Requisition. In plain English, that meant evicting other inhabitants, Norms and Slags, from their ancestral homes to make room for more mutants. Since the Federation had openly declared war on the genetically modified by storming the camps, any inhibitions on the mutant side seemed to fall. Many of the Norms were already fleeing voluntarily, whether out of fear of the mutants or of the revenge of the Feds that would inevitably come at some point. Where they were going, Skip didn't know. After all, Rheinberg was already a refugee camp. Presumably they were moving north to the flood plains, where each new storm surge could mean death. What a choice! Mutants or storm surge? Which was the lesser of two evils? If Skip kept this up, he would again make the decision easier for some.

  With a curt gesture he told Lynx and the others to wait, got up and went into the next room.

  Several people, mostly Alphas, were standing around a table discussing, though not overly animatedly. Like Skip, they were all overwhelmed and disillusioned. The victory celebrations were over. Reality had caught up with them all. Valiant was just trying to make the others understand how she thought a defensive line could be established near the border fortifications. But she was clearly met with little approval.

  It took Skip a few moments before he found Cerberus. The Guardian of Rheinberg was crouched on the floor in a corner of the room, his elbows propped on his knees and his head hidden in his hands. The Feds would probably be disappointed to see their public enemy number one like this. Cerberus looked up at Skip when he heard the door.

  "What's up?" He got the words out with difficulty.

  "Nothing," Skip lied.

  With considerable effort, Cerberus rose to his feet. He braced himself against the wall to keep his balance. "Spit it out already! Surely you weren't just checking to see how we were doing here, were you?"

  Skip gave up. "We need more room for the new guys. Are there any buildings left vacant anywhere?"

  "Valiant!" the Alpha shouted.

  His companion immediately interrupted their conversation and turned to him. "What is it?"

  "Are the halls down by the river already booked up? The ones where the boats were stored that the Slags took off in this morning?"

  "Hover's setting up an observation post there now," she reported.

  "Tell them to spread themselves a little thin!" ordered Cerberus. "Get those people from next door over there! And see if you can find some blankets and some food!"

  "Running low," Valiant admitted. "Our supplies are limited. We ..."

  "Just see what's feasible, OK?" he interrupted them. "We probably won't have to feed them for too long."

  "OK," Valiant agreed, and directed one of the few Slags in their ranks to take care of it.

  "When do you think the Feds are coming?" asked Skip.

  The Alpha raised his massive arms. "What do I know? But I don't think we need to plan more than a few days out." He patted Skip on the back. "Better have stayed home, huh?" He pointed upward.

  "Probably would have been better," Skip agreed. "But I'm here now."

  "I'm glad you're here," Cerberus grumbled. "Doing good work."

  "I don't know. Give me something to fix and I'll feel better."

  "Fixing stuff is something a lot of people can do here. But organizational skills are a rarity. You have it, wherever you got it."

  "Well, on an interplanetary freighter, everything always has to be well organized, otherwise you'll run out of fuel somewhere between Mars and Saturn. Or the container that's about to be unloaded is stuck all the way in the back of the hold."

  "There you go. Sorting cargo containers or distributing people to their accommodations... pretty much the same thing. I know it's a crap job. But it's important if we don't want to get completely mired in chaos. I need you to do it. OK, Avenger?"

  "Don't call me that!" protested Skip harshly.

  "All right, all right. I didn't mean it that way."

  Skip looked around. No one seemed to be paying any attention to them. "Why are we doing this," he whispered, "if it's all going to be over in a few days anyway?"

  Cerberus looked at him. "So they can have a little hope in those few days."

  "Which will then be dashed all the more violently when the Feds arrive," Skip countered.

  Cerberus raised his shoulders. "So what's the alternative? Send them straight to the internment camps? Give them a few more days of freedom! And who knows, maybe a miracle will happen."

  "A miracle?" Skip screwed up his face suspiciously. "What's that going to look like? They're not going to make the mistake of sending ill-prepared security in here again."

  "I assume so," the Alpha agreed with him. "Their drones are up there all the time, scouting the situation for the cavalry."

  "For who?" bristled Skip.

  "How should I know? Tanks. Bombers. Heavy infantry. I don't know. Maybe all of them together."

  "And then it's over with freedom and we go to internment, too," Skip stated.

  Cerberus shook his head vigorously. "I'm not going to an internment camp. No way!"

  "What else are you going to do? We don't stand a chance."

  "I'll tell you what I'll do." Cerberus paused before continuing. "I'm going to give them as much hell as I can possibly manage, and go out with guns blazing."

  Skip looked at him incredulously. "And what purpose would that serve?"

  "Simple. We're showing the world that we're not going down. Showing our enemies and all the other mutants out there. We're a lost cause here. But maybe others have better options. We show them that we're not giving up. That we're not going into internment. So they don't either."

  "You mean we should die here to give others courage to keep resisting?"

  "Whether we die or end up going to internment, I don't know. But other than that, you get the point. That's the plan." Cerberus gave a pained smile. "Not what you wanted to hear, is it?"

  Skip took a deep breath. "Not really. I'll have to think about it some more."

  "Do that. If you don't want to stay, no one will blame you. All right! Now get back to work!"

  Cerberus returned to the meeting. He still seemed a little shaky on his feet, but at least half awake again.

  Skip went back into the next room. He sent Lynx with the waiting bunch to the selected quarters. Behind them, three new mutants were already waiting, two women and a man, all Alphas.

  "Um, we were told we'd get quarters here," one of the women stammered.

  Skip sat back in his chair and activated the holoplan. "There's something available down here by the river. Not luxurious, but a roof over your head. You'll have to share space with an observation post, but this way you'll be the first to catch on when the Feds come."

  The enthusiasm on the trio's faces was limited, but no one protested.

  "Welcome to the Protectorate of Rheinberg," Skip concluded.

  He kept to himself the fact that they would all be dead in a few days.

  11-25-2210, Collins Station, Lunar Orbit

  Every single muscle in Kareena's body felt as if she had run three marathons in a row. She would have preferred to just lie there for a while longer. Only being gently pressed by the restraining straps onto the gel mattress, which nestled perfectly against her body, was somewhat bearable. Everything else caused her pure, unadulterated agony. With her face contorted in pain, she released the straps and let herself drift off the couch into space. The weightlessness was pure bliss after the past ordeal. But even here, every movement hurt. Still, Kareena forced herself to pump some feeling back into her numb limbs with a few simple exercises.

  She looked over at Phil. He was lying on his back with his mouth open, staring at the wall opposite him as if he couldn't even move his eyeballs.

  Hato floated in.

  "Can I help you, Kareena-san?"

  The Musha warrior's English was a bit choppy. An external simultaneous translator was plugged into the jack in his neck. It wasn't as good as Kareena's internal module, and Hato wasn't used to working with it, but he was getting better every day. The mutant didn't seem to have minded the last fifteen hours at high acceleration. Immediately after docking, he had risen from his couch, slipped into his coveralls, and had pranced around as if nothing had happened. Occasionally, Kareena could understand why some people felt threatened by the genetically modified.

  "I'll be fine," she croaked hoarsely. Her mouth was dry as dust. She pumped a dose of painkiller from the implanted dispenser into her veins. Just enough so she could shimmy along the handholds in the walls with reasonable confidence. She wondered if Hato also had a drug dispenser, or if he had really only survived the ordeal of the past few hours so unscathed because of his genetically enhanced muscle packs. She remembered that the Omega-class mutants possessed a diminished sense of pain. Perhaps he didn't need drugs at all.

  She took a sip of water from the bag hanging beside the couch and rinsed the stale taste from her mouth.

  She pointed to Phil, "I think he could use a little help."

  "I'll take care of it," Hato confirmed.

  As she dressed, a groan testified that Phil had survived the braking phase of the flight. When it was over, he was even able to fix his eyes on her again.

  "You'll be fine," she encouraged him. "Welcome to the orbit of Luna. I'll go ahead and take care of the rest of the trip. See you later."

  She interpreted his grunt as agreement.

  The corridor outside their compartment gradually became busy. Each of the passengers had his own method of returning to life. Some were doing calisthenics. Others seemed similarly stricken as Phil and just hovered motionless beside their couches for the time being.

  One crew member drifted toward them. "Are you all right?"

  The woman was a Sigma-class mutant and more than a head shorter than Kareena. Space models were even better equipped to endure the discomforts of space than Betas. Their muscles and circulatory system were perfectly adapted to changing accelerations. The Sigmas had even been constantly on the move during the acceleration and deceleration phases of the flight, regularly checking on things.

  Kareena pointed to her compartment. "My companion, I think, can use something to get him back on his feet."

  "All right." The dwarf smiled kindly and floated over to Phil.

  Kareena grabbed her backpack, gave the Slag another encouraging wave, and headed for the docking lock. The drugs were starting to kick in, so she glided out reasonably gracefully. She was among the first to pass through the airlock. Through the window next to the passenger bridge, she glanced at the ship that had brought her in. The radiators were still visibly glowing, heated by the engine running at full thrust for hours.

  She activated her ComLink and dialed into the station's data network. A map was displayed in her field of vision. She selected the next ComTerminal with closed cabins and headed for it. With her ID chip, she opened a channel to the central shipyard of the Applied Aeronautics & Astronautics Corporation, which was also orbiting Luna. In its internal memory, she had kept Iesco's on-duty direct dial for six years. In a moment, she would find out if the number was still current.

  An audio connection opened. "Yes?"

  Kareena involuntarily laughed as soon as she heard his voice. Her limbic system began to release happy hormones on the spot, driving away the pain in her muscles more effectively than any artificial drug.

  "Hello Iesco," she greeted him.

  Because of the distance, there was a delay of about half a second. But if both conversation partners were used to it, it was not a significant problem.

  "Kareena? Is that you?"

  She almost whooped out loud when he recognized her immediately.

  "Yes. It's me."

  "Wait a minute!" he asked her. Now a video signal was also coming in. The holoprojector conjured up a face on the terminal. He hadn't changed a bit. Still the tangled black hair resisted any attempt to tame it. And his eyes flashed as youthful and mischievous as the last time they had met, six years ago.

  "Kareena. What a surprise! Where are you?"

  "Collins Orbital. Just landed."

  "And have nothing better to do than to first of all keep me from working?"

  "Sorry. If I'm interrupting ..."

  "No, no. Just kidding. You couldn't bother me at all. Keep me from work, yes, but not disturb me. How are you?"

  "Fine, basically."

  "'Basically' doesn't sound so great. What's up?"

  "I have a favor to ask of you. I'm sorry to barge in like this, but it's really important."

  "Oh. I had thought you had come because you were longing for me."

  Kareena was about to disagree when she realized she had almost fallen for his sarcasm again. "I certainly was. But I'm afraid that will have to wait."

  "What can I do for you?"

  "I have to go to the Aurora station in Earth orbit. I'm afraid that's not easily accessible. At least not the sectors beyond the freeport."

  "Yes. That's where we're testing our prototypes for atmospheric-capable vehicles. And some other companies have development labs there, too. What are you doing on Aurora? Industrial espionage?"

  "No!" she protested. Then she saw the grin on his face. "Oh, you son of a bitch! Don't tease me like that all the time!"

  "Sorry. But seriously, what's this about?"

  "I'm looking for someone, and the hottest lead is to Aurora."

  "Someone from my co-op?"

  Kareena shook her head. "I'd be surprised. He’s a geneticist, not a starship designer."

  "Geneticist ... Orpheus Genetics has a pretty big facility on Aurora."

  "So I've heard. Do you know anything more specific about it?"

  He thought for a moment. "I seem to recall that it's even the corporate headquarters of Orpheus. Anyway, on Aurora they have one of their largest breeding farms and a huge training center. It's directly attached to a Federation strike force barracks."

  "Federation?" Kareena bristled. "That's some interesting stuff, who all is out there. Do you happen to know if the USI has facilities there?"

  "On Aurora? Definitely not. At least nothing official. Do you think if they were there, all their competitors would be putting development departments there? No, Aurora should be largely USI-free. Why do you ask?"

  "Someone from there is looking for the same person. If USI was working there, I probably would have given up right away. But as it is, he may need a little time to get in there, too."

  Iesco smirked. "There are definitely some USI spies on Aurora. But both the Federation and the other operator groups make life as difficult as possible for them. Your particular friend shouldn't have an easy time there."

  "Good to know. But what about me? Can you get me in there?"

  "I think so. That should work out. Might take a little while, though. With something like this, I have to go through the official channels of the company's internal bureaucracy."

  "The sooner, the better. It's a bit of a rush."

  "The easiest way, though, would be for me to go there myself and bring a guest." His look became positively insinuating.

  "That would be especially nice, of course. Can you arrange that? I really don't want to unduly separate you from your work."

  "Oh, come on. It'll be fine. I always have urgent projects. But I also have piles of old vacation time. It's about time I took a few days off. Yes, I feel like taking a vacation right now. Do you have any plans for the next few days? I wanted to have a look at the earth from above again. From the Aurora station, you have an excellent view."

  She had to laugh. "I think I can arrange that. Thank you for the invite. There are still one or two things we need to work out, though."

  His expression darkened. "What else?"

  "First, this is not a walk in the park. It could possibly even be dangerous. The USI agent is not squeamish. I'm going to have to go through that without you. So we won't be able to see too much of each other there."

  "Not nice, but better to see a little than not at all. Second?"

  "Second, I'm not alone."

  "Uh oh!"

  "Don't worry!" she smiled at him. "Purely on business. Two... partners. They are helping me with the investigation."

  "Partners? Well, we'll see about that. All Cynarian?"

  "No. One is from SGE."

  "SGE? You mean Sony Genetic Engineering, the mutant factory of the Shigano Combine?"

  "That's the one."

  "How did you get involved with them? Is it a mutant?"

  "Musha-class."

  "This just keeps getting better!" He laughed. "Your company has definitely gotten more interesting in the last few years."

  "Not really," she rebuffed. "It's just that this job is... different; a little special."

  "That's the impression I get, too. All right, I'll see what I can do. Send me over the ID data, will you? Then I'll organize the access permissions. With that, I'll come to you, and we'll jet off to Aurora together."

  "That would be really awesome. Iesco, you're a sweetheart!"

  "I know. You owe me one, though."

  "Absolutely. Do you have anything particular in mind?"

  "I certainly do. But I'd imagine you'd enjoy it, as well."

  She laughed again. "I'm looking forward to it. Thanks for doing all this on the fly."

  "I don't do that kind of thing for just anyone. Feel honored!"

  "I do. I'll send you the IDs as soon as I get them. Probably should be in the next few hours. I'll set up another direct connection from the local Com Station to my link. Then you'll be able to reach me without a detour."

  "All right, see you then."

  "It’s nice to see you again."

  "The feeling is mutual."

  They looked at each other for a few more seconds. Neither of them wanted to end the connection. Finally, Kareena mustered the courage to close the channel. Iesco's face disappeared.

  She closed her eyes and put her head back. She should have come here much earlier. Without this stupid job. For a few seconds she considered throwing it all away; the search for Doc Stargazer, her career at Cynarian. Everything she really wanted was close, just a measly six thousand miles away on the other side of Luna. Triple-A had an internal security department, too. Maybe they could use a new employee.

 

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