Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework (18 page)

“What the hell is that?” Stephanie asked,
shocked.

“It’s the first time that’s happened!”
Ashley rushed. “Larry gave me a code for the ship, but I haven’t
been able to get through since we landed here, I swear!”

“Larry gave you a-“ Stephanie squeezed her
eyes shut, her hands closed into tight fists, then she slowly let a
breath out and relaxed. “Ashley,” Stephanie said with a calm tone
that still sounded forced. “Whatever this is, whatever’s going on,
we’ll figure it out. Turn that off for now, and help me with Frost.
Then we’ll figure this out with Jake.”

Ashley was frozen to the spot. Her big
secret was about to find its way out into the open, and she would
be on her own. There was no way she could recover from whatever
punishment was coming; she’d either be told to leave, or so many
people would hate her that she wouldn’t be able to stand it. “I’m
so sorry,” she finally managed as she turned her display off.

“We’ll handle it later,” Stephanie said more
forcefully. “Until then, I’m not letting you get out of sight.”

“Why doesn’t she want to see me?” Jake asked
Laura as she entered the lavish multipurpose room aboard the Clever
Dream. The circular seating in the centre was ringed with a small
bar, more seating, and hidden amenities. It was used for the
security staff charged with following Ayan, Laura, Jason, Liam, and
anyone else involved with the negotiations. It wasn’t the first
time he’d asked, and it didn’t surprise him when Jason didn’t
answer, or that Oz didn’t know, but he was afraid he’d snap if
Laura refused.

“She’s coming out in a minute,” she said, a
dire expression on her face. “Ayan was attacked by an android
programmed by Wheeler.”

“Thurge and Burke were there,” Jake said. “I
know all that already, but what does it have to do with keeping me
out of the room?” He hoped the suspicions he had weren’t true, but
his mind wanted to run wild, bringing the worst case scenarios to
the forefront of his thinking.

“The android looked exactly like you, Jake,”
Laura said quietly.

Jake’s heart sank. “What did it do?” he
asked, dreading the answer. “What kind of assault was this?”

Oz’s hand was on his shoulder in support. He
could barely feel it through his old black trench coat. “It was
brief,” Laura said.

“What did it do to her?” Jake asked again.
Fear and anger welled up, it felt like pressure was building in his
head.

“It tried to get into her suit, but she
destroyed it before anything could happen,” Laura explained.

“Wheeler is a dead man,” Jake growled.

“It’s being taken care of, Jake,” Jason said
passively, as if he was barely paying attention as he looked at his
comm unit.

“You couldn’t catch or contain a rim
weasel,” Jake retorted. “You couldn’t even keep your own people
monitored.”

Jason looked up from what he was doing and
said, “Now, Jake, this hit us all pretty-“

“Where were her guards?” Jake snapped. “Why
wasn’t she armed? Did anyone make sure the hotel’s security system
was working? Did anyone even try to contact me to verify my
location?”

“Jake, this isn’t-“ Laura tried to
interrupt.

“Shut your goddam hole!” Jake snapped. His
pulse raced, his ears rung. “Every one of you treated these
negotiations like you were children on holiday when you were really
frolicking in a god damned mine field.”

Stephanie stepped into the room with a
sullen looking Ashley in tow. “Shamus just fell through the roof
and they brought him here to the medical-“ Stephanie stopped
speaking the moment she looked up and Jake made eye contact with
her.

Jake continued right where he left off, his
anger barely subsiding. “I let you put me and my best people out of
action for weeks, Jason, and I got captured anyway. What if it had
been Ashley, or Finn, or any other member of my crew? They’d be on
their way to a United Core World Colony right now, or dead.”

Jason broke in by shouting, “Minh would
have-“

“Bad backup for a bad plan!” Jake burst. “It
was just luck that put Minh there, he wouldn’t have been visiting
anyone else from my crew. That’s not even the worst of it! You let
over a hundred million in real, earned currency slip away while you
were playing negotiator.”

“A hundred million? Where?”

“The Enforcer!” Jake raged. “As a wired hull
with consoles she’s worth almost two hundred in salvage. The dead
reactors only diminish that by what? Eight million?” Jake gestured
towards Stephanie, who seemed to have caught up on that part of the
conversation and started taking on a dark expression.

“Twelve million at the most,” Stephanie
said. “And that’s according to current book, before all this Order
of Eden crap it would have been worth over four hundred million in
salvage.”

“What does she know?” Jason asked. “You
can’t just look that up on some table.”

“Yes you can,” Ayan said as she entered with
Liam Grady close behind. “I’ve been following this from the
recovery room.” She was in perfect shape, in a black vacsuit
instead of her regular white. “We took access and rights to
facilities instead of the bulk of that cash. The terms were for
years, not months, and we won’t have to pay fees. You have to calm
down and look at things before you start putting my team down.”

“You’re okay?” Jake said, much of his anger
subsiding at seeing her upright and whole.

“Yes, but you’re not the only one who has
reason to be angry here, but I’m keeping it together,” Ayan said.
“Keeping it civil.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll track Wheeler down,” Jake
said.

“It has nothing to do with him, you just
finish what you were saying and we’ll get to the rest after,” she
said calmly, but Jake could tell she was holding something serious
back from the flexing of her jaw and her intentionally smooth
demeanour.

“Fact is, we need operating cash,” Jake
continued. “Rights to our own comm band without fees, visas,
bidding priorities on contracting and the rest are fine, they’re
good long term, but even with the cash payment you arranged, we’ll
be out of money in less than a year when you consider
everything.”

“Contract work will extend that,” Laura
said.

Ayan shook her head silently.

Jake continued. “We won’t have the ships to
take defence contracts while we’re defending our section of sky for
free. Defence contracts are the highest paying, and we’ll be
stretched too thin to take anything for months at least, possibly
ever.”

“It’s not for free,” Liam said. “We’re
defending a section of Tamber space because we’ve been given
sovereignty and our own land mass to go with it.”

“That’s another mistake,” Jake said,
pointing at Liam Grady. “This solar system is right on the
frontline, and the rumour is that the core world forces aren’t
coming. We have to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice, not
pissing off the locals by colonising their back yard.”

“Our own island,” Jason reminded
peevishly.

“Their island,” Jake said, “given away by an
occupying force. That’s how the locals I’ve seen on the ‘net see
it, and I can’t disagree. If anyone has ever lived there, you can
bet there’s a relative or friend, or maybe even former residents
that are going to make a huge stink about you calling it your own
and planting a flag. If you’re thinking of starting a nation,
you’ll be building it on rotten foundations, and who knows how long
that’ll last before the Order of Eden just decides to overrun this
entire solar system.”

“I thought you were looking for a war to
lead,” Ayan said quietly. “Or did I misunderstand everything you
said before and after you executed two men in front of
millions?”

There was a moment of hesitation, when Jacob
was torn between his relief that Ayan was physically well, his
sympathy for her most recent ordeal, and the importance of the
point he was trying to make. When it ended, he decided he had to
finish making his stand as quickly as possible. “We don’t have the
resources to stand up to the Order, not even with the Carthans. The
only way we’re in this is if we’re mobile, flexible.”

“Well, you’ll have your wish,” Ayan said,
sitting down in a way that suggested surrender. She stopped looking
at him, instead focusing on the bare surface of the table in front
of her. “The Carthan government has added a final provision to the
deal.” She had everyone’s attention, especially Jason’s, who
lowered his head into his hands. “We can’t take you or any of your
crew in as citizens for the next twenty years. If we offer
assistance after the next three days, it has to be in exchange for
goods, excluding weaponry, which we won’t be able to trade in
either direction. They were very insistent on that detail.”

“So you’re walking away from the deal?” Jake
asked.

Ayan poured herself a glass of water from a
pitcher on the table next to a stack of thin glasses, took a drink
and answered, “No.”

“We can find a way to stay here,” Jake said.
“Pay the lease until we get mobile again.”

“That’s no way to live,” Ayan said. “Not for
civilians. Not for soldiers who need rest. They need something to
go back to, and for almost everyone who stayed with us, all they
have is a cot in a shipping container. Even if we get the Triton
back, it won’t be the kind of home most people want. This island
could be a refuge, and it’s a once in a century opportunity. You
can be mobile, you can draw attention away from the civilians and
defence forces we leave behind.”

“The Triton is a perfect home for these
refugees, and most of the ones who stayed have skills, experience,”
Jake retorted.

“It’s a great big target. The only way it
stays safe is if it stays away from everything, and I know that’s
not where she’ll be if we get her back. Even if and when we do, it
won’t be for years.”

“No, it’ll be a lot sooner,” Jason said,
looking at Ashley, who regarded him with a horrified, grief
stricken expression. “Stop playing the little girl,” Jason said.
“You’re the assassin I was trying to track aboard the Triton.”

Ashley’s eyes went wide, followed by
Stephanie’s. “You’re shitting me,” Stephanie said. “You actually
think Ash is some kind of super-assassin? And you actually have the
stones to call yourself an intelligence officer?”

“Ask her what happened to Larry,” Jason
replied. “There’s been no trace of him since we left the Triton,
and the last eye witness says she shot him.”

“With a stunner!” Ashley shrieked. “He was
coming after me while I had Zoe!”

“Why? Did he find out who you really were?”
Jason pressed.

Jake couldn’t believe the conclusion Jason
Everin came to, and, even after momentarily putting everything he
knew about Ashley aside and considering her service aboard the
Triton instead, he was sure Jason was dead wrong. Farcically so. He
was actually starting to smile when what Ashley said next actually
surprised him.

“Larry was an agent from Citadel,” Ashley
shouted back with such ferocity that Jason stepped back. “He locked
me inside that room so I could pilot the ship and watch her
systems, help our people. When he realised I didn’t trust him even
after he gave me master command codes, he got angry. I shot him
with a web stunner he was stupid enough to give me! He wasn’t as
slag-brained as you are though, telling everyone I’m some kind of
assassin!”

Jason was about to say something, but was
interrupted by Ashley’s tear filled, croaking shout, “It’s people
like you who kept me from telling anyone I had the codes in the
first place! I knew if I told you you’ll sit me down and use me to
control the ship, which might have been better than being in a
stupid work suit for weeks, but I wasn’t about to enslave myself to
you. Oz, Liam, Ayan, or Captain, fine, but I see how you separate
people, and don’t care how they feel about what’s going on. You’re
worse than the Gamries, and I wasn’t going to find out what being
between you and the Triton was like.”

“Ashley,” Laura started in a sympathetic
tone. “Jason wouldn’t do that.”

“Bullshit!” Ashley burst. “He put us in
suits for over a month and made us communicate though a proxy. I’ve
never been so miserable, and that’s saying a lot coming from a
trophy slave.”

Jake decided it was time to take control,
and took a step towards Ashley.

She flinched back from him, her lip
quivering and her eyes filled with fear. He stopped and extended a
hand to her. “I’m not going to coddle you,” he said. “But you’ll
have a home as long as I have a ship.”

She rushed through the two meters that
separated them, ignoring the hand he held out, colliding with his
chest instead. Jake couldn’t help but appreciate the irony of
letting her cry on his shoulder right after telling her she wasn’t
going to be coddled, but let her get it out of her system before
asking, “Tell me what you did after leaving the Triton.”

Ashley looked up at him and brushed the
tears from her eyes with a tissue. “Um, I was put into a suit like
everyone else, so, um…“

Jake realised his question was more than a
little vague, and they could be in for a long story about isolation
and work in a labour suit, so he rephrased, finding patience that
surprised even him. “I know you tried to solve our problems with
the Triton on your own, I’m just wondering how. We’ll start
there.”

“’Kay.” She said, sliding out from his arms
to the rounded seating at the table in the middle of the room. “I
tried connecting to the Triton on the first day, and every few
hours after that. I never stopped, but it kept on saying that it
couldn’t connect. After a couple weeks I started trying Larry,
because I thought he might still be on the ship, but I couldn’t get
in touch there either. I was sure I’d get caught, especially after
someone in a security crew vacsuit saw me the other day.”