The Rush's Edge Read online

  “So you’re the newbie, huh?” said a different male voice. Then the feed cut out.

  “Play it once more,” the client asked.

  Nikko obliged, glancing up to see if his client was liking what he was hearing.

  Next, he moved onto the vid feed. It was silent, just an image of a woman’s chest. She had a nice rack. Whomever had owned this unit was paying attention to all the right things, Nikko thought with a smirk. Then the perspective lifted until a face came into view. The woman’s face was pretty too – she was blonde, with large, almond-shaped green eyes and a cute upturned nose. He’d gladly hit that.

  “Her,” the client interrupted his smutty thoughts. “I need a copy of her face.”

  “Sure.” With a flick of his wrist, Nikko sent the image and audio to the stranger’s handheld, then turned back to his worktable.

  “Thanks, man. You’ve been really helpful.”

  Nikko never saw the shot coming.

  Scalpel sat in his rented room, going over the data one more time. As far as he could see, there was no “Vivi” on the entire station. He’d looked over the records of all the ships and personnel currently on the station and come up empty, nor had there been anyone by that name or nickname in the details he’d turned up on the tecker during his investigation.

  So, he turned back to the still picture he’d recovered from the dead tecker’s node.

  He sent the image of the woman to his contact at ACAS: the person he only knew as “Control.” They’d never had face to face contact, which was fine with Scalpel. Whenever he needed anything to complete his mission, he simply let Control know, and it was delivered.

  He typed, Run facial recognition on all females in this image; cross-match with “Vivi,” “Veve” or “V.V.”

  Scalpel nodded to himself. It would take some time to identify the woman, but he would find her in the end. If she wasn’t on Omicron anymore, he would move on to Jaleeth. No one eluded him. No one.

  EIGHTEEN

  Ty and Hal had come back aboard the Loshad tired and weary. They explained the offer Seren gave them but told everyone to go to bed and rest, especially Hal who had been up for two days straight.

  Ty rose early the next morning. After making coffee he headed to the bridge to monitor their trip to Omicron Station. “Runa, please check the feeds and see if there’s any news concerning the ACAS losing a ship.”

  Her voice came back immediately. There has been no news Tyce; however, I will begin monitoring.

  He glanced up when Vivi entered the bridge. “Good morning.”

  “Morning. Did… Did the Phobos make the feed yet?”

  “Not yet.” Tyce said. “I’ve got Runa watching for us.” Vivi sat down at Beryl’s station and turned her chair toward him.

  “Sleep OK?” he asked, sipping at his own cup of coffee.

  She nodded. “How’s your arm?”

  He moved it experimentally. It was still painful. “As to be expected, I guess.”

  Vivi nodded again softly. Ty sensed she wanted to talk. “What’s up?”

  “Have you seen Hal today? I didn’t want to knock on his door in case he was still sleeping.”

  “He’s not up yet. He’ll most likely sleep until this afternoon though, maybe even until tomorrow. We should take him a few ration bars. When his body’s recovering or healing up during a crash, he gets hungry. It takes him a bit to get over being on the rush without sleep for a couple of days.”

  “How long can he go without sleep?”

  “Seven days was the longest I ever saw from my vats.” If he was right and Vivi was interested in Hal as more than a friend, this was information she might need. There was no denying Hal had feelings for her; after he’d witnessed the way Hal had wrapped his arms around Vivi during the space battle, Ty had known for sure. There was physical attraction there, sure, but was there any more than that?

  For vats in the ACAS, sex was mostly a casual thing. Male and female vats served together, ate together, bunked together and nature, not surprisingly, took its course on occasion. It was not discouraged, nor encouraged, by the ACAS. They only cared that it didn’t interfere with mission readiness and performance. It was probably a way for vats to step down from the tension and rush of battle. But it was always temporary. Who knew which soldiers would come back from the next engagement and who would be lost?

  “Hal protected us in the medbay all night. He told me he slept a little, but he didn’t, did he?” she asked.

  Ty brought his mind back to the conversation at hand. “Probably not. He was on edge about all of us. I imagine he had his hands quite full.”

  “Mmm,” she nodded. “Sorry to ask so many questions, it’s just there’s a lot I don’t know about him. I mean, about vat soldiers.”

  “I understand. You… You’re interested in Hal, right?” He raised an eyebrow.

  “We’re getting to know each other,” she said cryptically, a smile on her face.

  Ty was about to say something when Runa interrupted them. Tyce, there is a feed about Omicron station and the ACAS.

  “Bring it up.”

  A blonde female announcer spoke over the video footage of soldiers marching into the common areas on the station. “We don’t know exactly what the ACAS is there for, but it appears that all of Omicron is on lockdown. ACAS authorities will be holding a press conference later, but for now it seems that no one is getting on or off the station.”

  The feed switched to footage of a debutante ball on Tesia, a get-away vacation planet in the Spiral: a beautiful palatial room, doors opening on to the pink sand beaches. “Cut the feed, Runa. But keep monitoring for more updates.”

  Yes Tyce. Would you rather go to Jaleeth Station instead?

  Ty thought a moment, then nodded. “Yeah let’s do that.”

  Computing course now. Would you like a more direct course this time?

  “Yes.” He glanced at Vivi who had a strange expression on her face. “What?”

  “Well, suggesting Jaleeth Station is a little too proactive for Runa’s programming isn’t it?”

  “Maybe. You did loosen a few of the restrictions on her, though,” Ty reminded her.

  Vivi nodded. “Yeah, maybe that’s it. When we get docked, I’ll run some diagnostics. Just to make sure we’re good to go.”

  Ty agreed, “That’ll be good. We’re switching the ship’s credentials, so you should know that we’re now the proud crew of the Sombra. I should have the transponder and everything else set by the time we reach Jaleeth.”

  “Sombra. Got it,” she nodded. “Hey, er, thanks for the talk.”

  “Anytime, Vivi,” he replied.

  Hal didn’t know how long he’d been asleep, but he felt like a great deal of time had passed. He’d woken up twice, finding a stash of ration bars and water that someone had put by his bed while he was sleeping. Now the fatigue was beginning to fade, and he felt like talking to someone.

  When he left his room, he saw Vivi’s door was open, so he went over.

  She was working on something; he could see the green glow of the light on her node behind her right ear. He leaned against the doorway a moment, watching her moving her hands in the air.

  It took a moment before she saw him through whatever it was her node was broadcasting. She tapped it and the light went off.

  “Hey,” she said, a smile blooming on her face.

  “Hey, can I come in?”

  “Of course.” She scooted to the foot of the bed, sitting cross-legged and gesturing to the other end.

  He entered and sat beside her. “How long did I sleep?” He looked at his wrist comm for the time, but then realized he wasn’t wearing it.

  “A whole day and then some: about twenty-seven hours in total. How do you feel?”

  “Like sleeping some more wouldn’t be a bad idea. I had these weird dreams. There were all these little voices around on the ship, and they were all talking at once, and I couldn’t figure out what they were saying.” He rubbed his face
, and she saw the beginnings of a blonde scruff on his chin. He was the sort of man that looked good scruffy-faced, she thought. “Did I miss anything?”

  “Yeah. Omicron. ACAS locked it down tight about twelve hours ago. Ty got one message from a friend there that said they were tearing the place apart, then the jammer cut them off.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah. According to the news reports, ACAS claims to be looking for terrorists responsible for blowing up a military ship past the Border. So, now, we’re going to Jaleeth.”

  “Yeah. Us and every vessel in the area.”

  “Maybe,” she shrugged. “Maybe not, but Tyce thought of that. He called ahead and rented a berth for us. We’re now the Sombra. He changed the logs and registration.”

  “Got it.” It wasn’t the first time they’d changed their name to hide their registry until things cooled down.

  Hal leaned back against the bulkhead. His thought processes were sluggish, due to sleeping off the effects of the two-day rush. The only thought that kept coming to the surface was how the lowered lighting gave a glow to Vivi’s golden hair. When she looked up at him, her green eyes were almost translucent as they reflected the light. His breath caught in his chest. A sudden familiar need tore at him, but he reminded himself that this was not the ACAS, and Vivi was not a vat. This was not some post battle hookup, even though his blood was rushing through his veins like an acceleracer at lightspeed. She was a nat; he wasn’t even in her galaxy.

  “There’s leftover Spicy Pe-Chai in the galley if you’re hungry. Beryl threw it together from the rations we had.”

  “Not hungry for food,” he said absently, still stuck on her face. Time seemed to slow down as he gazed at her. He didn’t realize it, but he was leaning in towards her. There was a part of his mind saying no, don’t do this but the yes was drowning it out.

  “What’s… What is it?” she asked.

  The tremor in her voice brought him back to reality. He blinked and just like that, the tension popped between them like a soap bubble. “Sorry. I… um…” He rubbed at his face with both hands. “Just zoned out a minute.”

  “Hal… wait. What is it?” She reached out to touch his arm, but he stood up quickly, out of her reach.

  “I should let you get back to what you were doing…” he said, heading for the door.

  “Did I do something wrong?”

  Her voice froze him at the door. “No, Veevs. I think I just need some more sleep or something.” He didn’t turn around, so she couldn’t see the lie on his face.

  “O- OK,” she answered. “See you in the morning?”

  “Yeah,” he answered hoarsely. “See you then.” And the door slid shut behind him.

  Hal leaned against the other side of her door for a minute, trying to get whatever that had been out of his system. He hadn’t reacted like that after a battle since before leaving the ACAS. He knew what it was. Sitting so near her, his desire had boiled over, and he’d been perfectly willing to let it – until he saw the touch of uncertainty in her expression. Backing off had taken every ounce of energy he had. She was a nat; there was no chance of anything happening between them, and he was an idiot to think differently. He keyed his room door and disappeared inside.

  They arrived at Jaleeth mid-morning the next day. Beryl went to organize supplies, while the first thing Hal and Ty did was examine the ship’s hull for damage from the battle so they could calculate how long it would take to repair, and the likely costs involved. Instead, to their astonishment, as they told Vivi over lunch, they’d found no damage whatsoever. They were at a loss to explain it. That afternoon, Hal moved to the engine room, testing systems, while Ty stayed on the bridge with Vivi as she dug into the matter from a new angle.

  “Runa, show me all the displays from the battle. I want to see weapons, ship’s systems, helm, comms, and shields. I want the statistics between 1600 and 1850 hours.”

  Of course, Vivi, Runa’s assured voice came over her connection. The displays on the bridge popped up through Vivi’s virtual link with the computer.

  She began viewing the information, running the feed forward to the time of the battle. She watched the beginning, then the displays went blank.

  There is a problem with the data.

  “What problem, Runa?” Vivi said.

  It has been deleted.

  “Deleted? Who deleted the data?”

  I do not have any information to give you, Vivi.

  Vivi disengaged her connection and turned round to face Ty. “This is like what happened the night Hal had that pain in his head. You know, it happened at the same time as when the sphere cracked open – remember? The footage was gone when we tried to replay it.”

  Ty crossed his arms over his chest, frowning. “I don’t like mysteries,” he said.

  “Maybe it’s from the adjustments I made…” Vivi said, biting at her bottom lip. “But they shouldn’t have caused this to happen…”

  “All this started – Runa’s glitches, Hal’s headaches – when we picked up the tech. Not when you made your adjustments,” Ty said thoughtfully. “Runa? Did something in your programming change when we landed on K-245j?”

  Nothing I can detect.

  “Could you have been infected by a virus?” Vivi asked. “And the AI tech caused you to crash?” Runa’s programming should have gotten rid of any virus, but if it was something so different, and her system didn’t recognize it…

  It is possible. Would you like me to scan my systems?

  “Yes, Runa,” Vivi said.

  Runa replied almost immediately. I have detected a virus in my system. Perhaps that is what is causing the anomalies.

  Vivi engaged her connection with the computer again by tapping her node. “Isolate the virus and show it to me.”

  The code popped up in a window. She scanned it. “This virus could cause problems with Runa’s memory. Files would be corrupted or deleted. Maybe she’s right, maybe this is the problem.”

  Ty leaned forward. “OK. Can you fix it?”

  She nodded, her fingers moving to adjust displays only she could see. “Runa, restore yourself to the morning before the infection.”

  Yes, Vivi. I will be offline for five minutes.

  “I know. It’s OK,” Vivi said, watching as Runa began to shut down. “Somehow, this seems too easy,” she murmured to herself.

  “Sometimes easy works,” Ty said.

  “Sometimes. Sometimes it makes more work,” Vivi replied.

  Vivi drifted off to sleep late that evening, unable to quiet the nagging suspicion in her mind that she’d missed something with the ship. Ty, Hal, and Beryl seemed to shrug off the strange occurrences, but Vivi hadn’t been able to let it go so easily. She was in a light sleep when a series of thumps next door woke her up.

  She sat up, blinking in the near dark. She looked to the wall that her quarters shared with Hal’s and flinched when there was another thud. Was he having an episode? Her heartrate doubled at the memory of the last one he’d had. She went to move before remembering that Ty had said not to go in.

  “Veevs!” Hal’s muffled voice came through the wall, along with pounding, as if he was trying to wake her.

  It made the decision for her. Episode or not, if he needed her, she would be there. She was out of her bed and moving in seconds.

  “Runa. Call Ty to Hal’s room now!” she ordered. “I’m coming!” she called back, tugging her tank down over her sleep shorts. She made it out of her room and opened his door with shaking fingers.

  Hal’s room was completely torn apart. Everything in the storage lockers had been pulled out – even his mattress had been removed from the bed. Hal was standing near their shared wall, one hand up to his head as he looked around wildly. Her breath caught as she realized he was holding a blaspistol in his other hand.

  “Hal?” she whispered at the door. She was afraid when his dark eyes first focused on her.

  “What is that noise, Veevs?” he asked through clenched teeth.
“It’s digging into my brain!”

  He recognized her. Was she safe? She took the few steps cautiously towards him. “What do you hear?” she asked.

  “Voices. They’re so loud, Veevs. You don’t hear them?”

  She shook her head.

  “Like thousands of people whispering at once? You can’t hear that? It’s making me crazy.” He grabbed his head with one hand again.

  She glanced around the room, trying to see if some device was making a noise. Did vats have some sort of amplified hearing? “I can’t hear anything,” she said. “Can you give me the blaspistol?” She held out her hand for his weapon.

  He surrendered it to her immediately and then slid to the floor with a groan of pain, covering his ears with both hands. She breathed a sigh of relief. An unarmed Hal was much less to be concerned about.

  A few moments later, Tyce entered Hal’s room. He immediately knelt down beside his friend. “What’s going on?” he asked, looking first at Hal, then at Vivi.

  She shook her head. “He says he hears voices.”

  Hal rubbed miserably at his head. “Urgh. It’s fading now, though. I can’t hear them anymore.”

  “What did they sound like?” Ty asked.

  “Whispers. Thousands of them. All at the same time.” Hal looked from Ty to Vivi. “I’m not having an episode. It was… real. I swear. I’m awake. I was awake the whole time.”

  Ty nodded slowly. “I can see that. We’re gonna figure this out, Hal. I promise.”

  “I can’t believe you didn’t hear them,” he said, rubbing the side of his head by his interface scar. It had been the same reaction he’d had when the sphere had split open, Vivi realized.

  Beryl entered the open doorway, her medkit in hand. “What happened?”

  “He’s OK,” Vivi said. “It’s different than last time…”

  She nodded, kneeling down as they moved back to give her room to work. “Hal?”

  “I’m OK now. My head just hurts,” he mumbled, continuing to rub his temple.

  Beryl nodded and pulled out a medical scanner. After a moment of using it, she tucked it back in her bag, satisfied. “It’s a migraine. Something must have triggered it.” She administered a shot with the medjet. “He’s going to need to lie down,” she said, looking around at the mess.