The one wherein the Mayor decides to hurt people who desperately need it

I don't like Slavers. I really, really, don't like Slavers. I consider them less savory than, say, Reavers and Ministers of Parliament. Worse even than Lawyers. That's how much I dislike Slavers.

In the aftermath of Lily and Cody making a mess of Krenshar's labs on Caliban and the other assorted issues to come out of that, I'd had my hands full. We'd already had Cody picked up here on Hale's by an under cover Federal, who bypassed our land lock and subsequently hooked up with a patrol boat. We got word a couple days later that they'd taken him out near Caliban, where he was promptly busted out by some friends. Who? No idea. Well, that's not really true. I had an idea. A fairly good one. Just wasn't going to say anything about that or probe into the facts much.

But what the hell was it with the recent interest in Caliban? It was like when I first came out to Hale's Moon, and they had the Sun Tzu station-keeping smack in the middle of the colony's primary approach. That and the First Marine Raiders making regular, ill-planned, under-strength, attacks on the colony. It never made sense. Even knowing that Weyland-Yutani had been doing some testing on the KM series out here, it was hard to fathom a full scale cruiser like the Sun Tzu. Hell, if it really was Weyland-Yutani who'd weaponized the von Neumann drones, it made even less sense to have a cruiser on station.

Knowing the research Krenshar was doing out there it doesn't make sense to have that much random traffic and comms chatter. Covert research like that needs to be kept hidden, and having everyone on the Rim making quick flights to the ass end of the 'Verse does not keep the profile low. I genuinely worry that all the extra traffic's hurt his research more than it's helped. Still not sure I agree with his assessment of Lily and Aurora, but I've got no doubt he believes he's doing right.

But I digress.

I wasn't sure where Cody had gotten off to. In some ways I didn't care. Though I was sure I wasn't thrilled with another federal showing up on Hale's nosing around. Paid me a courtesy call, as per protocol, then got all cagey about just who he was looking for. Given the sort of folk we get dropping by, could have been any of a dozen people they'd be wanting as a 'fugative.'

The Federal put me in a less than pristine mood, so when x0x0 came by to give me some intel on Aurora I was both elated and very, very, annoyed. Did I mention my attitude on Slavers?

Aurora in the hands of slavers was not something I wanted to contemplate. 'Brina was with me when x0x0 gave us the news, and she was as adamant as I was, though calmly so, that we would recover her ourselves.

It didn't matter where she was, or where she was going. We would find her. We would find her, and we would bring her home. If anyone tried to stand between us and her they would know a new definition of pain, though only briefly.

When Sabrina, Belize, Td, and I had recovered Imrhien from the Feds on Persephone, we'd made a point of not hurting any of the Alliance personnel. They weren't evil. Just doing their jobs. They didn't need to die.

Slavers are evil.

I set some feelers in motion to try and track down the Slavers. We didn't have a lot of intel, but we didn't really need a lot. I had contacts all of the Rim well before restoring my commission. Even without the considerable resources of that specialized slice of Intel Section, getting an idea where they were and where they were going was just a matter of time. That we would find her was not a question. It was only a matter of time.

While my feelers ran their course, I started working through the hypothetical scenarios. Most of them involved a small, intimate, team. All of them involved a trail of bodies. Sabrina was a given. Archangel. My lifeline. Backup? Few people out here I trusted with our lives in that role, which made General the obvious first choice. Assuming he was willing, of course. If not? If not I would worry about it later. Same if it looked like I needed a bigger team.

But now. . .

Now it was find Aurora.

Fear not, Little One.
Mother Dragon comes for you.
We protect our own.

The one wherein I blink, and many things change

Two days. Less really. Two days for the shape of the universe to change. It wasn't, of course, that melodramatic. But from my perspective it elicited a string of muttered curses in about eight languages. All of which could be summed up to "Wait. What?"

I know all to well that things can happen very, very, quickly. Sometimes too quickly to react to in any kind of sensible way. Or even to react to at all, when events are taking place too far away to be a part of.

Caliban, in orbit around Miranda at the ass end of the 'verse, is far enough out that it's hard to keep track of what's happening there. But that doesn't stop word getting back to me when things get strange.

I don't really have enough information to properly summarize the aftermath of Lily and Cody setting fire to Krenshar's labs. I know he'd set a bounty on them both, which Jai subsequently collected. That didn't make a lot of sense and later knowledge clarified the situation, including Lily's "marriage" to Cody.

All part of Lily's plan. An elaborate plan, well executed, that went completely unlike it's original intention. I'm sure they never intended for Krenshar to turn himself over to the Alliance. Or for him to be 'rescued' from being returned to Weyland-Yutani by something involving Blue Sun. Blue Sun, in this context, almost certainly meant x0x0, which begged the question of what interest she had in Krenshar and what had she done to arrange his release?

I have a feeling I'm going to be figuring out the aftermath of this for the next several weeks. I know Cody and Lily are safe, since they made it back to Hale's to explain what happened. At least from their perspective. The marriage, not surprisingly, was not just one of convenience, but one of illusion as well. Technically, they'd never been legally married.

A bit of a relief, that, actually.

The immediate questions I still had regarded Krenshar, x0x0, and Aurora. Kren I knew was back in the station on Caliban. x0x0? No idea. Aurora? Worse. Also no idea.

That left me worried.

I don't like being worried.

When it absolutely, positively, has to get there. . . eventually

Rumors have a way of taking on a life of their own. It's actually the stock and trade of several branches of the Media, and several Psych Warfare units have made their reputations in the business as well. With few exceptions though, the best rumors have just enough of a grain of truth in them to make them sound plausible. Those are the ones that need to be followed up on since they are potentially the most damaging.

The rumors out of Caliban had that feel. I knew Krenshar. I'd had faith in his being a real person for a long time and, deep down, I believed that person was good. There'd been a few incidents that made me doubt that, recent rumors out of included. But every time I'd had reason to doubt, a bit more digging had shown one of two explanations. Either he was under external influence which, in some cases, over-rode what he wanted to be doing. Or it was a matter of perspective. Krenshar always, always, did what he thought was right. Only, what appeared right from his perspective might not appear right by ours.

I finally did what I should have done when I first got wind of him reactivating the labs on Caliban.

I called him.

The wave from Caliban about the fire, and Aurora's wave shortly thereafter looking for transport off, had me concerned. The fact of the matter was disturbing, but not especially surprising. Lily had somehow convinced Cody to come help her wreck the labs. Evidently, she'd seen the 'parts jars' and thought Kren was cloning Aurora, selling her in pieces to the Alliance, and not cutting her in for a piece.

Did I mention my Mei Mei was sometimes a little unstable?

Krenshar explained what he was up to, and why. Including his belief that Lily and Aurora were both "broken." By his reasoning, they were both supposed to be hybrid synthetics. Part organic, part artificial life.

His entire purpose for being on Caliban was to try and fix them. When he'd interfered between Lily and Blue Man, he'd put a wrench in Mindo's carefully choreographed operetta. Regardless, he believed that they were both going to die if he didn't manage to get it sorted out and find a way to bring them to the hybrid state he thought Mindo had planned for them.

Was he right? Were they supposed to be hybrids? I didn't believe so, but then he'd done more direct research than I had. There were, however, two people who knew the truth. Mindo himself knew what he'd planned. At least I hoped he did. There were a few points where it looked very much like he'd lost control of his effort to play God and there was no telling how close reality now was to what he'd intended.

There was, of course, the issues of Mindo not being exactly fond of me, and his propensity for bending the truth to suit his needs of the moment. Or, more simply, he was a liar and didn't like me. I wouldn't hurt him though. Much as I might want to. Needed to set a good example for the girls, after all. The fact was, even if x0x0 gave me access to her brother, chances weren't good for me getting the information I needed out of him.

Which left Blue.

If anyone knew how it was supposed to have come down, it was Blue. But would Blue tell me the truth? I didn't even know how to describe my relationship with the Blue Man AI. I just hoped I could trust him to tell me the truth.

Probably. Though it would mean tracking him down enough to talk to him. He's said he's always here, which technically he probably is. He's just not always paying attention.

For most of the folks on the Rim, "Peaceful" means no one is shooting at you. By most folks standards, Hale's Moon's become a very peaceful place.

They don't know the half of it.

The one wherein Aurora has a tantrum

This has not been an especially pleasant or restful week. Revelations about what's going on out on Caliban with Krenshar have, perhaps unfortunately, made my decision on re-activation for me. An exaggeration, perhaps, but it is certainly the tipping point. While I could probe into Kren's dealings with the Alliance from outside, it will be orders of magnitude easier to dive that particular data from within. There is too much at stake for me to sit aside and simply watch this all unfold. This, ultimately, is personal.

I don't think Sabrina will be too happy about it. When we signed on together, the four of us, to become Lily's adoptive family, I don't think any of us could have anticipated how things would develop.

Lily, unfortunately, is still to ground and hiding. From what few reports I've gotten, she's terrified and going feral. That worries me. A lot. But right now I have to rely on others to try and get her back. There's just too many other things happening at once.

Like Aurora.

Everything I've been hearing out of Caliban leads me to believe Krenshar's completely lost it. All because he wants to "fix" Lily and Aurora. Only neither of them are really broken. And, in spite of what he wants to believe, Krenshar is not Aurora's father. He may have been instrumental in her creation, even without intending to be, since she was entirely Mindo's creation, but he is patently not her father.

Mindo created her from a Chimera father - genes selectively taken from at least eleven male donors - and one mother. None of those donors were Krenshar. Where I can understand his emotional attachment to her in that role, the fact is there. Wishing won't make it so.

But Aurora herself seems to believe he is. She may still believe she has no mother, in spite of learning the truth when I encountered her on MacLaren's Drift the other night. The circumstances were, well, confusing doesn't start to describe it. But Cody'd called and I'd responded.

Aurora was dead set on "seeing her Daddy" in spite of anything I'd said. It's strange though. Before, she was always so . . . self controlled. It's like something has happened to make her behavior match her apparent five year old form. Before, she never would have thrown a tantrum.

Unfortunately, she ignored my direction to stay on Maclaren's or come to Hale's. Worse, she managed to steal a boat and get there in spite of my efforts to hack the boat's nav stack. Which leaves me in the awkward position of not really knowing the best way to handle this. Caliban's become Krenshar's turf. Given that I'd be going there to recover Aurora, who he considers his kid, I doubt I'd receive a friendly welcome. Aurora herself would probably resist, which would make even a covert Op messy.

Not a lot of options.

But not "none" either.

I'd have to send Taggart his answer. And, somewhere out in the Black, I'd have to set a Crowbar to changing its hidden station.

Silent in the Black
A weapon of last resort
An order unsent

You've been told you will be the greatest warrior ever, Tiny Dragon. It may be true. You will certainly surpass your mother. But wars to not make one great, and you, Little One, still have much to learn.

Complex decisions and the joys of parenting

I am not entirely pleased with recent developments. In fact, some of them have the measurable potential to disturb my carefully nurtured calm. With all the recent quiet on Hale's Moon, events involving folks associated with Hale's Moon haven't escaped my notice. How could they? A Spook never really loses their instincts, no matter how much they might wish they could walk away from that life.

Activity over in the Blue Sun compound has been ramping up recently, though I honestly can't complain. x0x0's kept her promises to me and I've no reason to doubt she's still operating as much on the up and up as she can. Contrary to recent image, there really isn't a lot that happens on this little moon or in the space nearby that escapes my notice. I may not admit I know what's going on, but that's the nature of doing what I do.

Just gives me more reason to get that modular remote maintenance facility off the dock and out here. It's been ready to go for a while. Just waiting on word, and a transport, from me, to get it out here. Given the increase in traffic out this way, it should be possible to get a few medium to large transports together to haul it out here. I know General's got one in his stable, but he's also got to keep it moving on the lucrative routes just to pay for fuel and food for the crew. Keeping a big boat like that in the Black's a lot of work.

I'll have to get the word out locally that we need some large cargoes hauled into orbit here. Even a good sized transport tug'd do the job, though it's a bit too much to haul in any of the medium sized boats that usually pull in here. Still, even if we have to distribute it between multiple runs on multiple boats, it'll save me having to tap one of the company haulers and it'll give the independent Captains out this way some much needed coin.

That was just one issue among many. The platform would give my beloved wife a position closer to home, and would bring additional coin to the colony. We could even use it for orbital cargo transfers to add to the capacity we have now. Not to mention a bit of a good will joint venture with Blue Sun. Not sure how that'll play out, given past ethical issues, but maybe x0x0 and I can do something from an unexpected direction to make the 'Verse a better place.

I wish I could say the same for Krenshar though. Since going to Caliban he's . . . changed. Or maybe he was that way all along and I deluded myself into believing that there was some inherent good in a thinking machine's Ghost.

The random bursts of comms traffic we'd been hearing for several weeks have been, all along, encoded progress reports on whatever project he's got going out there. Direct reports to yet another internal faction within the Alliance: one that's still got an unhealthy interest in Reavers.

Openly, he's said his research on Caliban is into 'fixing' Lily and Aurora. Only they're not broken. While I don't doubt his sincerity in that aspect, I've got to question the ethics of his methods and the need for some kind of fix. While neither of my girls are exactly what would pass for "Normal" in most of the 'Verse, fact is neither of them are broken. They may not be what Mindo had wanted them to be, or what Krenshar wants them to be, but that doesn't make them broken.

My real worry is Aurora. She considers Krenshar her father, which I suppose he is on an emotional level. Genetics not withstanding. Don't think she considers herself to have a mother, since she and Lily are so at odds. She knows about the eleven male gene donors and probably the 'special' genes extracted from the Tam line. I don't think she knows that that combined 'composite male' donor fertilized a single intact egg.

Aurora has a mother.

I just wonder if her learning that truth will change her mind about going to Caliban to be with Krenshar. I tried to give her a good life in a safe environment with a lot of opportunity for her to explore and learn. Apparently, that's not been enough. Or perhaps Krenshar has more power over her then I gave him credit for. Regardless, she's already gone out there several times and plans to go again. Stopping her by force isn't really an option, but I worry more about her welfare than I care to admit. Certainly more than I've shown to anyone.

And then there's Taggart. I told 'Brina they want me back and, not surprisingly, she's none to happy about it. I'm none to happy about it. But ultimately, it may be the only option. Intel section will place more assets on the rim as they become available. The ongoing activity out here has more or less guaranteed that. It'll be in our best interests to have a known quantity inside that chain of command, and I'm about as much 'Known quantity' as it gets.

I just wish this had all come up after taking a vacation...

They never really let you retire

I have made many choices over the years. I accept all of them. Regret only a few. I joined the military to fulfill a family tradition dating back generations, all the way back to the Shogunate on Earth that Was. Before that, if you believed the family legends. Tradition was a powerful thing in my family. There were decisions I'd made in life because it was a matter of tradition, or honor, or, in many cases, both.

It was who I was.

My career, from the late phases of the war into the post-Unification assignments with Special Operations, was still a largely closed book. Most of my wartime Ops were still classified at high levels. Even the unit I spent the final years of my military career with was a ghost. Officially I'd been listed with a training section, which wasn't entirely a lie. But there had been much, much, more. Things I still didn't talk about. Things I will never forget. The reasons I went 'Inactive Reserve' three years ago.

There'd been opportunity to change course, naturally. When my first tour ended after the war, I could have left with honor and returned to the life my family wanted for me. I could have moved into a nice cozy window office in KHI's headquarters tower, or the orbital, or gone on to any of a myriad positions in the family industrial empire. But I hadn't. I'd chosen to stay in Special Operations, even after Unification. I'd thought it was my duty. At the time, in truth, I wasn't over Caitlin. So I stayed in, and went deeper.

And now it was coming back to haunt me.

I'd long ago set the "Cargo and Passenger Screening System" on Hale's to flag on a carefully selected set of rules. Most of them were pretty generic. Known criminals. Alliance officers. Politicians. Certain business interests. All expected. Some of the rules were fairly esoteric though, with some of them appearing completely fukakai. Some of them were fukakai. But most of the seemingly odd ones were very specific, very exotic, and highly specialized.

Another trained spook would recognize them for what they were, if not the specific things I was looking for. Of course, fully two thirds of the traffic that came through Hale's never registered a manifest which rendered the whole system rather moot.

It wasn't an exotic rule that went off this time though. It was about as basic as could be: Registered Alliance Military. Specifically, Major Jayson Lynch. 9th Training Regiment, 2nd Battalion, J Company.

My old unit.

After a few hours he found me in the office. I'd sent Genni off to get some coffee and a bite to eat, being fairly sure Lynch would want to talk to me alone. Not that I was worried, or entirely alone. Not in my office anyway.

"Congratulations on the promotion, Jay. What brings you to our little slice of Heaven?"

Jayson was dressed in clothing that would have seemed at home on pretty much any frontier world. He even walked like a Rimworlder. Blending in. He looked at me, smiled faintly, gave me a crisp professional salute, then a deep respectful bow. "Guro. Good to see you. General Taggart asked me to speak with you, we figured I had a good chance of not being shot. May I sit?"

I gave a soft laugh and motioned him to one of the chairs. Jay had been an excellent field agent before joining 9-2-J. We had very different specialties, but we'd gotten along well and worked effectively together in the field. "Please. Good call, by the way, as I'm no longer in the habit of randomly shooting people who come into my office. But what does Taggart want?"

Taggart, then a Colonel, had recruited me into the unit himself. I had a good deal of respect for the man, but we had some ethical differences. He knew why I'd chosen to leave.

"Major, I know you're three years into your Inactive status and would probably like to finish out the last two in peace. The General empathizes, really, he does. Unfortunately, there is a lot more happening out here than anyone expected and you're right in the middle of it. Intel Section appreciates the routine SitReps you file, but they're looking for more detail."

I nodded, listening calmly. Any Intel Officer on Inactive status was expected to file routine situation reports and I was no exception. My reports though had always been slightly vague. Very carefully tailored to not gather too much attention, while still fulfilling my obligation to the service. "I see, Jay. Go on."

"They know there's a lot going on out here. The Hardliners have entire sections under their control in the Military, more than you'd think given their standing in Parliament. The machines. That construct you adopted. Her daughter living with your family. x0x0 Zangsun herself setting up a field headquarters out here? There's enough interest that they want to put someone on the ground."

The fact was, there were at least two transient visitors I'd identified as Intel Officers over the last six to ten months. None of the colonists though. Too hard to hide the comms on a small colony like this. At least when there was another Intel Officer with direct access to the entire array. But there were transient field agents out here on a fairly regular basis. "They've had people on the ground out here, Jay. They had a field agent here shortly after I arrived. Hard to imagine they aren't getting enough from the transients they ship in from the Cruiser."

"This is coming from Taggart himself, Shay. Intel Section wants a field agent. The General wants it to be you. This is bigger than you've even imagined and he wants someone he can trust out here. I won't even go into the usual company ploy with you: We make subtle threats to the people you care about. You counter with four hundred square kilometers and a shovel. I acknowledge you could end me. You acknowledge Nine Two could carry out the threats, then make subtle reference to just how bad an idea that would be. In the end, we both lose. Taggart doesn't want that. I don't want that. You don't want that."

I had to smile. He was right, of course. We both knew the rules of this game all too well. If it came to confrontation, a lot of good people would end up dead, myself included, and no one would be ahead. "You know I've made some good friends out here, Jay. I'm not going to betray them. Not for Taggart, you, or the Alliance."

"He's not asking you to, Shay. He just needs someone he can trust. Someone he knows isn't Hardline."

"We had differences, he and I. But I digress. What's the offer?"

He gave a curt nod, reaching into a vest pocket to pull out a small data-plaque, sliding it over to me as he spoke. "Status change from Inactive to Field Assignment, with an immediate promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. Retirement clock stays the same. Two years are up, you retire, as much as any of us can, full Colonel. Whole thing's ghosted. You'll report directly to Taggart. Assignments as needed, and yes. Right of refusal." Jay said the last with a small, wry, smile. "He knew you'd demand it."

"Generous terms. Why?"

"You've got visibility into a lot out here, Shay. This'll give Nine Two a trusted asset in the middle of it, and you legitimate access to Intel resources you'd be diving anyway."

I nodded slowly. I'd been diving Intel assets for months, looking for links between the hardliner "Loyalists," the bots, and even at some level into their possible interest in Blue Sun, Lily, and Aurora. "Why now, Jay? Why does Taggart care now?"

"I don't know. Have my suspicions but I'll keep them to myself." He said, nodding to the data-plaque on my desk. "The details are in there. All of it. General might have left an explanation, but he didn't tell me about it."

I picked up the small plaque, rolling it between my fingers. "I'll think about it and be in touch, Jay."

"Shiny," he replied with a nod and a faint smile - "I'll be around town a couple days. Give you a chance to make up your mind. Be a kindness if you could let me know before I go back."

"I'll let you know, Jay."

With that, he left. Leaving me alone with my thoughts and a proposal I'd half expected for months.