Zero Site 1607 Page 8

  “Oh, come on. You can do better than that. This isn’t a seventh-grade book report where you just spout some adjectives at me to describe the protagonist. Give me your honest uncensored opinion of this woman.”

  “Apologies QM, but I’m not a psychologist. I’m sure there are others at MOAC or ARCOB who are more qualified than I am.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so.” With his right hand, he calmly brushed off a loose hair that had fallen on the left arm of his suit jacket. “Eliska, do you know why I sent you to interrogate her?”

  “One, because the individuals before me failed, and two, because I’m a woman with some degree of power. Given that Saeliko is from a matriarchal society where women view men as the weaker sex, you thought it more likely that . . .”

  “Yes, yes, fair enough. I’ll admit to that. But that’s not the only reason I chose you.”

  “Three, I also have a high level of security clearance. I was one of the handful of people in MOAC cleared to be present at the debriefings with Saeliko and the other four, so by sending me, you didn’t have to bring anyone else into the fold.”

  “If I had thought it necessary, it wouldn’t have been difficulty to bring someone else . . . into the fold, as you say. I’ve known you for a long time, Dr. Tannishoy. I’ve read your employee files. I know you were rescued from a plague on Dremmos when you were three by Zodo Corp employees, the last survivor from your village. I know you excelled in your studies and graduated in the top two percent of your class. I know you received outstanding recommendations from all your professors, not to mention the employees working in your laboratory. I know that your academic publications constitute a significant contribution to the study of evolutionary biology. All of that tells me that you’re extremely smart and very capable.

  “But I also happen to know that you are reserved and cautious in your non-professional relationships. You’ve consistently avoided dating men despite being propositioned on a relatively regular basis. Oh, don’t look that surprised, Eliska. You have high-level clearance; we did our homework before giving you the keys to the castle.”

  “I probably should have guessed that.”

  “Indeed. And in any case, I was impressed with what I read. I especially enjoyed learning that you turned down Dr. Mallik. Most women would have swooned at the chance to date a young, successful scientist with a big salary. Do you know what that tells me about you?”

  “That I don’t swoon?”

  “You’re a good judge of character. You don’t need money, and you don’t need the approval of the masses, so you tend to see people for who they really are, good or bad.”

  “I’m not sure if I should take that to mean that you approve of my dating stinginess or that you disapprove of Dr. Mallik.”

  “Take your pick.”

  “Well, I have half a mind to date the next man I see just to prove you wrong.”

  “Be my guest, but in the meantime, tell me what you really think about Saeliko.”

  Eliska paused and considered her words carefully. She was aware that this was one of those moments where words mattered, where a careless comment or needless exaggeration of the truth could seal the fate of another human being. Brennov was uncertain of what to make of the captured pirate. He was weighing his options, and he was gathering information to make what he felt was the most prudent decision.

  “She’s got her thumb locked on the afterburners.”

  “Well, you’ll have to excuse me, but I’m not certain I know what you mean.”

  “Hear me out for a moment. A couple of my roommates in my quad at grad school used to play a racing game. You know, one of those virtual reality sets where they ran the simulation through their SageNine implants, but there was a wall display so friends could watch, too. It was a dumb game. I can’t even remember the name of it. Blitz Runner or Blaze something or other. Doesn’t matter. The point is that during the race, when you’re driving the car around the track with all the other cars, there are certain things you can do to build up an afterburner gauge. When the gauge reaches a certain level, you can tap a button with your thumb on the virtual steering wheel and strategically engage the afterburners to give your car a boost. And that’s what most people would do. Everyone except Sosha, my quadmate. Before the race even started, Sosha would have her thumb locked on the afterburner button. And she kept her thumb on the button until the race was finished. She wanted to make sure that the afterburners would turn on the exact millisecond that the gauge was sufficiently full, and that she didn’t have to spend a millisecond more than necessary without having fire blasting out the back of her car.”

  “Did your quadmate win?”

  “Not usually. Most of the time she just caused spectacular car crashes. But every now and again, she would get lucky, weave through all the obstacles and other cars, and win by a landslide. Was a thing of beauty to watch.”

  “And that’s Saeliko.”

  “Exactly. That’s how Saeliko approaches life. I’m not sure if she’s just wired that way or if it was beat into her during her training. She’s Saffisheen. You know what that means, right?”

  “I’m aware of the Saffisheen and their training methods.”

  “It’s probably a mixture of both. She was abused when she was a child – I mean, seriously abused – but it’s also just in her to constantly push things as far as they’ll go. I don’t think she knows how to ease up. Everything she does, all her thoughts, every little action, it’s all full throttle, and it’s all for a purpose. With Sosha, that kind of mentality led to a car crash nineteen times out of twenty, but with Saeliko, I think it’s different. Her Saffisheen training gave her so much skill that when she competed in the race of life in her own world, she came out on top ninety-nine times out of a hundred. Even at MOAC, you saw the damage she could do, and that was while she was contemplating whether or not she was literally in an afterlife of some sort.”

  “She thought she was dead?”

  “She hadn’t decided.”

  “How about now?”

  “She’s pretty confident she’s still alive.”

  “Huh.” Brennov scratched at the stubble on his chin, lost in thought for a moment. “Interesting. Well, she’s young. Maybe she’ll mature and learn that there are times when it helps to ease back on the throttle.”

  Eliska shrugged. “Yeah, maybe.” She realized her voice betrayed that she wasn’t convinced.

  “Her future might depend on it.”

  “What is it you’re thinking of doing with her?”

  “Two options have been raised for consideration.”

  “Only two?”

  “Two feasible options.”

  “Okay, what’s the first?”

  “We give her a job here at ARCOB.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Why not? She’s a trained soldier. Zodo has a growing army that needs soldiers.”

  “Presumably you need soldiers that will follow orders, too.”

  “Sure. I’m not saying we’ll put her in uniform tomorrow.”

  “Or the next day, or the day after that.”

  “It will take time. I know.”

  “Yeah, I’m struggling to see how you’d persuade her to sign on as a Zodo Corp foot soldier, let alone do anything Commander Saris tells her to.”

  “We can be persuasive. Plus, Zodo’s military branch has some very cool toys that she might like to play with on a regular basis. And in any case, it seems a shame to waste such talent when it falls in our laps. By all accounts, she’s extremely skilled at what she does.”

  “She’s a person, not a weapon.”

  “She’s both.”

  Eliska took a breath and paused to consider her next words carefully. She closed her eyes briefly – just long enough to see an image of Saeliko in a prison cell telling her to grow a spine.

  Of course, Saeliko didn’t understand the complexities of inter-office politics within an interplanetary corporation. Telling Brennov that he was being woefully na�
�ve would have implications down the road. It was all well and good to be unapologetically candid, a trait Saeliko prioritized, but there was something to be said for tact and pragmatism. Eliska tried to strike a balance.

  “Okay, you wanted my opinion. I think you’re partially right. If she decided to put her mind to it, she’d be the very definition of a soldier. Brave and bold to a fault, physically strong, lightning reflexes, calm in the face of danger, a predilection for violence, the whole works. And I’ll admit, putting her in a soldier’s uniform makes a lot more sense than giving her a data entry job at a desk in a cubicle. That would be the definition of absurd.

  “However, for the record, I would officially advise against coopting her into the army. Aside from the enormous challenges you’d have to overcome to secure her compliance – and they really are enormous challenges – there are moral issues that need to be recognized. To begin with, despite being an adult in the legal sense, her knowledge of the most basic technologies and social norms within this corporation are childish at best. She doesn’t understand her rights, nor does she understand the options available to her other than constant conflict and warfare. There’s a strong case to be made that enlisting her under Saris’ command would be tantamount to using a child soldier.”

  Brennov nodded and adjusted one of his cufflinks without taking his eyes off Eliska. “Duly noted.”

  “What’s the other option?”

  “It’s an option with a less favorable outcome.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Under normal circumstances, we’d consider returning her to her home planet. As you know there is a delicate procedure that can be carried out to erase or at least suppress selected memories. She would wake up somewhere in the Sollian with a massive headache and a lot of confusion, but otherwise she would go on with her life. Obviously, we can’t do that.”

  “I think I know where this is going.”

  “We could drop her off elsewhere. Choose a planet at a similar developmental stage.”

  “You can’t lobotomize her and ditch her on a foreign planet. Never mind the dangers of the medical procedure, which by the way has a centuries-long list of problems associated with it that have never been properly solved. Dumping her in a foreign culture is unconscionable.”

  “As I said, the first option is my favorite.”

  “You need a third option.”

  “Technically, we could just keep her in a prison cell, but it’s a waste of resources, and also, as I’m sure you’re already planning to tell me, morally unconscionable.”

  “Yes.”

  “And that’s why I’m going to need your support for the first option.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You’re the only one with a connection to her right now. You could talk to her. You could explain the merits of compliance.”

  “You’re joking.”

  “And having your cooperation would go a long way to convincing the Quadrant Board that we’re making the right decision here.”

  “I just advised you against that option.”

  “Eliska,” Brennov said softly. For the first time in their meeting, he leaned forward in his chair, elbows on his thighs and fingers steepled in front of him. His eyes locked onto hers, and his tone became more serious. “I really don’t think that’s the tact you want to take.”

  She couldn’t help feeling scared. He was bullying her, pure and simple. A little tingle went down the back of her neck. She hated him right now, but more than that, she hated this moment. She hated being in this chair in this room trying to figure out how to stay on the right side of things under pressure. She was a scientist. She was supposed to be merrily working away in a lab with petri dishes and microscopes.

  “I, ah . . .”

  “You’re one of our best and brightest, Eliska. I’d really appreciate your cooperation on this.”

  “I’m very uncomfortable with this.”

  “I completely understand,” Brennov told her. He suddenly stood up and casually buttoned up his suit jacket. “You don’t have to make your final decision now, doctor. Take some time and think it over.”

  “Ah, yes, sir.”

  “We’ll stay in touch, shall we?”

  “Okay.”

  “Get some rest. I’ll see you at the meeting this afternoon.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  And that was it. QM Brennov turned around and walked out the room, leaving Eliska to take a few deep breaths, lay down on the bed and take a few more deep breaths. She closed her eyes and replayed their conversation in her mind. Twice. She thought about her own replies to his questions and wondered whether she had been too forceful in her opinions. Had Brennov just demoted her from his ‘loyal and trusted’ category to his ‘wavering and possibly expendable’ category?

  On the other hand, maybe she hadn’t been forceful enough. Something about Saeliko’s attitude was rubbing off on her.

  “Roy,” she said aloud.

  “Yes, Dr. Tannishoy,” his voice replied from speakers neatly concealed somewhere in the room.

  “I need a nap. Wake me up in two and a half hours.”

  “Yes, doctor, but there is a live message waiting for you. Would you like to view it before you go to sleep?”

  “What? From who?”

  “I do not know. The message is encrypted.”

  Eliska sat up straight. Her eyes opened wide. “Is it coming from on base?”

  “I do not know that either. The message is being bounced. I can only see the previous bounce location. The origin could be on base, or it could be from somewhere else on Okin.”

  “And it’s still live?”

  “That’s correct.”

  She stood up and walked to the desk, where she pulled out a tablet from a shallow drawer on the desk’s right side. She didn’t turn it on right away. Good encryption programs were unbreakable, but no matter how clever the design, nothing was truly idiot proof. Eliska was relatively certain that her room was bugged with sensory equipment in the ceiling and walls, including cameras. Encryption was useless if Roy and his masters could just watch the messages pop up on the screen when she decrypted them.

  She had no idea where the cameras would be, but it didn’t matter. She had a low-tech solution to render any surveillance useless. Taking the tablet in her right hand, she crawled underneath the thick blanket on her bed, making a little tent for herself. Problem solved.

  She powered up the tablet and saw the icon in the top right corner of the screen indicating that a channel had been opened and was awaiting her response. She didn’t select it right away. Instead, she ran through the necessary safety protocols, which ended with a final step that opened an application designed specifically to delete any trace of the conversation that she was about to have. Nothing would be stored on the tablet, not even a digital ghost.

  Welcome back to Okin, the little blue letters read when she finally opened the channel. Good to have you here again.

  Eliska typed back angrily. Now’s not a good time. I’m at ARCOB! Dealing with a sensitive issue. Give me a few days. She hit enter and waited for the response, cursor blinking away like a silent judge. If Brennov knew who was on the other line, Eliska would be the one in the prison cell.

  I know you’re at ARCOB. I know you have two Zero Stock.

  She stared at the screen, her mind racing. He shouldn’t have been able to know about Kettle and Haley. There must have been a leak at Zodo. A mole. (Another mole besides her. Someone high up the ladder.)

  How did you know?

  Can’t tell you.

  Of course he couldn’t. She shouldn’t have asked. It was a stupid question. Time to change tactics.

  What do you want?

  You need to help them.

  That’s part of my job. I’m part of the committee to oversee their info debriefing and eventual arrival at ZS 1607. She knew as she pressed the send button that if caught, she had just lengthened her prison sentence by divulging even more classified information. Oh
well. In for a penny, in for a pound.

  You don’t understand. Their lives are in danger.

  Yeah, I get that. War zone and all.

  No, not from the war. From Zodo. Zodo is going to kill them.

  Eliska looked at the words. She read them again. “Well, crap,” she said from under her tent.

  1.7 KETTLE

  “What is Zodo’s raison d’être?” Kettle asked. “I mean, now that you mention it, what do you guys actually do? You obviously aren’t sending resources back to One.”

  “That’s a very good question,” Dr. Mallik admitted. “One that’s been the topic of debate ever since the gates to One got shut down.”

  Kettle and Dallas were walking alongside Dr. Mallik toward the elevator. Radovan, Soup and Haley had already gone ahead with one of the soldiers. Everyone was going to meet in another conference room where yet another debriefing was planned.

  “And?”

  “And initially, in the years immediately after the quarantine, the quadrant managers prioritized finding a cure for the Zero virus, for obvious ethical, social and financial reasons.”

  “But . . .”

  “But other priorities emerged as it gradually became apparent that no cure was on the immediate horizon. Don’t get me wrong, defeating the Zero virus and reopening the gates remain a top priority. That’s why you’re here, after all. That’s why the Zodo personnel remaining on Earth went to incredible lengths to find you and get you off-planet. That’s why we’re about to have this meeting. That’s why the QM, who is far too important and too busy to deal with anything other than paramount matters, is overseeing your transition into our mission.

  “At the same time, the brain trust that guides Zodo’s activities has also recognized the distinct possibility that VGCP One will forever remain cut off from us. In fact, we must also admit there is a likelihood, however much we’d like to deny it, that VGCP One is already a dead planet.