The Black Sheep (A Learning Experience Book 3) (16 page)

The hatch hissed open, revealing a changing room.  Max stepped inside, suddenly feeling a great deal warmer.  Sweat started to trickle down his back as the hatch hissed closed behind him, locking closed with an ominous
click
.  He hesitated, then stepped forward, looking around with interest.  A curtain at the far end of the room concealed a shower.  It was brushed aside a second later as Hilde stepped out of the shower, water dripping down her frame and peered at him.

Max couldn't help himself.  He stared.  Hilde was
huge
, her arms and legs so muscular that he was
sure
they were the results of genetic engineering.  Her skin was a golden-brown, but there was something almost
leathery
about it; her breasts were sunk into her skin, the nipples barely even there.  He had to fight to keep himself from stumbling backwards as she advanced towards him, trying hard not to stare at her naked body.  There wasn't even a
hint
of hair anywhere within view.

Hilde laughed, throatily.  “Like what you see?”

She watched him for a long moment, then picked up a towel and began to dry herself.  “My father is practically a brain in a machine now,” she said.  “He lives in an asteroid without air or heat or gravity, without any of the conveniences you take for granted.  My combat biomods are less extensive, but I can still survive in space for long periods without a spacesuit.  How do I look to you?”

Max watched, unable to speak, as she turned slowly.  Muscles rippled across her back and thighs, her bottom was tart, almost mannish.  He’d known, of course, that there were cantons where genetic enhancement and biomods had been carried far further than in any of the inner cantons, but it was still a surprise to see one face to face.  The sight was terrifyingly intimidating.  Hilde could break him across her knee without effort.

“Strange,” he said, finally.  “Why ...?”

“I choose not to be bound by baseline humanity,” Hilde said, as she finished drying herself and dumped the towel in a basket.  “You’re enhanced too, are you not?”

“Not as extensively,” Max said, feeling his heart racing as she came forward to loom over him.  His feet felt as if they were rooted to the deck.  “I never considered the advantages of living in space.”

“It takes a lot to kill me,” Hilde said, without heat.  She motioned to the bench and sat down, her eyes following his every move.  “Put me on Earth and I’d be able to survive indefinitely, eating and drinking whatever I could find.  My children, assuming I had children, would have the same enhancements.”

She smiled.  “Getting through the atmosphere without a suit would be a pain, though.”

“It would be,” Max agreed.  But that wasn’t entirely true.  There
were
people who jumped from orbit down to Mars for fun, he recalled.  It wouldn’t be
hard
to make a primitive space capsule to allow an enhanced human to get down to the surface.  Getting back to orbit, on the other hand, would be a real problem.  “Can you ... can you have children?”

“Of course,” Hilde said.  “My womb and menstrual cycle is currently in suspension, thanks to the biomods, but it wouldn't be hard to reactive it.  The dominants in my genetic code would assert themselves against baseline humans, though.  I wouldn't want children who didn't have the advantages I have.”

“I can understand that,” Max said.  She motioned for him to sit beside her, again, but he remained standing.  Being so close to her was ...
difficult
.  “Do you plan to go to Earth one day?”

“Probably not,” Hilde said.  “I
am
a Solarian.  But the corps may be deployed there one day.”

Max cleared his throat.  “I do have a number of questions to ask you,” he said.  Had Hilde walked out naked to intimidate him - or to make it harder for him to use any of his recordings in his work?  He’d look like an ass if he complained to her superiors too.  “Before we start, do you want to put something on or do you mind me recording you in the buff?”

“It might stop young idiots wandering into marine bars and trying to pick up marines,” Hilde said.  Her voice was so deadpan that Max couldn't tell if she was teasing him or not.  “It’s really quite annoying being chatted up by youngsters who haven't done anything like as much as I have.  Or bastards who only ask me out on a dare.  They’d freak out if they knew just what I did for a living.”

“I suppose they would,” Max agreed.  He’d nearly freaked out when he’d seen the Druavroks charging their position.  “So I can record you?”

“Go wild,” Hilde said.  She stretched back nonchalantly and smirked, like a cat.  “What’s your first question?”

Max swallowed.  It was hard to keep his eyes off her.

“Down on the planet,” he said.  “How did the Druavroks make you
feel
?”

Chapter Fifteen

Turkey imploded into chaos yesterday as an Islamist coup took out the government and declared the foundation of an Islamic state.  Greece, already shivering under endless economic problems and domestic unrest, has sealed the borders, but fears it will be unable to handle the expected tidal wave of refugees.  Thousands of other refugees have already requested asylum in the Solar Union and millions more are expected to make the trip into space
.

-Solar News Network, Year 54

“That’s our target star,” the helmsman said.  “Malachi Primary.”

Hoshiko nodded.  From nine light months, Malachi Primary was barely more than a dot of light against the endless darkness of interstellar space.  Long-range passive sensors picked up bursts of radio emissions coming from the planets orbiting the star, but it was impossible to collect any current data at such a distance.  Even if a telescope existed that would allow her to see starships and orbital defence platforms, the information would be nine months out of date and completely useless.  She’d have to take the ship a great deal closer to pick up any
useful
intelligence.

Which is the plan
, she reminded herself as she rose. 
In a manner of speaking, that is
.

“Mr. XO,” she said, formally.  “You have the bridge.”

“I have the bridge,” Wilde confirmed.  He took a breath.  They’d gone through a thousand different simulations of what they could expect to fight at Malachi and not all of them had ended well.  He’d tried, several times, to talk her out of going, even offering to go in her place.  But Hoshiko had always refused.  “Good luck, Captain.”

Hoshiko nodded, took one last look around the bridge and then headed for the hatch, stepping through and down towards the teleport chamber.  Wilde and she had gone over so many contingency plans that she doubted there was any room for mistakes, unless the enemy came up with something new.  The Druavroks
might
have a picket far enough from the primary star to pick up her fleet, they might launch an immediate strike of their own ... and, if they did, her officers knew what to do. 

But I have to remember that they might innovate too
, she reminded herself as she stepped into the teleport chamber. 
Just because the Tokomak deliberately kept them ignorant doesn't mean they’re stupid
.

“Captain,” the operator said.  “Teleport to the
Eyesore
?”

“Yes, please,” Hoshiko said.  She stepped up onto the teleport platform and turned to face him.  “Energise.”

The old immigrants - her grandfather’s generation - had never quite gotten used to teleporting, she recalled, as she felt her body dissolve into light.  Her grandfather had agonised for years over just
what
teleporting did to the human soul, as if every time he stepped into a teleporter he committed suicide and was then replaced by a copy so perfect that it literally didn't know it
was
a copy.  Hoshiko and her generation - and the Tokomak, for that matter - had far fewer doubts.  The teleporter simply
couldn't
produce a copy, because duplicating something as complex as a human mind was impossible.  There was no way she was anything other than herself, even if she
had
been teleported more times than she cared to count.  She smiled to herself, again, as the courier boat materialised around her and the sensation of being light and energy faded away.  The tiny bridge held one other occupant.

“Captain,” Ensign Howard said.  He sounded nervous, even though he'd done well on the simulations.  “Welcome onboard.”

“Thank you, Ensign,” Hoshiko said.  She took her chair in front of the sensor console and examined it, briefly.  The poor ensign had to be terrified.  He was trapped in a confined space with his senior officer.  On the other hand, assuming they survived, the whole stunt would look very good when the promotions board came calling.  “Are we ready to depart?”

“Yes, Captain,” Ensign Howard said.  The freighter had been heavily automated before the human engineers had gone to work.  Now, it was
completely
automated, slaved to the courier boat, as long as nothing went wrong.  There was no way they could carry out repairs while they were in flight.  “FTL drive is online, ready to jump; sensors and jammers are online, ready to pulse.”

“Very good,” Hoshiko said.  She wanted to say something reassuring, but she had a feeling the ensign might faint.  “Inform
Jackie Fisher
that we will be departing on schedule.”

She clicked the display back and studied the fleet for a long moment.  A handful of ships had dropped out along the way - the order of battle stated that several freighters had left the formation - but none of their allies had deserted as a body.  The flurry of updates exchanged between ships indicated, more than anything else, that the Grand Alliance was still a going concern, although that might be about to change.  If they were defeated ... she pushed the thought aside, irritated.  They were not about to be defeated.

But retreating in the face of superior firepower would also be bad
, she thought, as the ensign ran down the departure checklist.  She’d picked what she thought would be an easy target, just to make sure the alliance got a morale boost, but if she was wrong and called the attack off ... they’d wonder just how committed she truly was. 
We have to prove to them that we can win battles
.

“Captain,” Ensign Howard said, formally.  “We are ready to depart.”

“Then take us out,” Hoshiko ordered.

She sat back in her chair as the display blanked out, the darkness of FTL enveloping the freighter like a shroud.  It was hard to avoid doubts, now they were on their way; it was a great deal easier to be brave when one was standing on the bridge of an
Admiral
-class heavy cruiser, one of the finest ships in the galaxy.  She had no illusions about how much firepower the freighter could soak up before it was blown to atoms, if the Druavroks realised they were being probed.  They’d have to cut themselves loose from the hulk and flee into FTL, cutting their losses.  And
that
would be far too revealing.

They’ll know we’re coming
, she reminded herself. 
But they won’t see us as anything other than a freighter.

“Five minutes to emergence point,” Ensign Howard said.  His voice was starting to rise, nervously.  “The faked drive failure pattern is uploaded and ready for transmission.”

“Very good, Ensign,” Hoshiko said.  “Just take us out of FTL as planned and everything should be fine.”

She sighed, inwardly.  It would have been preferable, infinitely preferable, to have a more experienced officer accompanying her, but none could be spared.  The handful of other officers she had who knew how to handle a courier boat were needed elsewhere, while there wasn't time to train up someone new.  Indeed, if the Solar Navy hadn't been desperately keen to recruit more couriers, she wouldn't even have Ensign Howard.  Courier boat crews were simply weird.

The thought made her smile. 
She
wouldn't have cared to spend more than a day or two on the courier boat ... and couriers spent their entire
careers
on the tiny ships.  There was barely room on the bridge to swing a cat, while there were only two tiny cabins and a single washroom at the rear.  She’d heard that most courier crews wrote novels, played games or spent their time seeking sexual release ... assuming, of course, they could stand each other after being cooped up for several weeks in the same ship.  She couldn't help feeling sorry for the crews taking her messages from Amstar to Sol.  They’d be trapped in the ships for nearly seven
months
.

It’s what they signed up for
, she thought. 
And it isn't as though they’re not compensated for their role
.

She pushed the thought out of her head as the timer ticked down to zero.  The freighter shuddered violently as the drive failed, creating a flare of energy that would be visible halfway across the system.  Very few freighter crews would willingly put so much wear and tear on their FTL drives; even the military, knowing that FTL drives were expensive, would hesitate.  The Druavroks would be unlikely to suspect trouble if the approaching freighter had clearly had a major drive failure.

“Give it two minutes, then send the planned distress call,” she ordered, as the display began to fill with icons.  The system had been industrialised for centuries, unlike Sol, and it showed; there were mining ships everywhere, a giant cloudscoop orbiting the gas giant and a number of fabbers near the planet itself.  “We don’t want them to think our arrival was planned.”

She watched the display grimly, silently calculating the odds in her head.  If a freighter had crashed out of FTL in the Sol System, the Solar Navy would have instantly dispatched a couple of ships to investigate.  Who knew what sort of trouble it portended?  And even if it
was
a genuine accident, assisting the crew and finding out what had happened might come in handy.  A decent reputation might convince other races to assist humanity, when the Tokomak finally launched a second major offensive against Sol.

But what would the Druavroks do?  There was no way to know.

“Send the signal,” she ordered, after two minutes had passed.  “Inform me the moment we get any response.”

“Aye, Captain,” Howard said.  “The signal has been sent.”

“Keep us limping towards the planet,” Hoshiko ordered.  “We don’t want them to think we’re
completely
crippled.”

She smiled, inwardly.  Her engineering crews had worked overtime to come up with a plausible disaster that would leave them locked out of FTL, but allow them to make their way towards the planet without help.  The message they’d recorded would acknowledge the problem, yet make it clear the freighter didn't need immediate help.  There should be no need for the Druavroks to dispatch a welcoming committee ... but if they were suspicious or merely paranoid, they probably would.  She’d just have to wait and see.

“Launch the long-range recon probes,” she ordered, after a moment.  “Send them out as planned.”

“Aye, Captain,” Howard said.

Hoshiko watched as he worked his console, then turned her attention back to the ever-swelling display.  It struck her, once again, just how long the Galactics had been in space ... and just how rapidly humanity had jumped ahead, once it had stolen technology from a race that didn't know how it worked, let alone how to use it.  Sol had considerably more industrial activity than the system before her and humanity had only
really
been in space for the last fifty years.

She shook her head in amused disbelief.  Malachi had, according to the records, only been settled for three hundred years.  There was little to like about the world, either; the Tokomak had considered it barely suitable for settlement and dropped a terraforming package on the surface before passing the job of turning the world into a habitable place to live.  The Druavroks were the majority population, so vastly outnumbering the other races that taking control of the surface couldn't have been particularly hard.  And yet, with three hundred years of settlement, she would have expected something more.

The Tokomak screwed the economy deliberately
, she reminded herself. 
They really didn't want their subjects taking control of their lives
.

Her eyes narrowed as new icons popped up on the display.  The system had three massive battlestations orbiting the planet, as well as a number of remote weapons platforms and automated defences, but there didn't seem to be many starships in residence. 
She
would have preferred at least a single squadron of heavy cruisers to give the defenders some mobile firepower, yet the largest ship her sensors could detect was a light cruiser that might only have been passing through.  There certainly didn't seem to be anything attached to the system bigger than a single squadron of destroyers.

They may well be concentrating their efforts on expanding their space as quickly as possible
, she thought. 
They may know it won’t take long before the other races start to unite against them
.