Confronting Sharon
20 Mar 2023Prochaska
On board the IcarusZoe had woken up in the morning. She rubbed her eyes and looked around the familiar surroundings of her cabin on the Icarus. She was in a sleeping bag, hanging loosely in the straps that secured her above the berth in zero gravity. The bulkhead of the Krait Mk II on her right side was fitted with loops and Velcro straps to which objects could be attached. Her WristCom hung there, and the steady blinking in the corner of her eye jolted her out of her slumber.
Not work again, she thought, and, breathing heavily, covered her eyes with her hand. Then she looked at the small display, and wrenched her eyes open as she read the name Valerii on the display as the sender.
Okay, now we're getting serious.
She called up the message, skimmed it, and shook her head in disbelief. Meeting place? the word circled aimlessly through her sleepy head.
She jerked herself out of her thoughts, opened the sleeping bag and pulled herself out of it. Then she grabbed a shirt and a pair of trousers at random from the compartment above the bunk, pushed herself off the wall with her feet and floated to the wash cubicle. Maybe the message would make more sense after she had showered and eaten something.
After that, Zoe found herself in the ship's small mess hall. She had deactivated her magboots and was floating freely in space, next to her the empty bag she had drunk her coffee from was still pirouetting around itself. She tied her still somewhat damp dreadlocks behind her head with a hair band and then skimmed Valerii's answer again. She wrote that she had some questions as well. Meeting place at Shibata's Forever base, planet AB 1F in LP 825-559, Zoe searched her mind for a connection to the name of the base, but only came to the conclusion that she could never have been there. Then she went over the events of the last few days in her head.
A few days ago, in the OSA premises on Shen Terminal, Guuguyni
Zoe entered the sterile, windowless conference room. The ceiling lights were glaring and the polished tables reflected the light. Zoe squinted against the glare, then strode to the front of the room. Inside was a large, U-shaped table, but only the two seats at the far end were in use. The remaining rows of chairs stood accurately aligned and empty. At the back she recognised Osbourne, and standing by him was a familiar-looking woman with her back turned to Zoe. Osbourne leaned forward, said something to the woman and nodded in Zoe's direction, whereupon the woman turned around. Then Zoe looked into the familiar face of Major Reedings.
Zoe stumbled for a moment. Reedings was here? In all her years of working for the organisation, Zoe had never seen two OSA units from different major powers working together for one action. Normally, the cooperation between the units was limited to the exchange of information.
"Ms. Prochaska," Osbourne greeted, "I'm sure you remember Ms. Reedings." He suppressed a grin with moderate success.
Reedings nodded over to Zoe. Her controlled expression was, as always, indecipherable.
"You've probably been following the news over the last few days?"
"If you're talking about the comms beacon in Ngaruayanka with the conversation transcript of Aden Tanner and Seo Jin-ae, or Subject D-2, that's where I was when the radio message inviting me to this very meeting reached me."
"Yes, this meeting is related to the messages that have surfaced. However, we are more concerned with the," he seemed to be searching for words for a while, "how shall I put it, reappearance of the individual called Salvation."
Reedings interrupted her colleague. "In that context, we have looked again closely at your reports on this Sharon Valerii. You have been observing the group around Ms. Valerii since about mid 3307. There was an incident, sometime in July 3307, in which Ms. Valerii died according to your report."
Zoe blinked involuntarily. Flashbacks. A hunt through the Guardian ruins on Planet 12 A in the IC 2391 Sector CA-A D43 system, on 17. July 3307. Sharon, running along the central path of the ancient ruins. The tense voice of Commander Gravlex sounding over the intercom: "She is heading for that SRV!" The fingers of Zoe's right hand tightened reflexively. Her plasma repeaters' red projectiles slamming into the Scarab's hull. Then, a thudding explosion. And again, as if in slow motion, she saw Sharon's body, which, caught by the blast wave, was thrown up and, finally, slammed motionless onto the ground. A grinding noise sounded as Zoe involuntarily clenched her teeth.
Reedings took two steps forward and fixed Zoe with her eyes. "And the same Ms. Valerii, according to your reports, suddenly reappeared in August 3307."
Zoe blinked. "That's right. I remember the incredulous amazement throughout the group when news of Sharon suddenly reached us all a few weeks later. Just thinking about what happened back then feels completely unreal to this very day. But Valerii was undoubtedly alive again, and still is today. And also then, a mysterious Guardian technology had been used in the resuscitation."
Reedings continued. "Obviously, this technology also later fell into Salvation's hands in some way. And if the testimony of Aden Tanner is to be believed, Azimuth Biotech was also successful in applying this technology. In stark contrast to their failure with the Proteus Wave device."
Osbourne stood diagonally behind Reedings and nodded to her comments. Now he stepped forward.
"Your task in this now is to find out more about this technology. Azimuth currently has a head start on us and we need to catch up as soon as possible. What is your latest status on the whereabouts of this technology?"
"My last information was that all copies of the blueprints for this Resurrection device were stolen during a commando raid against Batra Industrial Systems, a research base of the Utopians, on Planet C1 in the system HIP 1369 at the end of last year and subsequently completely destroyed on board the Resurrection Hub, Ms. Valerii's carrier. The action was carried out by the group around Valerii, but I was not present myself."
Reedings straightened up and crossed her arms. "And therefore your second mission is to get hold of this Ms. Valerii and deliver her to the ASU-620 Alcatraz-class Reformatory in Bulgarlmadi. She will then be received there by the people of our research department."
Zoe stepped one foot back. "Wouldn't it make more sense to try to get hold of this Nemesis device from Salvation directly?"
Reedings looked at her askance. "Your suggestions are appreciated. But rest assured, Ms. Prochaska, this is being worked on at full speed as we speak. You just concentrate entirely on this Valerii, and leave the rest to others."
There was a pause. Zoe bit her lips. Her eyes wandered aimlessly from Reedings to Osbourne and back again.
That was when the expression on Reedings face hardened. She took one heavy breath and then continued, "Remember, this Guardian technology may hold the key to understanding and using the network of old Guardian structures that were thought to be dead. Salvation has a decisive lead over us in this area, which we urgently need to catch up on. And Ms. Valerii is, as you yourself wrote in your reports at the time, a construct of the Guardians. Do we really need to waste any more of our valuable time here with superfluous explanations?" She did not need to add that this meeting was officially over. Back on the Icarus, Zoe composed a message to Sharon asking her to meet. She left Sharon free to choose the meeting place to lull her into a sense of security.
Present day, on the Icarus
Zoe was jolted out of her memories by the clicking sound of magboots in the corridor.
"Morning," Julie's voice sounded from the doorway, "are you really awake already?" Julie leaned sideways against the doorframe and looked over. Did something happen, Zoe amended in her head when she saw the look on Julie's face. In response, she nodded back to her.
"Hi. And yes, I am, though not of my own volition. Valerii's reply came and pulled me out of my sleep. She writes that she wants to meet somewhere."
"Valerii? Do you really want to meet her now? She used to work as a bounty hunter, didn't she? She's just unpredictable and dangerous."
"Thanks for the lecture, I know she's dangerous myself."
"And she had only threatened you with a gun for no reason at all the last time you met, hadn't she?"
Julie walked over to the drinks dispenser and selected the button for coffee. As the silver bag ran full she looked over at Zoe, her eyebrows drawn together.
"Are you really going to take that risk? What for, anyway?"
Zoe sighed and propped her head on her hands. "Do we really have to have this discussion again now? Back when you were kidnapped and I was shot on the bridge of the Copernicus, Reedings did everything she could to get us out of trouble too," she said.
"And in the process she took what personal risk exactly? Don't you actually realise you're being used and manipulated?"
Zoe looked down at the floor.
"Maybe you're right in a way. After all, I don't like this fucking assignment either." Then she raised her head again and looked Julie in the eye, "Let's not argue now, please. At least Reedings is right, this thing is of vital importance. Guardian technology, Guardian AI, all of that in the wrong hands, there's no way at all to imagine what could trigger this."
Julie took a sip of her coffee. Then she stood holding the bag with both hands. She looked firmly at Zoe.
"So you're really going to fly out to this meeting?"
Zoe hunched her shoulders. Julie sipped her coffee and swallowed audibly.
Two hours later, the Icarus stood on the landing pad of Shibata's Forever. Although according to the ship's clock it was just after 10 o'clock UTC, it was still deepest night here on the planet. Zoe had left the ship and was walking towards the illuminated buildings. At the edge of the landing pad, she turned and waved to Julie, who was sitting in the cockpit of the Icarus. Julie gave a quick mechanical wave back and fired up the engines for take-off. As Zoe turned away and walked towards the bar, the Icarus took off behind her.
This storyline picks up some threads from the past. If you have questions after reading this story, here you might find some of the answers:
What is the OSA
The story of Sharon's death in 3307, or, as a video recording (at 1:28, near the end)
And, finally, who is Julie