Big damn snake

Lily's back. Consider it a right good thing too, but some part of me feels . . . I don't know how to describe how I feel. Distant, maybe. Not by choice. There was a time in the not so distant past when I would have been the one, boots on the ground, recovering one of my own. Now? Now I've got so much information flowing across my desk that I can barely focus tight enough to nudge someone else in the direction I should be going myself.

Does success as a Director level asset require failure at a more intimate level?

No. It shouldn't. It doesn't. I've got my finger on the pulse of half the Rim. The failure is being unable to pick out a single thread from a tangled web, not a failure of intent or will. I see the forest. It is just hard to keep sight of individual trees, even when they are what is most important.

What is most important to me? On a deep personal level, it's my girls. All of them. Daughter, sister, mate, friend. Role doesn't matter so much. Probably why it feels like failure to have not been the one bringing Lily home. Or not knowing half the time, in spite of the tracking, what AuroraBlue's up to. Not seeing Sabrina face to face in far, far, too long. Not being able to help x0x0 recover from whatever she's going through. Probably something of her brother's doing.

What I hadn't expected was the first time I see Lily after she gets back, is when she stops by to bring me a present. And, by present, I mean the carcass of a 30 meter long snake. At least the head. That's all she could drag into the office, leaving the rest of the body to trail out the door, down the hall, down the steps and out into the street. It was that gorram long.

Didn't even ask how she got it in, or at least for the moment, where she got it. I strongly suspected it was related to the snakes that had bit x0x0 and caused her discontinuity incident. Snakes didn't get this big. Not even on Blackburne, which had plenty of altered life from all the radiation damage. No, this thing was something else.

What'd it eat? Horses? Gorram thing was big enough to make cattle it's primary meal, and Hale's Moon simply didn't have enough large life to support a predator this big. Wouldn't even go into how something could grow that big in the first place. Close as I could find in the records were a couple in the 10 to 12 meter range, with rumors of ones approaching 16 meters. But 30? Here?

I had the carcass hauled off and put into cold storage in one of the old underground bunkers we used for warehousing sometimes. Need to get someone with a good deal more experience to look at it than I had, but I'd still have tissue samples stored some place safe. Chances were this big ass snake hadn't grown up on Hale's. Given it's bigger than record size, chances were it wasn't even a natural creature. Seemed like it was either released from, or escaped from, a lab somewhere.

Now that'd be a surprise.

I'd know more soon. But, for now, Lily home safe was what mattered to me most.

And then they had a party . . .

Life on Hale's Moon seems to have several distinct states. There is "calm," in which life is life, people go about their business, and the only explosions are intentional and originate in the mines or with younguns blowing off steam. There is "bad," in which the explosions are either unintentional, or are intentional and accompanied by swarms of flying high velocity projectiles. And then there's "weird," in which case something is happening that just leaves you scratching your head. Like, say, robot revolutions and the like.

It was rarely entirely in one mode or another, and Weird for some might just be normal for someone else. But that's the nature of life in general. For me, it could easily swing through all three main modes in a single day. It was something I'd grown accustomed to. Hale's Moon was some kind of vortex that drew improbable events into it's shallow gravity well with abandon, so you got used to it or your lived somewhere else.

Which said a lot about the folk who moved here voluntarily.

Firefly's Bar had been a going concern on Blackburne for years before they had to abandon the Downport and former citizens had scattered across the Rim. Nack and his kinfolk had chosen Hale's Moon to relocate, along with quite a few of the others who'd called Blackburne home. Which meant bringing Firefly's with them in spirit, if not form, and with the long running bar, the traditions and parties and many of the folk who'd made it what it was.

Firefly's would always have a special place in my heart. I'd met 'Brina there and it had been where we went to dance together for most of our relationship. I'd made other friends there too, some of whom I'd grown quite close to. Good memories. And a few sad ones. Plus getting shot at, or shot, more than once, but that was another matter.

I had to admit though, I felt a little under-dressed at the anniversary party. Everyone else had shown up in formal wear, or at least their Sunday Best. Me? I'd hadn't much time to change between dealing with my duties and arriving at the party, so I showed up wearing my usual leather pants, jacket, silk top, and gunbelt. I was comfortable mind you. Just felt under-dressed for the occasion.

I didn't stay as long as I might have liked. Got a chance to talk to Nack a spell, see x0x0 and her newly adopted Catherine, and even a few minutes to give AuroraBlue a bit of motherly affection before Cody called her away to home, being a tad late for a youngun. Couldn't say I was thrilled to see her go, but I didn't let my annoyance with Cody show. He was trying to help Lily raise her and I couldn't fault him for the effort. Hell, it seemed he was having better luck than my own folks had trying to raise her on Ariel.

Still, didn't have anyone to dance with, 'cept Imrhien, who already had a full card, so called it early.

On the weird side, a couple days after the party, Catherine and Kasuko were talking in my office while they thought I was distracted with something else. Hadn't quite gotten a handle on Kasuko yet. Nice girl. Pretty. Intelligent. Working as some sort of hacker for one of the small time Pirate operations that sometimes stopped by for fuel and food. Obvious she fancied me, though she knew I was hitched.

Thing was, she was trying to teach Catherine to hack on a small wearable computer she had. Little thing. Not unlike my own Deck, but an uprated Civilian unit, not a milspec black box. I heard her saying something about breaking into the portable I kept on my desk. At first blush, it'd look as easy as it was. It was supposed to be as easy as it looked. Nothing more than the usual commercial grade ICE you'd find on any world in the 'Verse.

Except it wasn't. Not really. Be interesting to see what she tried, if she tried, and how long it took her to figure out that there were several layers between that front end and anything interesting. My systems had been built by professionals, to stop professionals. More than professionals. My systems had been hardened to make it difficult for even an AI to get in, though just how effective that was remained to be seen. It wasn't like Blue and I were playing war games in the back room.

At least not any more.

Would have to see how x0x0 reacted to Catherine learning the art of exploitation. Assuming, of course, she did learn about it. I'd keep my eye on them for a spell. Nothing obvious, but it wouldn't do to let x0x0's little girl get in trouble, or to get careless around someone who worked for a small time pirate. Wouldn't do at all.

Discontinuity, and other processing errors in an organic mind

Caitlin's still dead. I hadn't missed my annual memorial to her last month, but it had been more private this year than in years past. Not that my ritual was ever public. But this year I'd recovered the candles set out to her memory. With the Raidsish and the Mercenaries episode still consuming much of our attention, I'd had to keep it brief. It wasn't the first time. It probably wouldn't be the last. But even on a battlefield, I'd found time to honor her memory. This was no exception.

It just, kind of, was.

Frozen memories

Forged in undieing passion

Loss, unforgotten

Though, now, other issues were on my plate.

Like, for example, x0x0 being bitten by some kind of snake and having a fairly substantial discontinuity incident. Gallagher seemed to find it funny, but to me it was hardly amusing. Though he said he'd suffered a bite too, and had also been treated with the anti-venom. Thing was, if what Gallagher said was true, the snakes were some kind of leftover from one of Mindo's experiements. So even in death that hiretsukan was causing us grief.

I couldn't kill him again, unfortunately, at least not that I was aware of. But I could put some resources into keeping x0x0 out of harm's way. She had enough enemies that one of them was bound to try and take advantage of the situation, and, at this point, our paths were too intertwined for me to let something happen to her.

Though, keeping her from doing things to herself? That was more difficult. As demonstrated when she brought Catherine into the office and asked me to draw up adoption papers for her like I had for Lily. Only, I wasn't a lawyer and she wasn't in the right head space to be adopting some orphan because she saved her when she'd been snakebit. Only thing was, Catherine said she had a brother somewhere. Reminded me a bit of Cody's missing sister, actually.

Problem was, x0x0 was too agitated to let me run it through Legal at KHI headquarters on Ariel, so I was left to write the papers up myself, with the agreement we would work it out with Legal if it ever came down to it. Only thing I could think of, knowing she wasn't quite in her right state of mind, was to make one notable mistake. It'd be easy enough to correct, or be a way for her to leverage herself out if it came down to it. I omitted a few specific words: "being of sound mind and body."

Might not be enough, but it'd have to do. If she still wanted to make the girl her heir after she got her head sorted out, I'd point out the flaw and get it rectified. If she didn't? We'd find an amicable way to make good by Catherine but still let x0x0 get her life sorted out. Truth be known, when I talked about my girls, there were times x0x0 was one of them. A bit like Lily, x0x0 was at heart a little girl trapped in a woman's body. Couldn't prove it. But there were times it was clear as crystal.

I did what I could for my girls. 'Brina, Lily, AuroraBlue. Even Haley. And, at times like this, x0x0.

The one wherein Lilybell goes missing. Again

Lilybell is missing.

Again.

It's not the first time, though the circumstances seemed a bit unusual. At least for her. When she's gone missing in the past, there was usually something very complex going on involving Reavers, AI's, or some kind of unmentionable research. This time, it seems she stacked her boat. While that would be the usual way for someone to go missing out here, it's not for her.

An Alliance patrol found parts of her boat, then one of our local folk found the rest of the wrecked hull. Cody himself brought me a chunk of log Lily had left behind for us to find, though whether she was consciously thinking "us" when she wrote it is something we'll have to find out later. When that would be? That would be the hard one.

We'd gotten a ghost on Navtrac. Someone had picked Lily up and spirited her away, and the signature was very familiar. A distant image, classified by an Alliance recon skiff, of a large boat spotted in the area confirmed the suspicion of just who, or, more correctly, what, had picked up Lily after the wreck.

Reavers.

Only, on some fundamental level, they weren't Reavers. We'd seen this boat before. A large converted transport with distinctive markings. It had been Lily's home at one point. It had also been Mindo's home during some of his experiments, and the crew of Reavers weren't. Not in the way we'd come to know them. More like . . . experiments gone wrong rather than victims of an experiment really gone wrong. We were never sure of the origin of any of them, of course. But there was a fair bit of evidence to this bunch, at least, being the results of Mindo's intentional manipulation rather than survivors of the Pax on Miranda. If "survivor" was really the right term to apply. Victim was probably more accurate.

Mindo's experiment coming back to haunt us wasn't a good thing. Mindo himself was dead, or at least "half way to Paradise Beach" as the saying went. That his legacy was still out there causing us problems wasn't a pleasant thought. If it was them, Lily was safe. More or less. She had some kind of special place with them and that group had never shown an inclination to do her harm in the past. Now? Unknown. But it seemed likely the pattern would hold.

Since they'd managed to get clear of any of the Navtrac hubs we could jack in to, we'd effectively lost track of them. I suspected they were either going to a new nest carved out of a rock somewhere, or rendezvousing with their tribe, or flotilla, or however they organized themselves, deep in the Black. In any case, there were some resources I could throw at the problem. It would be another good test of Saule Silencieuse's capabilities. While she was designed specifically for the ELINT role, her sensors were better than anything short of a dedicated recee boat. I'd hand the assignment to her Captain and let him worry about the details.

The only question now: why?

Child of Science

Answers the call of the past

Present close behind

Assets inbound

The quite after the "Raidsish and the Mercenaries" incident has been good for the colony. The citizenry is a lot more comfortable walking the streets without having to worry that some trigger happy off worlder, or sadistic killing machine, isn't going to have a go at them on the street. Not to say that the colony didn't still have its issues. But, compared to people being fearful for their lives, arguing about who's drawing too much power from the colony's fusion plant was minor.

Even Lily's somehow being married to the young man, Lynx, he went by, was more of a 'nod and smile' moment than it perhaps should have been. Lily's outlook in interpersonal relationships was, shall we say, unusual. While she had a vast store of knowledge, she still had a curious lack of integration between the knowledge and her own experience. Probably had something to do with her being synthetic, without the usual 'growing up' period the rest of us had to come to grips with what society considered normal.

Lynx himself was just barely too young to deal with the situation on his own, being a ward, somehow, much as Lily herself was my ward. His guardians, somewhat surprisingly, were Tillery Woodhen and Pepper Siamendes. Though perhaps no less strange a guardianship than Lily's having, technically, four legal parents. Though, in practice, I'd filled the role of primary parent.

There was the worry that Lily would, again, feel the very real emotional pain that came with finding out she wasn't actually married. But I would deal with that when it happened. I've said, and thought, numerous times, that no parent in history has had to deal with the issues I have in "raising" Lily and later AuroraBlue. Be that as it was, when the time came, I would do for her what my mother had done for me when I'd had my heart broken as a girl: hold her close, let her cry, and just love her for who she was.

In the meantime, I would deal with the man who'd come to my office.

We'd first met years before, when he was the Tactical Officer on the Destroyer Escort IAV Chiang Mai and I was a ground force 'special asset' assigned to Intel, shortly after the end of the war. We'd spoken a bit then, but hadn't really become friends. The Chiang Mai was built to support the kind of operations I'd been assigned to, but the Navy, Ground Force, and Intel parts of the crew tended to stick to their own.

When I read the IAV Saule Silencieuse's duty roster, it actually took a moment to realize I knew her captain. And, now, he was here in my office making a courtesy call while his command finished her shakedown.

"Lady Kawanish, I am at your service," he started by way of introduction, giving me a polite bow. I remembered his distinct speech pattern: Soft spoken formality. Very proper. Always enunciating clearly. No contractions.

"Captain Hawke. Welcome to Hale's Moon." Outside my office one of his crew, a slender, vaguely effeminate man, was speaking with Genni. Neither of them were in Alliance Navy uniforms.

"My thanks. I wished to contact you directly before Saule Silencieuse finished her current mission. I understand you will be transferring some of your resources to us, yes?"

I nodded. He wasn't an especially large or physically imposing man, but he still had the air of command I'd recognized on the Chiang Mai. "That's the plan yes. A backwater colony like Hale's Moon is a mixed blessing for our sort of work, and it's been a something of a challenge to keep our Intelligence operation here concealed. Your ship should solve a lot of that."

He looked at me thoughtfully for a moment before replying. "Yes, it should. We can have a transport bring your equipment up at any time. In the meantime, you are welcome to inspect the ship at your leisure."

I would, to be sure. The Kamkamoss class was new and packed more ELINT and signals processing equipment than I'd ever had available on the Orbital or here on the surface. Not counting Blue. But there was still a transport's load or two of gear I'd want to transfer to the Corvette.

"Thank you, Captain, I will. Now, here is what I will need to bring up . . ."

Priorities

While Ravish and the Mercenaries had been taking up a disproportionate amount of my time, I'd still been keeping my finger on the pulse of operations in my section. My situation was, to say the least, unusual. Enviable, actually, in many respects, in that I had the freedom to pursue whatever leads I thought relevant with very little oversight and even less accountability. The frustration with the position was having so many possible leads.

There were many places where my leads and interests overlapped, especially where they concerned x0x0, Blue Sun, my girls, the Machines, Blue, and the other AI's, of various levels of sophistication, that were known to exist. The issue was one of prioritization. Was the interaction between AuroraBlue and the Machines more important than Lily's obsessive pursuit of the Ardra AI? How did those priorities compare with the Hardliner, Loyalist, factions still active in Parliament and their machinations in the Rim sectors? There were the corporate operations to consider, with the ongoing interplay between Blue Sun and Umbrella and others. Each had their own agenda and potential long term outcomes.

Earlier in my career, it had been very easy to focus. I had a narrow field of view with a great deal of magnification. What I saw, I saw with perfect clarity. But I only saw a tiny part of a much larger picture. Now, I could see much more of the big picture and had the resources to focus in on any area within my sight. It was actually somewhat daunting. It became a question of prioritizing, since there were many, many, noteworthy happenings within my field of view.

Problem was, I was juts one woman. I could direct some assets into different areas, but which areas?

The easiest choice would be: "That which most directly affects myself and the people I care about." On many levels though, that would be the selfish choice. Easy, to be sure. But selfish. To be honest, part of me wanted to be selfish. I wanted to find a way to give Sabrina and my girls the best life I could. Keep them safe and happy. Not sheltered, as that wouldn't suit any of them, so much as in a position to do what would make them happy. If I could give them that, I'd have succeeded as a Mother and a Mate.

It was a choice I couldn't make. I couldn't take the selfish easy choice, no matter how tempting it might be. I could see too much of the big picture. I could see too many wheels turning, some of which threatened to grind the future to dust. It wasn't in me to stand by and not do something. Especially not when I had the resources, and ability, to do something about it.

But what? It was often easy to upset another's plans. The trick was upsetting them to achieve the outcome you wanted. Which meant considering that upsetting one person's plans would inevitably alter others and cause a whole cascade of change, some of which could be worse than what you were originally dealing with.

It was foolish to act without a plan. And I could not plan without a goal. But I had a goal. Too grand a goal, perhaps. At least for one woman with limited resources. But Buddha help us, I had a goal.

Butterfly wings beat

Wheels within wheels turn

Storm set in motion