The Empress Capsule (Audacity Saga Book 1), page 1
The Empress Capsule
Audacity Saga: Book 1
R. K. Thorne
Iron Antler Books
Copyright © 2018 by R. K. Thorne
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Edited by Elizabeth Nover, Razor Sharp Editing
Cover art by Julie Dillon
Cover design by R.K. Thorne
Created with Vellum
For my husband, for all the games, coffee, laughter, and support.
You’re over 9000!
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Afterword
Also by R. K. Thorne
About the Author
Chapter One
“Well, they’re not supposed to be here.” Ellen narrowed her eyes at the unexpectedly large number of green, yellow, and red splotches lumbering slowly across her helmet display. This lab was tucked away on a volcanic backwater, the middle of galactic nowhere. There shouldn’t be this much resistance. Damn Enhancers. Whatever their scientists were up to in this lab, it couldn’t be good.
Fortunately, she was here to put an end to it. Whatever it was. And she’d be doing so… any minute now.
“Surprises ain’t your favorite, Commander?” Nova said between cracks of gum. The comm mercifully cut out the chewing sounds. Crouched to Ellen’s left, Nova was assembling a grenade launcher with far too much zest. Woman lived for an excuse to use that thing, even if it was only to launch knockout grenades a dozen feet through what appeared to be nothing but cloudy glass.
They weren’t taking any chances with underpowered munitions.
The two of them were hunkered down on one side of a T-shaped intersection, Zhia on the other. These corners offered the last cover between Ellen’s team and their objective—the Enhancer lab.
“Something’s gotta keep me sharp in my retirement, eh?” Ellen murmured. Nova snickered, and Zhia shook her helmeted head, muffled laughter drifting over the comm. At twenty-two, Ellen wasn’t your typical retiree. And the Union hadn’t exactly released her willingly from its service.
Technicalities.
Ellen swiveled to her other knee and gave the hallway behind them a visual check. Even with the unexpected hostiles, this shouldn’t be hard: a dozen dark feet, a few doors on either side, a shielded metal door. This wasn’t exactly the interplanetary defense Ellen had been trained for. But things could go sideways on the simplest missions, as she was always trying to get through Nova’s stubborn skull. The door’s lockpad flashed red, indicating Adan had finished cracking it. Good. The high-tech fogged window hid whatever tortures were being perpetrated inside.
Twisting back behind cover, she tried again to count the number of hostiles on the thermal readout. Five, six? Eight? Damn drecks needed to stop moving.
Big, heavily armored—her armor readout suggested they were Theroki. Sounded about right. The Theroki were an all-human, all-male “mercenary” outfit that could just as accurately be described as pirates or organized crime. And they were the Enhancers’ favored security vendor.
Two crouched like stone gargoyles just inside the doorway. Others paced inconveniently inside. Maybe seven? If only the drecks would stand still.
“You seeing this, Zhia?” Ellen said. Their armor trapped the sound of their voices, so no one outside their encrypted channel could hear. That is, of course, unless they ran into a hacker far better than Simmons and his custom security protocols. But in that case, they’d have bigger problems. Like their armor cooking them alive.
“Yep, I see it,” Zhia answered. Her second-in-command waited on one knee on the other side of the intersection, her rifle at the ready. Over Zhia’s shoulder, drones hovered, as still and silent as possible now that Adan’s work was complete. Cool as a damned cucumber over there. “Regular old snafu. Think they know where we are?” Their dynacamo should hide them, but it didn’t block every type of scan. They still left a trace thermal signature.
A thunderous wave of telekinetic energy rippled toward them through the concrete floor of the hallway. Floor and ceiling groaned, splitting concrete rumbling in beats as regular as mortar fire. Glass shattered in waves.
Ellen threw her hands over her neck, a futile but instinctive move. Frag, she hated when she did that. Her armor braced itself heroically as the force ripped through them, but she still stumbled forward onto one knee like she’d been shoved.
“Guess that answers that question,” Zhia grumbled.
Sand streamed from the battered ceiling of the bunker as the first telekinetic wave petered out. Silence fell.
The next attack would come soon, so Ellen stole another glance around the corner. Just cracked cement and splintered glass—no Theroki yet. “You almost loaded, Nova? I think this lab is in dire need of a shutdown.”
“Nearly,” Nova said. Two loud gum chews escaped before the comm cut off.
“You’d think by the twenty-third century we’d have grenade launchers that assembled themselves,” Zhia said.
“Oh, they do. I don’t trust ’em,” Nova replied.
“You mean I’m sitting here waiting when we could be busting—”
“Think they’re excited to get their asses handed to them by a bunch of girls?” Ellen cut in. She didn’t need the two of them distracting each other arguing tech right now. And as weapons specialist, Nova’s kit was Nova’s call.
“Doubtful,” said Zhia. “They may have caught our sigs, but it ain’t like we’re wearin’ perfume and high heels.”
“You wish,” Ellen shot back.
“Says the girl who can’t walk in high heels to save her life. And who you callin’ a girl, jagiya? Nobody respectable’s called me a girl in weeks. There was that one lovely boy back on Tarkos…”
And that story was a road Ellen didn’t want to go down. “I’ll learn heels someday, okay?”
“Do you even own any?”
“Keep your eyes on the prize, grama,” Ellen said, grinning to herself as Zhia’s flurry of Russian curses came back at her. “C’mon, hurry it up, Nova.”
Ellen leaned against the wall, trying to relax her tense muscles. As soon as they neutralized the Theroki, the three of them would bust that lab apart. Ellen dreaded that moment most on these missions. The violence committed inside the labs was always so much worse than what the troops dished out around them. Soldiers—in general—tended to fight with some degree of honor, within international law. An outfit that stole and slaughtered with the frequency of the Theroki could hardly be called honorable, and she didn’t know their stance on torture, but they did tend to prefer straightforward action and brute force to biochem or rad attacks at least.
If as many scientists would stay within their own ethical codes, Ellen wouldn’t have a job.
But she did have a job. And she would do it.
Might not be pleasant, but it was a hell of a lot worse for the scientists’ victims. She was the lucky one in this scenario, telekinetic waves shoving her around or not.
That had not always been the case.
“Shoulda brought more knockout grenades,” said Zhia. “What if your ancient launcher misses?”
“Shoulda woulda coulda,” Nova said. “Or a harpoon!” She raised the launcher to her shoulder and started punching in launch instructions to bust through certain fortifications and neutralize against others.
Sometimes non-lethal tech seemed like more trouble than it was worth. It’d be so much easier to just nuke this lab to dust-covered rubble.
“You’re nigh on archaic at times, Sergeant,” Zhia said.
“You’re the one who just said ‘nigh,’ ” Ellen pointed out.
“You don’t find my whale reference clever?” By the sound of her voice, Ellen could tell Nova was grinning. “Damn, I’m so disappointed.”
Zhia laughed. “Leave the poetry to me, jagiya.”
“Whatever you say, vieja,” Nova shot back.
“You’re just jealous of my vast experience.”
Nova ignored her. “All right. Ready on your mark, Commander.”
“I expect great things from this weapon,” Ellen said. On the display, one Theroki was squaring up with the door, getting ready for the next attack.
“Stella won’t let you down,” Nova replied.
Ellen snorted and hoped that didn’t carry over the comm. “Next wave incoming. One should be in view. Launch over his shoulder while the door is open if you can.”
“If the ceiling doesn’t collapse on us first,” Zhia muttered.
“Keeping the requests conservative today, are you?” Nova scooted around her, Ellen shuffling to the left to switch places.
Ellen grinned, although no one could see her behind the silver-blue sheen of her visor. She preferred it that way; she kept her grins to herself. “Hey, if I don’t push you, who will, Sergeant?”
Up the hall, a sudden raw rumble gave Nova her cu
The thunder ripped past them and through them, more focused on shaking the walls this time. It knocked Ellen off-balance again, and she eyed the sand sifting through the ceiling cracks overhead. Looked like it was going to hold for at least one more wave. Maybe. Hopefully that was all the time her team needed. Ellen realized her hands were shielding her head once again and yanked them to her sides.
The crack of the knockout grenade unleashing its psychic damage ripped through the air and across her helmet display.
Thuds. Silence followed. More sand sifted down, and her armor dutifully reported its status, scrolling through the environmental indicators at breakneck speed, fast as the armor would let her set it.
The drones whizzed past to confirm the damage.
“Looks like we’re good,” Zhia said a moment later, clicking her tablet with its additional modes and higher detail back into her chest armor. “Thermal, infrared, and rad readings show no movement. Drones concur on visual check.”
There was always a risk of soldiers with scrambling, knockout-proof armor or dynacamo. Armor like the three of them were wearing. But since each suit cost nearly as much as an apartment on Capital, Ellen doubted it. Theroki were expensive mercenaries, and the lab had had a lot of them, so they were probably the only security that had been hired. They might have all the funds in the world, but thank the Lord the Theroki were as yet too bull-headed to upgrade their armor against knockout attacks. They favored armor that showed off the scars of battle—a.k.a. shit that was viciously disfigured, hideously bloodied, and in some cases very old.
There were no scars on armor you upgraded every six months to keep up with the latest tech. Where was the fun in that?
Of course, they were all flat on their asses, so who was having fun now?
“All right,” Ellen barked. “Let’s get this done.”
They rounded the corner one at a time, Ellen last, and made their way up the hall with multis at the ready. The grenade hadn’t cleared the Theroki’s shoulder, but it had blown through the uncracked fogged barrier. Not glass, maybe petroglic. A grenade-sized hole showed the still lab beyond and the glimpse of a deflated, greenish artificial uterus that had probably been two meters high. The cracked concrete beneath their boots made their approach loud, in spite of the sound-softening boot tech. Damn Theroki. For chaotic, raging maniacs with out-of-date tech, they were still quite effective at gumming up the works.
Zhia flicked a finger at the lockpad, and the door slid aside. Thank you, Adan.
On seeing the interior, though, Ellen’s heart dropped. They were too late.
The first third of the room, the office, contained little beyond a single holodisplay, empty steel counters, and one toppled beaker. The back two-thirds was a dripping, liquidy mess. A row of a dozen artificial wombs had collapsed, leaking fluid all over the floor on the right. Locked cells on the left stood empty. Oozing, cracked tube units along the back were still lit in various shades of green and blue, their flush cycles well underway.
“They were on their way out of here,” Zhia muttered. “Shit. All that for nothing.”
Nova stood over an unconscious Theroki and nudged him with her boot. “That’s more than I thought were in here. Think we should just leave them, or are we calling for backup?”
Ellen shook her head. Six Theroki in the end. In their armor, they’d weigh tons. Literally. And she didn’t want to imprison six Therokis anyway. These boys were hired hands, famous for their neutrality. Of course, their complete disregard for law and order wasn’t exactly neutral and made them plenty of enemies. But if Ellen offered a higher price, they’d switch sides in a blink, unless their oath programming had been engaged. “Leave ’em. Who knows if they even knew what they were hired for? Any scientists?”
“One. Here,” said Zhia. “Checking him already, don’t worry, Elle.”
Ellen held her breath. It’s not going to be her, she told herself. Arakovic was a Union woman. This Enhancer scientist was clearly a man. The chances that her old enemy were here were impossibly low. But Arakovic had nearly fried Ellen, plugging her into fifty of her troops’ brains without getting anyone’s thoughts on the matter or permission, leaving Ellen’s mind a scrambled mess for three and a half years. And that cruel woman was still out there, doing it to someone else now, somewhere else.
And she would keep on doing it until Ellen found her—and stopped her.
But unless the doctor had gone to some pretty extreme lengths to hide her identity by altering both race and gender, it couldn’t be her. This man looked Chinese or Korean like Ellen, almost certainly from the PAS at some point or another.
And besides, what reason did Arakovic have to hide? She didn’t know Ellen was hunting her.
At least, not yet.
“Big fat nope.” Zhia made a disgusted noise as she straightened.
“Damn.” Ellen let out a breath, irrationally disappointed. One day.
“Sorry, jagiya. Shall I scramble him?”
“Yeah. Hit the network, and let’s get out of here.”
They’d done this before a hundred times, maybe a thousand, so each of them got to work quickly—Zhia hooking the drones into the holodesk, Nova administering a shot to the scientist’s neck, Ellen keeping her rifle at ready. She was a little high-ranking for guard duty—or ground missions, for that matter—but she was the best shot among them and probably always would be. The Union hadn’t taken her to UCS at age five only because they were desperate for some genius to save them from their stupid war.
And how had that turned out? New decade, new war. Same old shit.
A seventh Theroki was out cold toward the back. A hallway led to a single storm door leading to the surface, and scans showed her no more troops up top. That’d be their way out.
Satisfied all nearby forces had been stunned by the grenade, she took a moment to peer at the fallen scientist, feeling a bit more pity than usual. Bastard deserved it, she reminded herself. There weren’t many moral reasons for an underground Enhancer bunker to be filled with wombs and tube units, let alone cells with locks that were very, very far from patient-care units. This was not a man of nobility or morals, she reminded herself. She trusted their intel. Even if they hadn’t known about the Therokis, she knew Simmons was not rash about choosing where to strike. As if to make his presence felt in the room, one of the drones clicked and whirred as it left the terminal and the other drone took over.
Still, getting your memories scrambled seemed like an awful fate. Better than killing him, she assured herself, more humane. He’d remember his family, and due to their carefully designed brain virus, he’d have a very, very hard time continuing the heinous work he’d done here. Or any kind of scientific or mathematical work whatsoever. He might be able to calculate a tip.
“Should we scramble the Therokis too?” Nova asked. “I don’t know if I want to risk waking them to retract their helmets.”
“No,” Ellen told her. “Search the scientist and make sure he’s not holding anything important. Take their rifles. Well, just the better ones, don’t bother if it’s nearly broken. Check around for any physical records of their research. How are we coming on those networks?”
“Simmons signed off, Adan is in—we’re installing nukes.” Nukes were their fond nickname for the programs the Foundation used to obliterate enemy data nets. Ellen hardly understood everything they did, but she did know they ferreted back newly acquired research to the Foundation, while happily obliterating it from the computer system it had started on. The program was quite sneaky about it too, locating other programs that would flag a high volume of outpouring data, temporarily squirreling away the data in obscure locations, sneaking it out slowly over time if need be. Like any good soldier trying to evade and escape in enemy territory.
“Done,” Zhia announced. “Ready?”
“Got some gear, a couple notebooks, Commander.” Nova held up a half dozen tablets in one hand as she slugged a silver-trimmed Enhancer pack over her shoulder. “But most of their shit is gone.”
