had parked the pod. Sean had suggested that they mix up where they parked each time to reduce the possibility of someone noticing them. After all, showing up every day in this kind of technology, and trying to remain undetected, was no mean feat.

  They’d slowed to a normal pace, mingling in with the crowd before slipping quietly into the darkened alley.

  “So how are things going with Karina?” she asked, making idle chitchat.

  Sean glanced at her sideways waiting for her to get into the pod first. The pod hood opened and she hauled herself up before turning and looking at him, pointedly waiting for an answer. “She settling in okay?”

  Sean scrambled to engage the correct part of his brain to answer a non-operational question. “Yeah,” he confirmed, hauling himself up and settling into the bench seat next to her. “Yeah, she seems to be doing fine. Happy now that she gets to participate in the missions and stuff. And of course the gang have been great including her in things like the holo games, and she’s even training in the gym with Jack a couple of times a week…”

  Molly smiled politely. “That’s good to know.” She hesitated as if she wanted to ask something else. “And you…? You’ve no regrets over, you know… bringing her on board?”

  Sean looked at her strangely for a moment, processing the question. “Well, obviously it’s been a bit of a game changer. We’ve both had to adapt… But, no. No regrets.”

  He looked out of the window as Molly programmed the pod to take them up to Gaitune. Molly noticed the distant look in his eye and observed him, waiting to see if he was going to elaborate.

  He felt her watching him. “And especially since it might all be over… I mean, what have we got? A matter of days? Ten at the outset, before it all… Well you know. It’s taken me this long to realize that life has more meaning when you share it with someone else.” He chuckled lightly. “Never thought I’d hear myself say something like that!”

  Molly’s jaw set. “It’s going to be okay. We are going to sort this out, and it’s all gonna be fine. No one’s gonna die. It’s all going to be okay.”

  Sean shrugged. “I don’t know, Molly. We’ve had a good run of things. I’ve had a good long stretch in the Federation too. But all good things come to an end at some point, and I just don’t know how we can stop this before it becomes too big a problem.”

  Molly frowned at him. “Well then if you really think that, why are you working so hard to stop it from happening?”

  “Because that is what we do,” he told her, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “That is how we define ourselves—by what we do. We don’t just give up, even if there is only a tiny little bit
of help. We keep going and keep trying, we keep pushing it and maybe, just maybe, we might get lucky.”

  It was Molly’s turn to look out of the window with a distance in her eye as the pod shot up into the stratosphere and beyond, the planet disappearing beneath them in a matter of moments.

  They rode in silence for several minutes, the blackness outside wrapping them in the safety of space, as if protecting their anonymity from the rest of the world now that they had completed their mission.

  Eventually Sean spoke. “What about you and Joel?”

  Molly did a double take, then hesitated, looking for some words to keep him at bay with. “What do you mean?” she asked, cleverly buying herself some time.

  “Well you know… There’s always been something between you two. And given you may only have a few days left before it all ends… Haven’t you thought about at least talking about it with him?”

  Molly’s gaze was directed out of the window again, watching the blankness of space passing them by. There was silence in the pod for several minutes. Sean started to assume that she just wasn’t going to answer.

  “I just don’t know how to have a conversation with him. Not now. I think it’s been too long.”

  Sean chuckled lightly. “I really don’t think that can be an issue. Just talk to him. He’ll make it easy for you.”

  “Why? Have you guys been talking?”

  “Not recently. But you know there are some things that just don’t change. No matter how long it goes between us talking about it.”

  Molly nodded, acknowledging the advice that Sean was clearly trying to give her. “Okay. I’ll see what happens.”

  Sean gave her a stern look.

  She held her hands up. “Okay, okay, I’ll do my best. Sheesh.”

  Sean relaxed back into the seat and went back to looking out of the window.

  Maybe he’s got a point?

  Not you as well, Oz.

  Life is short…

  I haven’t got the energy or headspace to argue that right now, Oz. As I told Sean, I’ll see what I can do. Okay?

  Okay.

  And with that the pod tilted its trajectory and curved in towards the base on the other side of Gaitune. As they neared the big rock, they could see the hangar doors opening slowly for their arrival.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Aboard Glock’stor Ship # 597

  The bridge was unusually quiet.

  There were no orders being issued. The navigators and the pilot weren’t speaking in a constant stream of mathematical jargon. There were no communications channels to deal with. There was just idle chatter and the hum of computers.

  It was all rather eerie, as far as Trev’or was concerned. He hadn’t seen the bridge so quiet since the time someone broke the Admiral’s favorite mug, and even that had been the calm before the storm.

  Beside him, Ruther was giving him a look, like he knew exactly what was going on in Trev’or’s head and was silently beseeching him not to do anything about it. Trev’or blinked at him innocently before turning to face the Admiral in the command chair.

  The Admiral was paying more attention to his holoconsole than to anything else at that point, presumably working his way through paperwork he had been putting off. He probably appreciated the relative quiet, all things considered.

  “Sooooo…”

  Admiral Clor slid Trev’or a reluctant glance. It was a glance that asked if the technician truly wanted to continue with this line of conversation. Trev’or paid that glance no mind, though, and instead simply carried on as he wondered, “Are we sure this really counts as a retreat anymore?”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be doing maintenance?” Clor asked flatly. “I’m fairly sure that was part of the order.”

  “Multitasking.” Trev’or gestured flippantly at his terminal, where it was running a self-diagnostic program. “I mean, we’ve just sort of been stalled out here for a while. What are we even doing?”

  “I’m not at liberty to discuss that with you,” Clor answered plainly.

  Trev’or opened his mouth to ask another question, only for Ruther to elbow him sharply in the ribs from his left. Clor was giving him a flatly unamused look. At last, Trev’or fell silent.

  Clor eyed them both warily for a moment longer, before he nodded once in satisfaction.

  With that, he got to his feet, levering himself out of the command chair and heading towards the nearest door. “I think I’ll take a stroll,” he decided. “Try not to interrupt if something isn’t wrong. And then at least make sure it’s something that requires my attention; that’s what incident reports are for, otherwise.”

  “Yes, sir,” Trev’or sighed as he returned to watching the diagnostic results come in on the terminal.

  The door opened soundlessly and Clor stepped out into the corridor, his steps carrying him towards the mess hall before he was even fully aware of it. It was too late to be lunch and still too early to be dinner, but the mess hall was rarely actually empty. So he didn’t fight it, and carried on his way.

  It wasn’t until he actually got to the mess hall that things got a bit weird.

  Supervisor Gultorra was sitting at the main table, his boots on the table and his chair back on two legs. He was scrolling through a datapad, attempting to get some work done, to all appearances. To either side of him sat Kalvor and Tulnok, both of them sorting files. None of them were eating at that exact moment, but the trays on the table meant they had been just a short while ago.

  That wasn’t the strange part. People worked through meals all the time.

  The strange part was the fact that other soldiers were bustling around, in and out of the mess hall. Periodically, they would return to Gultorra to ask something in a low voice, or to shout something rather loudly from the walkways above the mess hall.

  “Supervisor,” Clor sighed.

  “Admiral,” Gultorra greeted, saluting as something of an afterthought. “How can I help you?”

  “What are you doing?” Clor asked. He could feel a headache brewing already, and he dug two knuckles against the corners of his eyes to stave it off.

  “I am just readying all of the reports I’ll need to submit when all of this is over with,” Gultorra replied.

  “We’re alphabetizing them,” Tulnok added, sounding none too pleased to be doing so.

  Clor dragged a hand down his face. “What is everyone else doing, then?” he clarified.

  Finally, Gultorra looked up from his datapad. “Everyone has been getting a bit antsy from the inactivity,” he explained, as if Clor had somehow failed to realize that himself. “They’ve been driving me up a wall. The ones perfectly capable of handling higher level work have been sent to do just that. The rest have been informed that my desk lamp needs a new bulb and the first to bring me one gets glowing praise in one of my personnel reports.”

  Clor was silent for a moment, waiting for one of the three of them to say that it was a joke. Once it was apparent that no such declaration was forthcoming, Clor pointed out, with resignation, “None of the lights on this ship even use bulbs. I’m fairly sure they haven’t in decades.”

  Gultorra gestured carelessly to the next table over, where perhaps a dozen soldiers were gathered. They watched the bustling, but made no efforts to join in.

  “Some of them knew from the beginning or just didn’t care,” Gultorra explained. “Some of them figured it out for themselves eventually. All of them have decided that it’s more fun to keep that information to themselves. I’m sure the rest will clue in eventually, but in the meantime I have relative peace and quiet without all of them hanging off my belt loops like needy kittens.”

  Clor supposed he couldn’t really argue with that. Rather than try to, he simply sighed, “Carry on, then,” and made his way to a different table. Even if he didn’t intend to be in the mess hall for long, he didn’t want to get trampled by the soldiers still periodically trotting over to Gultorra and then trotting away again.

  He couldn’t wa
it until they were all on the move again.

  Hangar Deck, Gaitune-67

  “Hey Molly, wait up!”

  Joel came bounding across the hangar deck, a workout towel around his neck. His T-shirt was wet in a V-shape on his chest. Molly slowed her pace, allowing him to catch up.

  “Careful!” she called. “You’re running in trainers and this hangar deck hasn’t been scrubbed for oil in several weeks.”

  Joel slowed to a walk, looking around the floor where he was walking to make sure he wasn’t going to slip in something.

  “I was wondering if we might talk later?”

  Molly frowned. “Err, yeah sure.” She cocked her head to one side. “Have you just been talking to Sean?” She nodded in the direction of the base gym.

  Joel shook his head. “No. Not recently. Why?”

  “No reason.” She glanced back in the direction of an open pod. “Look, I’ve got to get going. I have a meeting with the university crowd before the end of the day.”

  Joel bobbed his head, hanging his hands on the towel around his neck. “How is it going down there?”

  Molly shrugged. “Good I suppose. It’s going to be close though… I don’t know if we can get enough votes in to make a difference in time.”

  Joel put a hand on her upper arm. “Everything that you do helps. And you’re doing great. I believe in you.”

  Molly smiled. “Thanks, Joel.” She started to move in the direction of her pod. “I’ll catch you later.”

  “Yeah sure,” he called after her, waving.

  She didn’t see him waving because she’d already gone.

  Skóli Uppstigs Academy, Spire, Estaria

  The pod touched down between two buildings on the university campus. Without waiting for anything to power down, Molly slipped out as soon as the door had opened enough. She scooped her bag from under the seat and was halfway across the quad before the door had closed again.

  Hurriedly she entered the door on the far side of the quad and pushed through the old-fashioned double doors and into the corridor beyond.

  She could hear voices at the far end coming from the conference room. The scent of freshly brewed mocha filled this wing of the building, too. It was clear that the team were planning to work late again tonight.