Jessica nodded. “I noticed that.”
She walked behind the two women and deactivated the stasis field, watching their expressions through the room’s cameras.
“You wait and see!” A93 said while the other Widow shouted, “Shut up!”
Then they realized Jessica was gone and A93 turned her head as much as the field would allow and glared at Number Two. “You shut up. We had the perfect chance to grab the ship and you wanted to get whoever came for the bait.”
“Shuuut up,” Number Two growled.
“If you’d been here, we’d have Finaeus and the ship and could take it to Costa.”
“They have cameras…audio pickup,” the other Widow said. “They’re going to hear this!”
“I don’t care anymore,” A93 said. “I had him. I had Finaeus. If you were there—”
“Finaeus isn’t the primary target. He’s not even secondary. The ship, and Jessica. If you’d been in position we’d have Jessica and then we would have taken the ship as well.”
Jessica had always found it interesting how people would talk more if there wasn’t a human present—even if they knew they were being recorded.
A decent operative would have stayed quiet regardless, but it seemed A93 was losing it, and the other woman was desperate to keep her companion quiet.
“And Jessica would have come back to the ship if we had it!” A93 shouted. “We could have taken her then.”
Number Two didn’t respond, and both of the Widows glared at each other, their rage-filled expressions a perfect mirror of one another.
“Costa, you say?” Jessica asked as she walked around the two. “An Orion Guard base, right? I suppose it makes sense that there are bases in the retro-zone—what with us being so close to the Inner Stars and all. But I wonder…would you take our ship to just any base?”
After the initial expressions of shock dissipated, the two Widows only stared mutely at Jessica.
“No matter,” Jessica replied with a wave of her hand. “This was just the warmup.”
She walked back to her seat and sat down once more, looking from one Widow to the other and back again. “You two clones are clearly losing it. Proximity to such a strong reminder of your old life has done a number on you. You knew that Finaeus married again, right? More than once too. I wonder if he never managed to quite replace you. I met one of his daughters. Now that was an impressive woman.
“You two husks? Not so much.”
A93 drew in a sharp breath, but didn’t reply. Jessica saw tears form in her eyes and knew she could push harder and get more, but suddenly she didn’t have the stomach for it. She felt more pity than anger when she looked at the two human wrecks before her.
Jessica snapped the stasis field into place and left the room, taking the chair with her. They had enough to start with for now. If the Widows’ ship and ‘Costa’ didn’t pan out, she’d have another go.
<I’m surprised,> Iris commented as Jessica stopped and leant against a bulkhead. <I thought you’d push them harder.>
<I should have,> Jessica replied. <It’s just…those two didn’t ask to get made.>
<No one asks to get made,> Iris countered. <We’re all born out of our parent’s hubris. Well, AIs are at least. You humans are born out of a lot of chemicals and grunting.>
Jessica laughed and shook her head. <Usually some hubris in there too. Either way, they’re different. I don’t think life has presented them with many great choices.>
Iris sighed. <I suppose you’re right. Still, if they’d hurt Piya and Cheeky…>
<Well, yeah, then I’d have torn their creepy white skin right off ‘til I got what I needed.>
<Good.>
SHIPNAPPING
STELLAR DATE: 03.12.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Yessen, Ur, Sullus System
REGION: Midway Cluster, Orion Freedom Alliance Space
Jessica stood near the edge of the wide concourse running through Wing 9 of Yessen.
Rock walls rose up at the edges of the wing, arching into vaulted ceiling high overhead. Every few hundred meters, large doors were set into the stone walls, leading into the bays on either side of the wing.
<Funny that they’ve named this one ‘9’,> Jessica commented to Iris. <There are only four wings. They’re not even in a pattern. I could see numbering them 3, 5, 7, 9 or something like that, but its 1, 4, 7, 9. It makes no sense.>
<Entries in the city’s databases claim that they planned on making more, but ran out of money,> Iris replied.
<Then why not renumber them?>
<Should I see if any of Yessen’s original city planners are still around?> Iris asked with a mental smirk. <You could ask them and not me.>
<Funny girl,> Jessica replied. <Have you made your way into the bay’s records yet?>
<In, yes. I’m now altering their data to show you as the owner of the Sierra Echo.>
She looked across Wing 9’s main thoroughfare and into Bay 91A. She could see the Sierra Echo on a pad on the far side. There were half a dozen ships visible in all, and more cargo than she’d ever let sit unguarded in a bay, but things ran fast and loose in Yessen. Barely good enough seemed to be just right.
On the way to Ur they’d debated a dozen ways to take the Widows’ ship. Everything from masquerading as one of the creepy assassins to pretending they were a repo crew.
None of the women were the right height or physique to pull off a Widow, and it was probable that someone in a position of authority knew the Sierra Echo was a government vessel.
So it fell to Jessica—or more accurately, Iris—to get them onto the ship.
Jessica was just the ride.
<OK, you’re golden. I’ve altered all their feeds to show you and one of the Widows coming off the ship when it arrived. Your tokens now register you as the owner. All the Sierra Echo’s fees are paid for. Filing for takeoff clearance now.>
<You’re the best, Iris. I mean that literally too. You’re actually the best.>
Iris laughed. <And don’t I know it!>
Before she could move, Trevor’s voice broke into her thoughts. <I just dropped off Hunter’s crate at the warehouse. I’ll be back on the Sexy in ten minutes, and back up to Sabrina in thirty.>
<Don’t get in any trouble before we meet at the rendezvous,> Jessica admonished with a wink and a grin.
<I live for trouble,> Trevor replied.
<Isn’t that my line?>
<Maybe. Just be careful, Jessica.>
Jessica snorted. <Trevor, it’s me.>
<Exactly. See you soon.>
<OK, here goes nothing,> Jessica said as she walked across the concourse and into Bay 91A.
It was Yessen’s first shift, the bay thrummed with activity as loaders shuffled cargo in and out of ships. A dozen crew sauntered off a shuttle on her right, laughing loudly and daring one another to acts of general stupidity for their shore leave.
Jessica walked through their midst as though she owned the place and noted with satisfaction that several of the men and women turned to give her appreciative looks.
<Always such a showoff,> Iris chided.
<Best way to allay suspicion is to behave like you’re trying to attract attention.>
<You sure are good at that.>
Jessica laughed. <I certainly am. And I make a fine meatsuit to haul your ship-hacking mind around in.>
<Awww, Jessica, you’re more than my meat suit. I’m not sure what more, but certainly something.>
<You’re all heart, Iris. Which is impressive considering that you have no heart.>
Jessica released a passel of nano into the air as they approached the ship and slowed her pace to give Iris time to access the vessel’s airlock panel and security systems.
After a few moments, Iris reported in. <As expected, this is an order of magnitude better than any of the tech we�
��ve hit in the retro-zone. Better than anything since we jumped into Perseus—barring Star City, of course.>
<I’ll do a walkabout, then,> Jessica replied and changed her approach, angling toward the Sierra Echo’s bow.
It was a good looking vessel, thin and long, its hull an interesting configuration comprised of overlapping plates. Unless Jessica missed her guess, those plates could shift positions to alter the ship’s profile to appear larger or smaller on scan as needed. Not a lot, but enough to fool many non-military scan systems.
She walked underneath the vessel’s bow and checked over the scan fin, and the mount points on which the ship rested. It was the sort of walkthrough a fastidious owner would make when they didn’t trust that their ship had been taken care of.
“I hope it’s to your—oh, sorry, I thought you were someone else.”
Jessica turned and eyed the speaker, an older woman of middling height who wore the uniform of a Yessen spaceport worker.
“Is she fueled up?” Jessica asked with an arched eyebrow. “I want to be on my way as soon as we’re cleared for departure.”
“Umm…yes, but who are you?”
“Jessica,” she said, turning her gaze back to the ship’s hull.
“Jessica, that’s great, but I spoke with the two women who came off this ship the other day. I got the distinct impression that the Sierra Echo belonged to them.”
Jessica turned back to the woman, staring down her nose. “Well, your impression was wrong. Check your records. This is my ship, and I’ll be leaving in it shortly.”
The woman pulled out a pad, a rather quaint affectation, and scowled as she looked it over. “Huh,” she eventually replied. “Ship does appear to be yours. There’s even a record of you disembarking…funny, I was on duty then. I’m certain I would have remembered you.”
<Gladly.>
“Well, if she’s fueled up, get that umbilical detached so I can get out of this shit-hole,” Jessica said as she walked out from under the ship, brushing past the woman.
“Don’t have to be so rude about it,” the woman muttered.
She followed Jessica out and watched intently as Jessica climbed the ramp and stood before the airlock door.
<Umm…Iris, I passed the codes, why’s the door not opening. It’s not in a lockdown or anything.>
<I can see that. Just a second,> Iris replied, her voice rushed.
“Need a hand?” the woman asked from the base of the ramp. “Funny how you can’t get the door open on your own ship.”
Jessica glanced over her shoulder and called back. “I’m reviewing the security measures to ensure that no one messed with my girl. Do you have anything to worry about?”
Beyond the woman, Jessica spotted a pair of security guards enter the bay and begin walking toward her.
<Shit! That woman called security on us!> Jessica exclaimed. <This is going to get real awkward real fast.>
Jessica turned back toward the ship, trying to act as relaxed as possible, while considering the exits and egress routes. Taking out the guards wouldn’t be too tricky, but the bay had defense turrets at the exits. Those would be trickier.
Then the Sierra Echo’s airlock cycled open and Jessica calmly stepped in.
<Were you actually worried?> Iris asked.
<Well, you sounded concerned, so I was too.>
<Ye of little faith.>
Jessica cycled the airlock’s inner door and stepped into the vessel’s main compartment. The room was as spare and utilitarian as the Widows themselves. It sported an armory, a pair of stasis pods, a small kitchenette, and four bunks.
“Four bunks,” Jessica said to herself as she walked past them toward the cockpit.
<Noticed that too. They’re all perfectly made, can’t tell which were in use.>
“I kinda imagined the Widows sleeping in coffins.”
<Seems fitting.>
The cockpit was a standard four-seat arrangement, and Jessica slid into one of the seats.
<She’s in standby, bringing her back up,> Iris said. <Their initialization protocols are weird, though. I wonder if we should have extracted the command codes from the widows.>
Jessica sighed. <Yeah, we probably should have. They’re just so….>
<Gross?>
<Pathetic.>
Jessica pulled her feeds from the nano in the bay and spotted the two guards talking to the woman, who was gesturing at the Sierra Echo. One of the guards shook his head and then they both walked away.
“Take that, you nosy Nancy,” Jessica said. “Of course…she was right, we are stealing the ship, but still.”
A minute later the console came alive, and Iris passed the ship’s new command tokens to Jessica.
<What a pain. There was an NSAI aboard that was really not happy to have us.>
“Things often take you a minute or two, this was faster. How was that a pain?”
Iris made a harrumph sound before responding. <Normally things here in the retro-zone take that long because of how ancient and slow their networking protocols are. Seriously, people used better stuff before the Sentience Wars in some cases. This was slow because that thing kept blocking ports and shutting down every system I wormed my way into. It was slow because it was fast.>
“I can’t wait to get back to civilization.”
<Tell me about it.>
Jessica initialized a pre-flight check and made a call into the station to get the umbilicals—which were still connected to the ship—detached.
The ship’s checks all came up green, and Jessica looked up the docking bay’s departure queue. They were the only one in the bay in the queue, though three adjacent bays had ships ahead of them. ETA for lift-off was seven minutes.
Provided the umbilicals were pulled off.
“I have half a mind to go out there and do it myself,” Jessica muttered. “That woman is obviously stalling it just to be an ass.”
<Maybe you should call in to the station master.>
“Nah, that’ll take just as long to get through to someone who gives a shit.”
Jessica rose from the seat and walked out of the cockpit, through the ship’s main room. The inner door on the airlock was closed—as it should be, the pre-flight process closed both doors. But for just a moment, it looked like the outside door was cycling shut.
A quick check of the ship’s systems indicated the door had not been open, and Jessica assumed it must have just been a trick of the light.
Jessica palmed the inner airlock door open at the exact moment she realized none of her nano within the airlock were responding.
Iris must have noticed as well, because she cried out, <Duck!> right as the door opened.
Jessica was already diving to the side, but not fast enough to avoid being clipped by a pulse shot rippling out of the open airlock.
She pulled her own pistol from its holster and fired into the airlock while taking cover behind the kitchenette’s counter.
“That you, Lisa?” Jessica called out. “Thought no one was home. I could put on some tea.”
“Who’s Lisa?” a voice said from within the airlock. “I’m A103.”
“OK, A103, do you want some tea?”
A shape darted out of the airlock, and Jessica fired on it, but missed as the misty figure took cover behind the stasis pods.
She could tell the Widow was making her way toward the armory where several rifles rested in a rack, two with charge cylinders attached.
<Those are going to be biolocked for sure,> Jessica said to Iris.
<Yeah, and I don’t have enough free nano at the moment to unlock those weapons before she does.>
Jessica sighed. Then they’d do this the old-fashioned way.
She crouched low and drew in a deep breath before she leapt from her cover and sprinted across the small space. The Widow rose up from behind the stasis pod and fired her pistol, but Jessica h
eld out her hands and nullified the wave.
Betcha didn’t see that coming, you poor messed up little woman….
Jessica dove over the pod, reaching for the woman’s neck. The Widow was fast and darted to the side, but Jessica slammed a hand down on the surface of the stasis pod and pivoted midair.
Her shin slammed into the Widow’s helmet, knocking the woman to the ground, while sending a sharp pain up Jessica’s leg.
Jessica twisted midair and landed in a crouch between the pods, watching as the Widow flipped backward also landing on her feet.
“Nice moves,” Jessica said. “Did Finaeus teach them to you?”
The Widow cocked her head. “Finaeus?”
Jessica wondered if the two Widows they’d captured on Ferra had told A103 about Finaeus’s presence on the ship. Surely this one had to have known before they got to the Sullus System.
<I wonder if it had been in the stasis pods until recently…maybe the other two went rogue and locked this one down,> Iris suggested.
<Then who let it out?>
Jessica didn’t have time for further conversation as the Widow fired her pulse pistol again. Another counter-wave nullified the pulse weapon’s concussive wave, and her Retyna guage now showed very little charge was left in her microbes.
Discharging in Parda City to hide her glow, plus the battle with the other Widow on the Peerless Transport ship had taken much of her energy.
<You should have slept in the upper lounge. It had full sunlight the whole way from Ferra to Ur.>
<If wishes were fishes,> Jessica responded as she returned fire at the Widow. One of the shots clipped the Widow in the shoulder and spun her around, knocking the slim woman over the last stasis pod.
Landing her right next to the armory.
<Well played,> Iris said, her voice dripping with sarcasm
<Thanks, Iris. Is internal a-grav online?>
Jessica didn’t wait for Iris to respond before leaping into the air. Luckily, Iris knew what she was thinking—or close enough.
The moment Jessica was in the air, Iris activated a reverse a-grav field inside the ship. Making it a zero-g environment.
The Widow had grabbed a rifle and pulled it out of the rack at the exact moment gravity disappeared. The motion sent her spinning—right into Jessica’s fists.