While they waited for the meat to arrive, the pair worked quickly, getting the kitchen ready for the meal prep. Jessica was reclining at the table and Trevor was putting on a pot of coffee when Ron came in.
“Got your special delivery here,” he said and waved in a guard carrying a crate to set it on the table. “You finally figured out the way to the big man’s heart: food. He doesn’t like boys or girls, just his next meal.”
“Was kinda staring right at me,” Jessica said with a laugh.
Ron chuckled. “Course, if he doesn’t like your cooking, things’ll go badly for you. He goes through a lot of chefs. Killed the last one a few days back. That’s why there’s no one else in here.”
“Shit,” Trevor muttered. “That’s a man who takes his food seriously.”
“You have no idea,” Ron said with a grin as he turned and left. “Good luck!”
The guard set the crate on the table and then left the room, leaving Jessica and Trevor with just the two guards who had been with them all day.
“Want some coffee?” Trevor asked.
The two looked at one another and shrugged. “Why not,” one replied.
Trevor poured two cups and set them at the table, then placed a tray with cream and sugar on it. One of the guards pulled out a scanner and checked over the drinks.
“Not that we don’t trust you,” he said. “Well, it is that we don’t trust you.”
Trevor shrugged. “I don’t blame you.”
The guard’s scanners came up empty, and they both doctored their drinks the way they liked and took a sip.
Two minutes later they were out.
<Test one complete. Their scanning tech can’t detect our nano,> Jessica said with a grin as she unpacked the meat and handed it to Trevor. Then she looked over the crate.
<I think the formation material is the crate,> Iris suggested.
Jessica pulled back her sleeve and touched her forearm to the case. Sure enough, the assimilator on her arm registered it as formation material and drew it in.
<Don’t really need this much,> Jessica said. <It’ll make me fat.>
<You weren’t really specific about what you needed. You could make some guns or knives or something too.>
Jessica looked around at the kitchen. <Lot of knives in here, and there are guns on the guards. Never know, though, we’ll find a use for it.>
The pair spent the next hour preparing a meal consisting of flame-grilled medallions of beef wrapped in strips of honey-cured streaky bacon and a mushroom and whole pepper jous. To accompany the succulent meat, they included a salad of steamed broccolini and baby asparagus tossed in a sweet pomegranate and mustard dressing.
After a bit of wrangling, with Trevor arguing the merits of balancing all meat dishes with a side of garlic drenched potatoes, they added roasted garlic and rosemary smashed potatoes in a garlic-butter and white wine sauce.
A meal fit for a king.
* * * * *
Cheeky walked through The Reach’s long corridors, heading toward the point of the V where The Perry’s offices lay. She’d spent a little more time with Bill, trying to ferret out where the self-destruct system may be, but the bartender had no idea.
<I’m tempted to dismiss this whole self-destruct thing as a hoax,> Cheeky said as they turned onto the concourse that ran toward The Perry’s offices.
<I’m not so sure,> Piya replied. <I should say…I’m not convinced either way, but I did find something interesting as I’ve been hunting through their maintenance logs.>
<Oh yeah?> Cheeky asked with a chuckle. <What’s up? I always love a good maintenance log.>
<You’re a riot, Cheeks,> Piya replied drily. <OK, so there are notes in here about how The Perry never leaves his office area, mainly it’s workers bitching that they always have to work around him.>
Cheeky shrugged. <From what I’ve seen on the vids, he’s a big guy, not the type for an evening stroll.>
<Right, but if you were a megalomaniac whose only real method of control was the threat of death to everyone around you, what would you not do?>
Cheeky smiled as understanding dawned on her. <I wouldn’t go far from the bomb.>
<Preeeecisely.>
<So you’re saying that wherever the bomb is—or whatever it is— it’s in his offices,> Cheeky said.
<You just said it’s and is so many times I have no idea what you mean, but if you mean that it’s in his offices, then yes, I agree.>
<Harsh, Piya. Harsh.>
Cheeky slowed as she neared the larger doors leading into The Perry’s offices. There were heavily armored guards both without and within. She could probably use nano—people on The Reach seemed to have almost no defense against advanced nano—to take some of them out, but not all.
<Sooooo, you know how I’ve been looking at the maintenance logs?> Piya asked with a sly smile.
<Yes, we just talked about your favorite pastime.>
<You know it, Cheeks, saving your ass one log review at a time. Anyway, a station with good security has advanced systems for identity management and access control. No shared creds, no simple codes, private keys, block-chain tech, right?>
<Yeah, that’s how we run Sabrina.>
<Annnnyway.>
<Right. Well, the maintenance techs haven’t bothered creating new accounts for people to do work on various systems.>
<They use shared tokens?> Cheeky asked, her tone rising in pitch from professional outrage. Everyone knew using shared tokens was a fantastic way to come back from shore leave to find your starship stolen.
<Even better. They’re noted in a master ‘info’ ticket in their tracking system.>
<What the actual fuck?> Cheeky exclaimed.
<Yeah, we can’t tell Erin and Nance. Their collective heads will explode,> Piya said with a rueful chuckle.
<No kidding. So I assume all this means is you found a back door, and you have the codes.>
<Yeah, took a bit to get there, but I figured you’d appreciate knowing how.>
Cheeky sent a warm feeling to Piya. <I always appreciate you, hon. You’re my better half.>
* * * * *
Trevor offered each of the guards standing in The Perry’s office a travel mug filled with the special coffee—albeit with a longer delay in place—while Jessica set the tray of food in front of The Perry.
“Woman, this smells amazing. For a glowing purple bimbo, you sure can do something magical.”
<That’s starting to get on my nerves,> Jessica said privately to Iris and Trevor.
<You may be a glowing purple bimbo,> Trevor said with a laugh, <but you’re my glowing purple bimbo.>
<What about me?> Iris asked. <I thought I was your silver copycat bimbo.>
<I should never have said anything,> Trevor replied.
Jessica watched as The Perry picked up his utensils and began to dig into the meal. She had a moment of silence for the amazing meal that he shoveled into his mouth like it was the only way to stop his body from instantly imploding.
Iris gave a low whistle. <OK, I’m not organic, but that’s even grossing me out. Somehow it’s worse than the tank.>
Jessica nearly gagged. <Stars, Iris! I can’t handle thinking of those tanks and this…this…disaster in front of me at the same time!>
<Sorry. I have to admit I was a bit curious if I could get you to lose your lunch,> Iris replied.
<I get the distinct impression that you two aren’t taking this seriously enough,> Trevor interjected.
<Trevor,> Jessica replied. <The last crisis we faced involved raising sixteen children and then setting them lose with the most powerful weapons we’ve ever seen to destroy a massive fleet of Orion Guard ships. Doesn’t this feel almost…I don’t know…anticlimactic by comparison?>
<Unless Perry climaxes,> Iris sai
d with a wicked smile.
<Oh shit, I might lose it now,> Jessica groaned.
<OK, I’ve hit critical mass. He’s sucked in a half a kilogram of nano at this point,> Iris reported.
Jessica swallowed her disgust. <Alright, let’s see what makes this man tick.>
* * * * *
Cheeky stood at the unmarked grey door and brought up the access code Piya had located: ‘Simon is a Fucking Asshole’.
<These guys are real creative,> she thought before punching it in. <You ready.>
<I’m an AI, Cheeky. I’m always ready.>
<I feel like that could be the tagline for a movie,> Cheeky said while grinning. <OK. Here goes.>
She hit the send key, and without a moment’s hesitation, the door popped open.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” she muttered and stepped inside.
Cheeky found herself in a long corridor with several doors along either side and crept down it slowly, sending out a passel of probes to check for any surveillance systems, or approaching people.
<Check that door to the left,> Piya said. <If the information I have is right, there should be a staircase.>
Cheeky approached the door and pulled it open to reveal a mop closet with a pair of meter-high cleaning bots backed into charging stations.
<Fail, Piya.>
<Doing the best I can, these guys aren’t super organized. Try the next door.>
Cheeky walked to the next one and found herself in a store room filled with chairs and desks.
<This too does not look like a stairwell.>
<Go back to that other closet, I’m curious about something.>
Cheeky returned to the mop closest and closed the door after herself. <You thinking there’s some sort of hidden hatch in here or something?>
<Yeah, there’s gotta be. Maybe behind the bots?>
Cheeky tried to activate the first bot and it wouldn’t turn on, so she wrestled it off its charging station. The moment she did, the thing came to life and started banging into the door, trying to get out.
“Shit!” Cheeky swore. She tried to turn the thing off, but saw that its main power switch was already in the off position. <I can’t believe this stupid station hasn’t fallen into Seaway already.>
<Just let it out,> Piya suggested.
Cheeky pushed the bot back with a foot and then opened the door wide. The bot rushed out and almost knocked over a woman walking by.
“Hey! Whaaat the? Who are you”
Cheeky wiped her forehead and smiled. “I got sent down to fix the bots, but that thing went psycho on me!”
“Get out of there! Those bots don’t work,” the woman admonished. Her long red pony tail shaking angrily as she gestured at Cheeky to come out of the closet.
“I know. Why do you think I got sent down here to fix them?”
“Who are you?” the woman asked, stepping closer to reach for Cheeky.
“Arn. Here to fix the bots, like the one you just let get away.”
“Arm?”
“No Arn. Oh for fucksakes.” Cheeky grabbed the woman’s outstretched hand and pulled her into the closet, then slammed the redhead’s temple into a shelf and then drove a fist into her solar plexus.
The woman crumpled, and Cheeky reached behind her head and touched the woman’s neck.
“I don’t know how we managed before we had the Intrepid’s fancy nano,” Cheeky said.
<Thompson would have killed her,> Piya replied.
<Sssssss, you spoke of he who shall not be named!>
<Sorry,> Piya said and then highlighted the panel behind the cleaning bot’s charging station. <Look, it’s loose. That’s our way in.>
<And by it, I assume you mean where the bomb is.>
<Yeeeup.>
Cheeky prised the panel open—which proved to be an easy task as it was on hinges. Behind was down-sloping narrow passage which led into a room five meters across and five deep.
The moment she laid eyes on what rested in the center of the space, Cheeky began to sweat.
<Piya, get Nance and Erin realtime, we’re going to need their help.>
* * * * *
The Perry was in mid-chew when he stopped, and his eyes grew wide.
“What…!”
Jessica glanced back at Trever, who pushed over the pair of wobbling guards, and smiled. “Looks like we make a killer meal.”
“How?” Perry gasped as he clutched his throat and gagged. “We scanned it…”
“Your tech sucks, Perry,” Jessica replied. “Maybe if you spent your money on something other than expensive chefs who you kill when they displease you, you’d have spotted the metric crunkload of nano that we just got you to eat.”
Perry’s look of fear turned into one of sly rage. “If you’re trying to kill me, it won’t go well. I have…a bomb,” he rasped.
“Not trying to kill you,” Jessica replied as she sat on the edge of his desk. “My AI, Iris, is just looking through your…body…to find out where your transmitter is. Once she finds it and we replicate its signal, then we kill you.”
“No,” Perry said with a wicked grin. “I kill you.”
He reached under his desk, and Jessica dove to the side, thinking he was going for his gun, but he just pushed on something and then sat back, wheezing softly.
“There, it’s done. See you in hell.”
Jessica rushed around his desk to see a mechanical lever that had been pulled down.
“A lever?” she exclaimed. “Damnit!”
<He had an internal signal too. I’ve replicated it just in case. You can kill him.>
Jessica sighed. She didn’t even care enough to do that. <Just knock him out.>
<Jessica, you there?> Cargo asked. <Cheeky’s with the bomb, and it’s a doozy! It’s activating!>
<Crap, Trevor, we need to get out of here!>
<Don’t bother,> Cargo said. <It’s a thousand kilograms of antimatter. Cheeky’s working on it with Nance and Erin over the Link, but it’s on a five-minute timer!>
<A thousand?! What did he think he needed to do? Blow up Seaway as well?>
“I guess we know where his money went,” Trevor said.
Jessica shook her head and leaned against the wall. “Well, shit.”
THE BOMB
STELLAR DATE: 04.21.8940 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Beneath The Perry’s offices, Ellis Reach
REGION: Perry System, Stillwater Nebula, Perseus Arm
<Holy crap, it just started drawing particulate matter into the secondary chamber!> Cheeky exclaimed.
<OK,> Nance said calmly. <That’s the regular matter. When it gets a thousand kilos in there, it’s going to use flash injectors to intermix the matter and antimatter.>
<Nance. I know how an antimatter bomb works. Same as our AP drive…just a fuck-ton more antimatter. Once the injectors fire, the containment field gets obliterated—then the rest of the antimatter mixes with regular matter, and goodbye Ellis Reach.>
<Well, yeah,> Nance replied. <Of course, just the small amount that will get pushed in by the injectors is enough to blow The Reach. This thing is overkill with a side of overkill.>
<I don’t see how to stop the injector process,> Piya said. <It’s in a self-contained system that had been physically cut off when the countdown started. Getting at it would mean breaking containment on the antimatter.>
<Stars,> Cheeky muttered. <Fucking Perry had shitty everything else. Why couldn’t he have bought the discount antimatter bomb?>
<OK, Cheeky, I need you to let me through,> Nance said.
<Let me through what?>
Nance’s words were calm and reassuring. <You. I need to pass though you to do this.>
<Nance, you can’t do that. You’re a person, not an AI,> Piya said.
<I can, I’ve been studying the AHAP bot you used on Serenity. I was curious how it managed a full transference, and I worked it out. I can do it with a person if they allow it.>
<Uhh…>
<Cheeky,> Nance said
sharply, <We’re all going to die in two minutes and seven seconds. So we can die, or we run the risk that I fuck you up a bit but we all live. You pick.>
Cheeky bit her lip. <Piya?> she asked privately.
<I don’t want to die, Cheeky.>
Cheeky drew a deep breath. <OK, Nance. Come in.>
A strange, light seemed to fill Cheeky and she felt a surge of energy—she could feel Nance in her mind, and then suddenly Nance was her mind and she was just an observer in her own body.
Then everything went black.
When Cheeky came to, Jessica was holding her and whispering something in her ear…she couldn’t make it out, but she picked out the word safe. She tasted iron in her mouth. No, not iron, blood.
Then Cheeky passed out again.
PERINA
STELLAR DATE: 04.23.8940 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: The Perina’s offices, Ellis Reach
REGION: Perry System, Stillwater Nebula, Perseus Arm
“Ron, if you call me The Perina one more time I’m going to punch you in the mouth until it falls off,” Jessica said from behind her large mahogany desk. “Now, how is the process going with the bombs?”
Ron swallowed and worked his jaw for a moment. “Uh, well, most of them are fake, as it turns out, but some were real. I guess enough to work as an incentive.”
“Enough to make the medics careful to, I suppose.”
“Yes th—uh Perina.”
Jessica hated the fact that she had to adopt a stupid title after deposing Perry—who wasn’t dead, just in prison. However, she couldn’t go by her name if the plan was to convince RHY that she had never been there. She could have picked something else, but the populace—who seemed very happy to have the previous Perry gone—started calling her Perina right off the bat.
The people of The Reach were very accommodating, their general efficiency improving almost overnight. The first task Jessica set them to was removing all record of Sabrina having ever been in the system. The ship was then moved to an internal docking bay.