Giles Kurns_Rogue Instigator Page 3

  CHAPTER THREE

  Pod ride back to Gaitune

  Anne sat in the pod tracing her finger across the pod window, following the horizon line as they lifted off from the campus grounds.

  Giles was deep in thought. He felt bad that his focus was on commandeering the Scamp Princess rather than worrying about his friend. Maybe he should offer to take the Scamp with Molly’s team. As backup. He could do that, even if they’ve left already . . .

  Or maybe that would be crowding her?

  He ruffed his hair, wedging his elbow against the side of the pod, unsure of what he should be doing. He became aware of his stomach tightening in a knot. How to deal with the Molly situation was something he’d thus far employed a very efficient strategy—he compartmentalized.

  Which effectively meant—he did nothing. He didn’t think about it. He didn’t try and second guess. And he just let it ride.

  But now that he was thinking about it, his mind was in pretzels trying to figure out what he should be doing. Or what would get him the result he wanted.

  Which was a mind-fuck in itself . . . because that presupposed that he knew what he wanted.

  He pushed the thoughts aside. At least he should let Arlene know he was heading out. He hit the button on the holo inside the pod and connected a call before they were out of range. “Arlene, hi. Me again,” Giles announced over the in-pod audio connection. “I’ve been thinking about the situation with Scamp.”

  Arlene didn’t wait for him to explain. “You mean Scamp is back and you’re on your way to Gaitune to see if you can use him when they’ve got everything they need.”

  Giles leaned back in the seat. “You know me so well. I guess Oz has been keeping you abreast of the details,” he deduced. He paused, wondering whether it’d be helpful or not to mention that the only limiting factor is not having a location on where their next tomb raid might be.

  “Well,” Arlene said, measuring her tone evenly, “I also have news.”

  Giles spontaneously sat up, causing Anne to turn and look at him. “Yes?” he prompted Arlene.

  Anne went back to watching out of the window, now tracing the stars that’d appeared across her view as they lifted through the Estarian atmosphere.

  “Yup. I’ve been reviewing some of the code Oz has managed to crack before he took off. It’s not a hundred percent, but I’ve got a hunch as to what the rest of the set of coordinates might be.”

  “You’re kidding me? That is bloody good timing.”

  “It is. You couldn’t write this shit better.”

  Giles chuckled to himself. “No, you could not,” he agreed. “So that means we have a location to get to?”

  “Slow your horses,” Arlene told him firmly. “This new location is still incomplete, so I’m taking an educated guess here. Given the plane and the fact that everything else around is either empty space or flames of destruction, that is . . . I’m guessing our next talisman is sitting somewhere on the planet Mallifrax-8.”

  Giles was all ears. “And where is that?”

  Anne continued to trace on the window, pretending to be otherwise absorbed.

  “It’s in the Ferrai Quadrant.”

  “Wow, that’s a bit far out. And what do we know about it?”

  “Not much. Looks like an extinct planet. I’ve just this minute pulled it up on the maps. I’ll know more when I’ve done a bit more research, but I’m AI-less now.”

  Giles thought for a moment. “Tell you what, do what you can and see if we can transfer the database fragments we might need to Gaitune. I need to see what’s going on up there and what the score is with Scamp. We’re going to need him. Her. Or zer . . . or whatever.”

  He could feel Arlene rolling her eyes at his struggle with this new gender-neutral protocol they’d started using for their AIs and organics alike.

  He’d get the hang of it. After all, he’d spent three months with the Bogou tribe on Zyton back in his youth, and they have four genders. He’d be able to get this gender-neutral thing down, no problem. It was just going to take some considered effort and attention.

  He addressed Arlene again. “Lemme meet you back at Gaitune. I expect you need to pack and wrap things up here?”

  “Yes. Give me a couple hours. I’ll see you soon, partner.” Her voice was brighter. Much brighter. Like she’d regained her spark.

  Giles could almost feel the twinkle in her eyes through the intercom. She certainly was ready for another adventure, he thought to himself.

  “Very good, Ms. Bailey. I’ll wait to hear from you.” Giles allowed a smile to spread across his face as she disconnected the call. He relaxed back in his seat, his stomach still in a knot, but mentally feeling much more optimistic.

  Until a moment later when his thoughts drifted guiltily back to Sean. He decided he’d at least try to get on the mission to help find him. But he knew already that when Molly made a command decision, nothing was likely to sway it.

  Anne sat back in her seat, too. If Giles had glanced over at that moment, he would’ve seen her looking quite pensive for a young girl who, on the face of it, had very little to worry about these days.

  Gaitune-67, Hangar Deck

  The pod touched down gently to hover just a few inches above the hangar deck floor. Giles hit the button and shuffled out first to help Anne out.

  Paige had seen them swooping in. She made her way over the hangar deck floor from the sidewalk. Emma had probably alerted her to their return when they got into range.

  Paige was looking a dull gray color. Giles deduced that she must be stressed. As she got closer, he could see that her eyes were puffy as if she’d been crying, too.

  “You’ve just missed them,” she called over.

  Giles felt his stomach become like lead. His thoughts immediately started to oscillate—he could always call Molly and make his pitch for him to join them.

  He helped Anne step down from the pod and heard Paige exclaim loudly behind him. “There you are!” she said exasperatedly at the young girl. “No one knew where you were!”

  Sheepishly, Giles turned to face Paige. “Ah, yes,” he confessed, bumbling now. “She was with me. Took her to meet Arlene. Training,” he justified. “Then we got caught up in marking,” he confessed.

  Paige’s eyebrows portrayed her annoyance, but she ignored Giles and looked down at Anne. “Hmm, expert in space archeology now, are we?”

  Anne grinned. She liked Paige. Paige always had time for her. Although, if she were honest, she much preferred hanging out with Giles. He didn’t treat her like a baby. More like an annoyance . . . that he was strangely glad to have around.

  That’s kinda messed up, she noticed, shaking her head to herself.

  “Ok,” Giles said, getting to the point. “We’ve got a lead on the next talisman. Arlene and I would like to ship out. With Scamp.”

  Paige, distracted by Anne, glanced up at him. “Oh, erm . . . I think they cleared him for duty, but we didn’t think . . . you’ll need to check in with Molly.”

  “Of course,” he agreed, pulling his glasses from his face. Realizing he didn’t have anything to clean them with while his suit was all fastened, he put them back on. “I’ll call her from Scamp then.”

  Paige smiled compassionately. She knew that Giles and Sean were friends. As far as Sean had friends.

  “Ok, fine,” she agreed. “I’ve got some stuff to do in the office now that I know this one is safe.” She put her hand on Anne’s waif-like shoulder and rubbed it affectionately.

  She checked her holo for the time and did a quick calculation of all the things she needed to get through before she could call it a night. “Feel like pizza tonight?”

  Anne nodded.

  “Ok,” Paige confirmed. “7:00 p.m. in the kitchen. We’ll order in. Just make sure you meet me there. I can’t keep running all over the base to find you, you know.”

  Anne kept her mouth shut and nodded again, amicably. Sometimes Paige could also be a bit of a control freak, she not
ed to herself. Still, no one is perfect . . .

  “You’re welcome to join us,” she told Giles, generously.

  Giles was too distracted to think about dinner. “Thank you. I’ll . . . erm . . . let you know. I need to coordinate with Arlene about getting out of here. And . . .” he touched his forehead with a couple of fingers as if his brain were trying to figure everything out all at once.

  Paige nodded. Part of her offer was to be polite. Part of it was because she wanted to size up what exactly was going on with him and Molly. Although, she had her own feelings about it all, so probably better she didn’t do that right now. “Yeah, whatever works,” she replied mildly.

  “See you later,” she added, waving at Anne, then headed back in the direction of the stairs to the safe house basement.

  Giles let a hand fall around Anne’s shoulder. “Ok. I’ve got to go make a call. You gonna be ok?”

  Anne nodded.

  “Ok,” he muttered, wandering absently through the bank of pods, trying to figure out which direction he needed to go to find Scamp.

  Things sure were a lot easier when Oz was around and available to help with the little things . . .

  Aboard the Scamp Princess, Hangar Deck, Gaitune

  Several hours later, Giles and Arlene were suited up and ready to depart on the Scamp Princess.

  Arlene flicked through the final checks with Scamp, making sure all systems were fully operational after the obviously concerning experience that Scamp had been through.

  Giles rocked idly in the pilot’s chair, wondering what Sean might be going through. He recalled his own hostage situation. And his bonding mission with Sean when he first encountered the Sanguine Squadron. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

  And though he and Sean were never drinking buddies, they did share a bond. A bond that on their call a few hours ago, Molly was quick to dismiss as not operationally relevant for the task she and the team were about to undertake.

  He felt bad that he wasn’t disobeying orders and going after him . . . but Molly had been very clear. Plus, Oz had locked down Scamp’s data so that even if Giles wanted to be defiant and go after Sean, he wouldn’t know where to start.

  He sighed. There was also no telling what kind of danger he might put the others in if he did something like that. He had more to think about than just himself now. Now he had friends. And a kind of team—that he was sometimes part of.

  His mind rested on the idea for a moment. Although, if I’m part of the team, why have I been feeling like such an outsider the last few days?

  Then he remembered Paige’s coolness towards him when he’d arrived back at the base earlier.

  Must be because of what happened with Molly.

  He shook his head, kicking himself that he didn’t know what he should be doing there, then returned his thoughts to something more familiar—going against orders.

  Another reason it’s a bad idea, he told himself, is that I’m already on thin ice. With Lance. And probably now with Molly. Not that I can be certain. But maybe pretending nothing happened the other day is a bad move, after all.

  His thoughts drifted, waves of guilt and anxiety gently ebbing through his system. It wasn’t like him to have so many . . . feelings like this.

  Or maybe it was, and he just used the next adventure as a way of avoiding it.

  Life as a professor was so . . . quiet, he noted.

  “Ok,” Arlene chirped up, breaking him from his uncharacteristically self-reflective thoughts. “You ready to rock?”

  Giles pushed his glasses further up his nose and sat up properly. “Born ready,” he muttered, flicking the start-up sequence on the various switches and holoscreens and making a pun about their newest local AI.

  Scamp caught the pun and chuckled quietly over the audio. “Bourne! Heh!” He took over the launch and made the course corrections to allow them an easy passage out of the hangar.

  Within minutes, the inky blackness of the vacuum was appearing in their windscreen.

  Space-bourne, Arlene relaxed a little and turned her attention to their meeting earlier that morning. “So . . . how was Anne after our little chat?”

  Giles tried to focus on the question while thoughts of Sean’s possible peril distracted him. “Oh, erm . . . she was . . . fine.”

  Arlene pursed her lips. “Uh huh. She didn’t say anything? Or comment on what we decided about her training?”

  Giles ummed some more, finishing his course checking, then sat back. “Er. No. She never said a word. I assumed she was fine with everything.” He turned to look at Arlene, suddenly realizing this wasn’t just a casual enquiry. “Why?”

  “Well,” Arlene started, taking a deep breath, “she had a lot of resistance to everything I was saying.”

  Giles wrinkled his nose, already exhausted by all the emotional stuff he was having to juggle. “Uh huh . . .” he grunted, waiting for the interpretation.

  Arlene continued, choosing her words carefully. “It’s going to take a lot of training. She’s old now, relatively speaking, for this kind of training. She’s become set in her ways. And her survival strategies are strong. It’s going to be very difficult to reshape her development from here.”

  Giles muttered an acknowledgment. “I’m sure you’ll do your best . . . that’s all any of us can do.” He flicked some switches, activating the various systems Scamp was waiting for. Organic authorization, on.

  Arlene’s voice was a little crisper now. “And she’s got a touch of insolence about her,” she added.

  Giles smiled. “She’s just . . . spirited,” he corrected.

  Arlene narrowed her eyes at him.

  “Actually,” he added, becoming a little more engaged, “she reminds me a little bit of you when you were younger and less encumbered by responsibility.”

  Arlene looked insulted, though Giles didn’t see. He’d already turned his attention back to idly gazing out the window ahead of him, watching the space-scape unfold.

  “I’ll have you know,” Arlene protested, “I was never insolent!” she chastised him with mock indignation.

  Giles raised a humorless eyebrow at her. “Which is why you rebelled and ran away with me, right?”

  Arlene slumped back in her chair, putting her head in hands. “That wasn’t insolence . . .” Her words were layered with meaning Giles didn’t have the energy to unpack.

  “So where is this place we’re going to again?” he asked, deftly changing the subject.

  Arlene kept her annoyance to herself. “Gaumix is its ancient name. But the Queegerts have renamed it Mallifrax-8, I believe.”

  “Never heard of it.”

  “Well, you’re in good company. There’s very little on the database other than fly-by data noting that it exists and that there were signs of civilization but no life signs.”

  “Sounds like my kinda place,” Giles grunted.

  Arlene chuckled. “Space archaeologists,” she muttered. “They’re all about dead and long-lost civilizations.”

  “Well, that was the case only up until about ten years ago. It’s the ancient planet of Gaumix . . . as far as we could tell from the ancient texts we have on file. These days, the quadrant is inhabited by Noel-ni and Queegerts . . . so of course, it was only a matter of time before someone used it for something.”

  “You’re about to tell me it’s now colonized?”

  Arlene nodded. “By the Queegerts,” she confirmed. “Who renamed it.”

  Giles rocked in his seat, smiling to himself. “Ahhhhh, so there’s something of value there?”

  Arlene nodded, pulling up a screen. “Etheriam.”

  Giles sat up in his seat. “And that is?”

  Arlene shrugged. “Found a couple of references to it on the techtropolis, but no idea yet. It seems to be traded—bought and sold. But for what purpose, no one seems to be letting on.”

  Giles looked off into thin air, processing the information. Eventually he spoke. “I guess we’ll know more when we can have Scamp run a
diagnostic on the planet before we land.”

  Arlene nodded, getting up. “I think that’s probably going to be the easiest. The database we have is so out-of-date in this sector, and a lot can change in a decade.”

  Giles nodded, his finger over his lips, again deep in thought.

  “Mocha?” Arlene offered.

  “No, thank you.” His nerves were already fried. What he needed was something to take the edge off . . . but he also needed to stay sharp.

  Arlene disappeared from the cockpit, leaving him to the silence and his own thoughts. His own noisy and very uncomfortable thoughts.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Gaitune-67, Safe House

  Maya stood in the foyer of the safe house, looking just as bewildered as Paige.

  “Well, I dunno where she could be. If she’s not in her quarters, and she’s not in the kitchen . . .”

  Paige held her hair, as if willing her hands not to tear it out. “She could be anywhere on the base then.”

  They stood in the foyer to the safe house, wracking their brains trying to think where an adolescent girl would hang out.

  “And we’ve no Oz to ask,” Maya reminded them.

  Paige shot Maya a look of sudden revelation. “But we do have Bourne!”

  Uncertainty flickered across Maya’s face. “Are you sure that’s a good idea. I mean . . . it’s only been a few days with Oz not about. And you know what they said about his programming . . .”

  “What, you think he’s going to suddenly turn killy-killy on us for no reason?”

  Maya looked uncertain. “I don’t know what to think. I mean . . . he’s an unknown quantity.”

  Paige shook her head. “I’ve got to try . . .” She turned on her two-inch heels and pulled at the basement door.

  Maya followed her, running down the steps into Brock’s workshop.

  With everyone else gone, the lights were low and there was little of the familiar hum of systems and activity. Paige felt a pang of emptiness as she snapped on some lights from her holo.