Scarlet Steel

Juno waits for us to approach before stepping into an elevator, and all of us follow her inside.

“That was quicker than I expected.” I say.

“I came prepared.” Janus says. “Once you get past the human salespeople and speak to an AI, things move quickly.”

“Uh-huh.”

The walls of the elevator are screens. Nowhere we look is safe from advertisements.

“This sucks.” I mumble.

“Get chipped and I’ll filter all of it out.” Exa offers.

“I’m already doing it for all of us.” Janus adds.

That’s actually really tempting. If this becomes a common problem I might do it just for that.

Thankfully, the elevator is pretty short. The doors open up into a busy area. It’s a strange mix of relaxing and professional. It’s a lobby filled with screens, each filled with information, and refreshing every few seconds. A few booths are built into the back wall, all filled, with a small line of people. Against the right wall, however, is a bar and lounge. It’s not exactly full, but a fair few people are drinking and playing games, nodding their heads to unheard music.

“Is every station like this?” I ask.

“You do what your clients want.” Juno answers and lets Janus lead the way.

Janus walks towards the back wall, and a hidden door slides open as we approach. He steps into a long hallway with armed guards at either end, and doors installed at regular intervals. He walks quickly down the hallway and stops outside one of the rooms, slightly to the side, giving space for Juno to enter first.

She steps inside, and the rest of us follow. The room is finely furnished, with plush chairs surrounding a holographic table. On the far side sits a man in an incredibly impractical suit, drowning in cloth layered over itself again and again.

“Who are they?” He asks.

“My partner, second, and fourth.” Juno nods in turn to Elara, Janus, and Exa and I in order without taking her eyes off the man. “Second’s my techie, fourth needs to see how deals are made.”

“Fair enough.” He shrugs and gestures to the chairs around the table. “Let’s get to business.”

Juno and Elara take a seat, and I follow their lead, claiming a seat to the side of the table. Exa stays standing directly behind me, crossing her arms over her chest. Janus settles into the chair on the opposite side of me and leans in towards the holographic table.

“Your advertisement mentioned a recovery op?” Juno asks.

“Yes.” The man nods, and the holographic table flares to life. Above it a space station slowly rotates. The construction looks organic. Extra rooms and hallways have been bolted on as needed. The closer to the center of the station you get, the older the station looks.

“I wasn’t aware it was a space op.” Juno leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “Don’t have any Full Hands on hand.”

“They won’t be necessary.” Distance measurements appear. The station takes up an entire square mile. Hoppy would have no problem fitting in the hallways, but it’s likely nothing larger would be able to move. “You claimed to have Aphids, correct?”

“Two.” Juno nods towards Janus.

“The Hopper will fit.” He confirms. “Turning around will be tight, but theoretically possible, if slow. I’d recommend the Switchblade as well. Formation Aphid, Switchblade, Hopper, Aphid. That assumes keeping the ship nearby is possible, I’ll require the processing power if I’m to retain control of the gravity systems. I could pilot my scout, but the rear would be weak. Piloting the Hopper backwards may be a solution, but not a good one.”

“Confirmed.” Juno turns her attention back to the man. “Do you have any access to the station? Can you smuggle anything onboard, give us anything?”

“If I did, I wouldn't need to hire you.”

“Great.” Juno leans back and stares at the hologram for a minute straight. “What are we looking for? And where?”

“A prototype that was stolen from me. It’s a new-generation fusion reactor.”

“Size?”

The hologram vanishes, and is replaced with a small engine, just half a meter squared and weighing less than a hundred pounds.

“Small.” Juno notes.

“And safe, with non-volatile fuel.” He says. “We were in the final stages of prototyping when my assistant stole it. I need the working prototype to maintain funding.”

“And how’d it end up in that station?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that I tracked his ship there, and the next station it visited, the prototype didn’t show up on cargo scans.”

“Possibly sold then.” Juno mumbles to herself. “Expected defenses?”

“This is all I have.” The table flicks back to the map of the station.

“Janus?”

“I have scans from the last time we were in system, three years ago.” The hologram flickers, and the outside arms of the station fade until they’re almost invisible. The center of the station gains more clarity, showing the rooms and hallways in more detail. Dense machinery is packed into the innermost rooms, although I have no idea what they are. “Scraping public databases and passing ships for further information now. Looks like a research base, no known allegiances."

“Confirmed. Point of ingress?”

“Unsure with current information.”

“That’s a lot of unknowns.” She turns back to the man. “Price is going up with every one.”

“My payment was public on the advertisement.”

“Anyone who’d take that with the information you have currently is desperate or dumb. You get what you pay for, and you don’t want the kind of person who’d accept 800k. Two point one million and you have us.”

“I’m a researcher without anything to my name! I’ve already taken out a loan to get you what you have now!”

“Then take out another.” Juno jerks her head towards the door. “You’ve got a bank here.”

“It’s not even worth that much!” He argues.

“Janus.” Juno nods towards him.

“A fusion reactor that size with a standard output would be worth several million on its own; not to mention the possibility of replicating such tech, which could, in a few decades, be worth billions.”

“I could get a bigger group for that much money.” The man argues.

“But not one with a better record.” Juno crosses her arms and waits.

“One million.” He gives in.

“Two.”

“One point two and you get a copy of their data, and wipe whatever’s on their servers.”

“They will have offsite backups and cold storage.” Janus says. “Complete, irrecoverable deletion is simply impossible.”

“One and a copy.” He says.

“You didn’t let me finish.” Janus says. “A far better solution is fudging the data. Small changes, impossible to notice, no more than singular bits, and of course modifying the parity bits to match. Changes that will cascade through their research, rendering everything they’ve done, everything they will do, worthless. A hybrid can do that, no one else. Any other AI would eventually have their sabotage noticed.”

“Fine. One point two and you do that.”

“You do understand how difficult that is, correct?” Janus asks. “The number of people capable of doing so in the universe is low, the number of people capable of doing so on this station is singular. If you truly want to screw over your previous partner that badly, we are your only choice.”

“One point three.”

Juno just waits.

“One point four.” His desperation is starting to shine through. “I really can’t go any further.

“One point five.” Juno insists.

“I can’t!” He yells.

“Then you can’t afford not to.”

“Shit. My accountant’s going to fucking kill me.” He mumbles under his breath and pulls a small phone out of his pocket. After just a few taps he slips his phone back into his pocket. “Money’s in escrow.”

“Good doing business with you.” Juno stands up and reaches out through the holographic projection. The man reaches out as well, taking her hand. “We’ll drop off at your contact in system.”

“I wish you luck.” He says.

“It’s unneeded, but appreciated.” Juno turns around and heads towards the door.

I stand up and follow her and Janus out into the hallway. The moment the door closes, Juno speaks.

“Scarlet, first rule is that clients lie with every breath. Janus, what’ve you got for me?”

“I’m astonished he went with the stolen angle. Seriously, it’s ridiculous. He’s management, not a researcher. Or at least he was before he was fired. He hardly even tried to hide his true identity, I didn’t even need to break into his phone.” I’ve never heard Janus be disappointed before.

“Guessing he was fired from the station we’re knocking over?”

“Mm-hmm.” He confirms. "His plan’s even worse. Selling out to a gray market corp.”

“Guy’s a loose end on one side, and a loose cannon on the other.” Juno reaches up to pinch the bride of her nose, and we step into an elevator. “Scarlet, rule two, you’re not responsible for whatever happens after the client pays. Got it? He’s an adult, he’s of sound mind, he can make his own decisions. All you can do is make sure you get paid before their greed kills them.”

“You really think he’s going to die?”

“Without a doubt, and it’s not our problem. If we didn’t take this op, someone else would, and the least we can do is avoid slaughtering scientists, minimize harm to human life.”

“Alright.”

“Good. Rule of thumb, after expenses and shares, you can expect to take home around 5 percent of the take. 75k each.”

I quickly run the numbers. That’s roughly a 25th of my project mech’s cost.

“That sounds good.” I say. “I can live with that.”

“Confirmed. Rule three, things are unfair. A big heart will get you killed or get you taken advantage of. Never go to a meeting alone, and trust whoever you bring. Exa’ll keep your head on straight. Get as much as you can, the other side won’t hesitate to fuck you if you’re caught flat footed.” The elevator door opens and we step back into the showroom. The ground in front of the entrance has pulled open, and our ship is being raised into position.

“Is this going to be a problem in the long run?” I ask. “If we’re attacking one company, are they going to take revenge or something?”

“We’re mercenaries taking a legal job. If we worked black market? Absolutely. But above board? Nobody’s going to care, there’s no hard feelings. I’ve fought pilots, completed the op, and found myself drinking in a bar with them hours later.”

“Really?” I can hardly believe it. I can’t imagine celebrating with the pilots of the Hoppers I disabled.

“It’s just a job.” Juno shrugs. “No point in getting pissed at someone doing the same.” The door to the dropship opens as we approach, and we stride inside. The moment the door closes the ship begins to move, the entire platform being brought outside.

“Uh-huh.” I’ll believe it when I see it.

“You’ll get used to it. Andromeda! Plot a course, handing over the data now.”

“Confirmed.” Andromeda responds. “Warming up engines, ready to launch when you return. Expect a three week trip.”

“Confirmed.”

Wait, three weeks? I’ll hear back from Tera before then!