FATAL DEPTHS

FREE WORLDS™ BOOK TWO

KEVIN MCLAUGHLIN

MICHAEL ANDERLE

This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

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A Michael Anderle Production

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Version 1.00, February 2023

eBook ISBN: 979-8-88541-837-9

Print ISBN: 979-8-88878-183-8

THE FATAL DEPTHS TEAM

Thanks to our JIT Readers

Dorothy Lloyd

Peter Manis

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Editor

The SkyFyre Editing Team

CHAPTER ONE

After four long weeks aboard the Cosmos, they could finally see the Zhemchug. They had watched its approach for ten months via telescopes. Now, it was visible to the naked eye.

“It’s prickly,” Good commented.

“I don’t like prickly,” Athanas griped.

“Prickly is bad?” Haley Lopez asked. She’d requested to accompany the security team, and Dane had no good reason to deny her. Though thinking of what would happen to her if the Russian ship fired on them was unpleasant.

“Prickly means it can communicate better than us and probably fight better, too,” Dane said.

“We can fight, sir. Three missiles in the racks and both gunners are locked and loaded in the mounted turrets.” Winters wiped his brow before any of the sweat floated away. “We can blow this ship to bits. If it activates, we might not be able to do that.”

“We’re not going to make a preemptive strike. Adams was clear on that.”

“We’re being hailed, sir,” the pilot of the Cosmos said. Darrin Thomson was the only person on the bridge not exuding nervousness. Dane reckoned that was because the kid liked piloting the Cosmos, no matter the situation.

“Everyone, stay calm. It’s only Dmitry. Send the call to my tablet.” Dane sank into the captain’s chair, made sure the tablet camera was off, and accepted the call.

“Dmitry. You are doing fine?” Dane asked in Russian. It had been difficult dealing with the only conscious Russian aboard the Zhemchug, but in less than an hour, it would all be worth it.

“Fine, fine! Ready to meet you all and get off this ship! Go for a swim!” Dmitry replied in Russian. “There is food down there? Salted fish?”

“Yes, yes. More fish than you can believe, Dmitry. Your crew will be pleased.”

“You are certain I should not start the reawakening procedure?” Dmitry asked. As the Zhemchug drew closer, Dmitry became more concerned with protocol. Dane only had to string him along a bit longer. The screen readout showed they’d be docked in less than ten minutes.

“You are still outside the range, correct? You said your computer would start at one week from planet. We are two weeks away.”

“Yes, that is true, but we did not expect an escort. Captain Petrov might not be happy to find protocol has changed—”

“Captain Petrov will be even less happy that you did not put yourself back to sleep and awaken the next person. Do you wish him to have an extra week to think about his displeasure?”

“Of course not! Yet with the Americans in the base, he will wish—”

“I have told you not to speak of the Americans. They are listening from the base they stole. They are always listening. Now, when we last spoke, you were telling me of the World Cup. Did the Russian goalkeeper stop all of Brazil’s goals?”

“Oh, yes, Dominik. It was most impressive. In the second half, well, things were no longer so easy…”

Dmitry was lonely, and Dane and Winters had played that to their advantage. As soon as the Zhemchug had come within range of their communication devices, the Russian had called out to them. Dane had answered in Russian and had been playing the cosmonaut since. They knew it would be impossible to hide that they’d taken over the underwater base, so they didn’t try. Instead, they claimed to have stolen the Cosmos from the Alliance of Democratic Nations and sold the lie with access codes taken from the base logs.

Between his loneliness and guilt over breaking his orders and staying awake, Dmitry had believed them.

“So you see, because they don’t have a history of honor like Russia does, the Brazilians used a cheap foul to score a goal. I am not saying that they bribed the ref, only that the Russian official said the ref would not take his bribes. Suspicious, yes?”

“Very much, yes. We are matching speed and angle of rotation, Dmitry. Your ship knows we are comrades even though this ship was made by the ADN, yes?”

“Of course. If the Zhemchug did not trust your ship, your crew would already be breathing nothing but the vacuum of space. Oh, sorry!”

“What was that, Dmitry?”

“Nothing! Nothing at all. Only a…a warning! To anyone listening. Right, Dominik?”

“What are the defensive capabilities of the Zhemchug?” Telling Dmitry that the Americans were listening had been a useful way of limiting conversation and keeping the ruse alive. However, an obvious disadvantage had become clear. The cosmonaut did not want to risk the enemy learning about the weapons aboard the ship, so he told them nothing.

“Your accent, Dominik. Where did you say you were from?”

Dane cursed under his breath. In his haste, he’d let his accent slip. “We have been dealing with the Americans. I have been working on sounding like them.”

Dmitry said nothing.

“It’s not too late,” Winters whispered. “At this range, dual 50-caliber machine guns can hobble that ship. The gunners are already locked on its maneuvering thrusters and have a few potential weapons on their Heads-Up Displays as well. It’ll be quick.”

Dane saw the value of such a move. The Russian vessel looked far more advanced than the Cosmos. It had left Earth later than they had and traveled faster. Considering Dmitry knew about both the Cosmos and the Russian underwater base, it must have left decades later. Yet it had made that time up crossing the twelve light years between Earth and the water world Governor Adams had named Varuna, after an Earth goddess of the sky and ocean.

If the Zhemchug had offensive or defensive capabilities, they were likely decades ahead of their own. That also meant hobbling the ship was less than ideal.

Currently, they had the Cosmos and two shuttles. Taking control of a faster, newer, and more powerful ship was too tempting. Hence the gambit with Dmitry.

“It’s not so bad,” Dmitry finally announced in an American accent. Dane had never been so relieved to hear John Wayne in his life.

He addressed Winters. “We stay the course. Dmitry is the only person outside a sleeping pod. If we can subdue him without raising the alarm, our access codes should put us in command.”

Winters grimaced but nodded. “Damn Russians didn’t think we could stop their big ship, considering it left with more advanced tech than ours.”

“Exactly, and we’re going to use that to our advantage. If we can make this work, we’ll maintain control of the entire system without spilling any blood. That’s worth the risk.”

“Sure. Fine,” Winters grumbled. Dane didn’t have time to wonder what the XO was nervous about. He hoped that leaving him in charge of the Cosmos was the right call.

“Dmitry, we have matched velocity. We are extending a docking tube. Make sure the Zhemchug will accept it.”

“No problem. I am by the airlock. I have entered the manual override already.”

That was as good as they’d get.

“Athanas, get your squad ready to go. Good, you’ll go first with Finch, Joe and me. Stark, Darrin, hold down security here with Winters until we’re back.”

Everyone saluted and made for the airlock. Standard protocol was to wait for the tube to magnetically attach to the other vessel before entering it, but they couldn’t risk the time that would take.

Which meant Dane, Good, and two more brave souls stepped into an airlock and watched from inside as the tube extended toward the other ship. As the mouth of the tube traveled farther away, the blackness of space with its stars like gems on velvet dwindled. The Zhemchug was not actually growing any bigger, but because it filled up more of the tube’s receding mouth, it appeared to take up more space.

Mentally, it did loom larger. The last ten months had been relatively calm. There was no saying how everything would change once they entered the Russian vessel, only that everything would.

“Here we go. Remember to make micro-adjustments. If you feel like your line is off, you should have adjusted ten seconds ago.”

“Yes, sir,” the three security personnel replied.

Dane nodded, appraised the Zhemchug once more, then kicked off into space.

The tube around him did not make the feeling of freefall any more comfortable. If a foot snagged and he hit the wrong button on his suit, he could crash through the tube and tumble out into space. They would try to rescue him, but the presence of the Zhemchug would complicate that.

Dane’s jump had been well-aimed. He only made a few micro-adjustments before he and the tube opening reached the Zhemchug’s airlock at almost the same time.

Dane rolled clear of the window. There was a decent chance Dmitry had seen the men in the tube, which could be a red flag of sorts. If he was seen up close, it would be obvious he was wearing the wrong space suit. He looked back up the tube and saw Good in the lead. The pair of drones connected to Good’s back automatically adjusted his course, so he flew through the tube as effortlessly as a superhero.

Finch and Joe didn’t look as graceful, but they weren’t crashing into the walls either. This could work.

“Seal is good, Dominik. Opening airlock to fill tube with atmosphere.”

“Affirmative,” Dane replied, then sent a command for Winters to open their airlock as well so the pressure wouldn’t blow Dane and his people backward.

This was it. The moment they had been working toward for months. Either Dmitry believed them and would let them in, or he did not and would leave them in the cold of space while he blew the Cosmos into scrap. Suddenly, the sixteen security people and the few dozen engineers Dane had brought seemed like a massive risk of life.

The airlock hissed open. Air rushed past Dane, even with the Cosmos equalizing, but not enough to slow him down. He yanked himself inside the Zhemchug.

“Dominik?” Dmitry pleaded, realizing his mistake too late.

Dane crashed into him, and they both hit a wall.

“What have you done with Dominik?” Dmitry wailed. He tried to reach for his ear, perhaps to give a signal or command, but Dane didn’t let him. He wrapped his arms around the skinny Russian and squeezed until Finch reached them and helped zip-tie his wrists together and to his waist.

“I am not fighting back! I go willingly! Please, don’t hurt my friend Dominik!”

“Dominik’s fine, Dmitry,” Dane told him in Russian.

The cosmonaut’s eyes went wide with realization, and he spat on Dane’s faceplate.

CHAPTER TWO

Finch took Dmitry to the Cosmos while Athanas and her three security people crossed over to join Dane, Good, and Joe.

Dane fumbled his way through the Russian command console. He had practiced this hundreds of times over the last ten months using the underwater base consoles, but there was no way of knowing if the systems were similar. He accessed the security cameras on the ship and found that it was indeed watching them. Finch had returned, and the ship’s computer had marked all eight of them in yellow. Dane entered a command, held his breath, and released it when the outlines switched to green.

“Let’s go. We’re marked as friendlies in the computer. No way of knowing how long that will last.”

He brought up a schematic, memorized the way to the bridge, and led them off. He had no idea if the ship’s computer had built-in defenses or would wake people to defend it. The ADN had been adamant about never giving a computer algorithm the power to take a life. Thus, the Cosmos had no automated defensive capabilities. Dane doubted the Russians shared this particular ethic.

They floated through the first hall. Tactical movement was tricky in zero gravity. Their carbines had superior accuracy when used with two hands, but hands were more useful than feet at grabbing the handles in the halls to move them forward. There was no way around this simple truth of anatomy, which meant their teamwork had to be impeccable.

Dane reached a doorway and rotated, planting his feet on either side to avoid entering a new room. He guarded the door as his team approached. Once they’d all stopped their free fall through the Zhemchug, Dane proceeded into the next room.

He had seen the schematic, so he should have been better prepared for what greeted him inside. Rows upon rows of sleeping pods were stacked from the floor to a ceiling lost high above them.

“What are they planning to do with all these people?” Athanas whispered.

“Best-case scenario is they’re all colonists.” Dane didn’t believe his own words, but he wouldn’t say the worst case aloud. War was not something to be spoken of unless absolutely necessary.

“Gotta love that Russian engineering, though.” Joe chuckled.

Dane understood what he meant. On the Cosmos, all the sleeping pods had been mounted to floors. That way, when a colonist was awakened under acceleration, it would feel like there was gravity. It was a small thing, but Dane had been thankful to rest on the side of his pod when he’d awakened. Coming out of a dream that lasted more than a century was not easy.

Dane did not think the Russians spending less time asleep would make their transition into micro-gravity any easier. Their pods were stacked vertically, so when they awoke, they would have to float to their station or quarters.

Really, the fact that they were in zero gravity was an indication of how much more advanced this ship was than the Cosmos. The Cosmos had still been decelerating at this point, which meant it still had the feeling of gravity. This ship was already coasting in. The crew waking up and floating around might have seemed a small inconvenience compared to the greater speeds.

“Bridge is at the top. Stick by the walls and try not to touch the pods. We should assume this ship’s computer is more advanced than ours. If I were to set an alarm, I’d key it to those pods.”

Everyone agreed. The eight of them crouched against the floor with the help of their magnetic boots, then turned off the magnets and launched toward the ceiling.

The jump only felt like a jump for about two meters. That was well beyond when the familiar tug of gravity should have kicked in, but the brain seemed more than willing to assume one’s body had acquired superpowers. After two meters, even the most imaginative of minds tried to put on the brakes. Dane had trained for this, so when his stomach flipped, he clenched his core and kept flying.

Up and up he went past rows of Russians still in slumber. It was hard to get a sense of how many people were aboard. The Cosmos had housed more than six hundred, but they had been spread out. There couldn’t be that many people in this one room. Yet it was so big that Dane felt completely overwhelmed, like they were being invaded by sleeping Russians.

Before he reached the ceiling of the cavernous room, Dane reoriented himself to feel he was falling down. His feet touched the ceiling, and the magnets of his suit clicked on. Obviously, one was supposed to navigate the room like this. The door frame was built upside-down compared to the surface he’d jumped from. Dane cleared the landing spot, keeping his HUD scanning and his hands on his gun as the rest of his team attached to the ceiling.

Once in position, they proceeded down the hall.

“The bridge should be right…here.” Dane frowned. The schematic had not shown the heavy, reinforced door between the central sleeping chamber and the bridge.

Dane tried an access code. He pressed enter, and a light on the door flashed green.

“We’re in!” He stepped forward and slammed his helmet into the still-shut door.

“Uh, sir?” Good asked.

“Still locked.” He was more embarrassed than hurt. He glanced at the access pad and deciphered the Russian. “Personal access code?” he muttered. He looked through his records stolen from the Russians, found a code from a high-ranking official, and put that in. The screen blinked red, and the number two appeared.

“You think it needs to be someone from this ship?” Good asked.

“Sounds likely. I’m going to call Winters and ask him to get Dmitry here. In the meantime, Good, send one of those drones out and see if you can find another way in.”

“You got it, sir.” Good tapped his wrist controls. One of the two drones on his back disconnected and flew back the way they’d come, zipping into the gloom. Dane didn’t know the full story of this current iteration of Good’s drones. He only knew they had reaction mass thrusters to fly in the void of space, plus spinning propellers to navigate environments with air like this one.

Dane connected to Winters on his comms. “Winters, we need Dmitry. Can you…”

He didn’t bother finishing his question. He could hear Dmitry in the background, screaming his lungs out in Russian. “Is that Dominik? That lying bastard. You tell him the Russians weren’t even in the World Cup! It was all a lie! Just like him! But unlike him, my lies were supposed to help people.”

“Get a gag on him,” Winters barked. There was the sound of a scuffle, then Dmitry was quiet. “If he doesn’t shape up, throw him in a sleeping pod.”

“It’s not healthy to put people back into those things after coming out so soon,” Dane remarked.

“A chance is better than he deserves. It’s better than a lot of people got on Earth. What’s the problem?”

“We can’t get through a door without an access code. I was going to ask Dmitry, but he’d probably give us a fake code that would activate whatever precautions they have in place.”

“Safe bet with these animals,” Winters expressed.

“Do you have any solutions for me? I’m worried about trying to put our computer against theirs. Still not sure on the age of this ship, but it seems way newer than ours.”

“Sounds like a job for a cutting torch,” Lopez suggested.

Dane hesitated, but no other ideas came to mind. “All right. I’m sending two security people back to help you with the gear. Come on over, Lopez. They’ll meet you on your side of the tube. We’ll be waiting.”

Six long minutes later, Lopez arrived with her cutting torch in hand and took a minute to assess the door. She rapped on it with her knuckles, listened to the sound, then pressed a hand against it.

“Well?”

“I think I can get through it, but it’s going to take a while. It’s heavily armored. Are you sure this is the best option?”

Dane was not sure. He called Winters again, only to discover that Dmitry had escaped his bonds and was once more profanely cursing Dane’s fake name in Russian.

“Yeah, this is our best bet,” he decided. “The access codes have worked thus far. If Good finds another way in, we’ll take that, but it seems like the doors are on a different passcode system.”

“All right, then. Here goes nothing.”

It turned out to be a lot more than that.

The second Lopez’s torch touched the door, a klaxon blared, and red lights flashed.

Lopez jumped, nearly causing herself to float away. The security team grabbed their weapons.

“What do we do now?” Lopez asked.

“You keep cutting. The rest of us will hold off whatever’s coming while you work.”

“No rush, then.”

CHAPTER THREE

“What the hell is that saying?” Athanas yelled over the klaxons. An angry Russian woman’s voice was now part of the alarm system.

“Burning the, uh, door will result in, er, lethal force.” Dane got through it the second time.

“Wow, a total surprise, then.” Lopez grunted while she continued to cut through the door. There were five locking bars across it. She had severed only one.

“Must have thermal sensors built in,” Good suggested.

“They must. Any news on another pathway?”

“I think I might have something, sir. If you’ll take a look here—”

No sooner did he show Dane the video on his tablet than the feed went dead.

“What the hell was that?” Good shouted at the screen.

“I think it was what’s coming our way.”

“Rewind the clip so we can see it.”

“Sir. Don’t think there’s a need for that!” Finch yelled and gestured down a hall to their left.

Two things Dane could only describe as robot dogs came around the corner. They clacked along on magnetic feet, bouncing almost happily. Then guns on small arms raised from each of their backs and fired.

“Open fire!” Dane ordered. They couldn’t fall back with Lopez working on the door. They had trained for this, though. The first thing everyone did was switch the wall or floor they were standing on. That disoriented the robot dogs, and Dane took his shot. He peppered one with the plastic rounds they had brought on the ship. For a moment, he was worried he’d misjudged the Russians and they’d built their robots of stronger stuff, but one of his bullets penetrated an essential component and fried the mechanized dog.

“Shit!” Finch shouted as he pushed from the wall. Droplets of blood traced the path of his arm. Athanas grabbed him and got him against another wall.

“How are we doing, Lopez?” Dane called between gunshots. The remaining robot dog had evasive maneuvers of its own. It could effortlessly jump from one wall to the ceiling or back to the floor. It moved strangely and had no need to bunch its muscles, making it hard to anticipate.

“Two down, three to go!” Lopez informed him.

The robot drew closer, dodging shots as it bounced from floor to ceiling and back again. Dane realized it was coming for Lopez. The ship must have marked her as the primary target. If he wasn’t terrified, Dane would have been impressed with the system.

It got into position, aimed at Lopez. Fired.

Right into Dane’s chest.

He crashed into Lopez, who had the wherewithal to throw an elbow out. She hit his ribs but spared him from the cutting torch.

“Are you all right?” she asked as Dane crashed into a wall and floated off, clutching his chest. He was wearing armor, so the robot’s bullet had not broken through. It had not felt great, either.

Fortunately, he heard no more gunshots as he righted himself. He stuck his magnetic boots to a wall and found his team had neutralized the robot.

“All right, then.” Dane rubbed his chest and moved from one wall to the floor. “If that’s all they got, it’s not so bad.”

“That’s not all they got, sir.” Good showed Dane the last thing his drone had caught on video before it was destroyed.

There were at least six more of the robot dogs, and it sounded like they were coming their way.

CHAPTER FOUR

The chest shot had placed Dane behind the rest of his team, which left him directly in the path of the dogs when they came down the hallway Good’s drone had scouted.

He jumped backward, tucked his legs, and somersaulted toward the ceiling.

“Evasive maneuvers!” Dane shouted as he careened past his people.

The team obeyed and moved from one wall to another. Everyone except Joe, whose magnetic boots disengaged at the exact wrong moment and left the man floating, unable to push off anything.

The robot dogs focused their fire on him. The armor on his chest protected him from the first few rounds, but it wasn’t enough to save his life. Bullets tore through his arms and legs, then found the gap between his chest and bulletproof faceplate. He floated back from the force of the shots.

“Return fire!” Dane bellowed, hating himself for using his fallen soldier as a shield. Unfortunately, there was no other cover in this damn hallway.

His people fired and dodged as best they could. Oddly, the increased number of robot dogs gave them an advantage. The pair of robots had been difficult to shoot because their movements were erratic. These six moved in concert to avoid crashing into each other.

Athanas anticipated where one would land and shredded it to scrap before it could readjust.

Its body got in the way of another, and Finch took that one down, screaming as he fired.

“Good, send out your drone as a distraction.”

Good loved his toys, but the soldier did not hesitate to follow orders. He launched his drone, and all the dogs targeted it.

“I’m marking a robot on your HUDs. Everyone, same target. Let’s remove them one at a time.”

The drone distraction allowed Dane and his people to take out another robot.

“Three down!” Lopez shouted though she meant how many bars she’d cut through.

“Athanas, we’ll push forward, shove the drone at them and get clear. Everyone else, move in.”

“Yes, sir!”

Dane and Athanas kicked off. They hit the drone at the same time. Their combined momentum sent it toward the dogs, which surely would have barked if they could have. Instead, they targeted it with their weapons and blasted away as the rest of the security team got into position beneath Dane and Athanas.

They all opened fire and didn’t stop until Dane ordered them to.

When they ceased, the fight was over, and the robot dogs were dead.

“Any injured?” Dane asked.

“I got hit in the arm, sir,” Finch whimpered, clutching his arm tightly.

“Grazed a rib, sir.” Athanas’ teeth were clenched, the only indication she was in any pain.

“I want those suits patched,” Dane grunted. “If they take out the air, we’ll be toast.” He clicked his metal boots to the ground and pulled himself down by Lopez.

“Almost done! Just one more oh my God, your chest!”

“I’m all right.” Dane poked at his torso. “I think I bruised some ribs, but not so bad.”

Lopez looked at Joe’s floating, lifeless body. The robot dogs had made a real mess of him.

“Get us through, or he died for nothing,” Dane pointed out.

Lopez wasn’t military, so she paled at that but nodded and got back to cutting. A moment later, she broke the fifth bar, and they were in.

The klaxons were the only sound on the bridge. There were no people, no robots, nothing except an incongruously floating magazine. Dmitry’s, no doubt.

“Sir, I’m hearing more moving our way!” Good announced.

Dane rushed to a console, took a deep breath, and entered the command codes.

“Commander, acknowledged. Extinguish remaining intruders?”

“No! I mean, nyet.” Dane punched in more commands and brought up the security feed. It showed his people marked in red. It apparently had watched him enter codes and therefore did not see him as a threat. Interesting, but what to do about the others?

“Everyone, out in the hall!” Dane shouted as he had an idea he hoped would work.

“That’s where the robots are going to be,” Finch argued.

“I understand that, soldier, but right now, I need you to obey orders. Everyone go into the hallway and strip your space suits, helmets and all, then come in here.”

There was a minor uproar at that, but not from Athanas. While the others were still complaining, she slipped out and back into the command room wearing only the jumpsuit everyone wore beneath their space suits.

It worked! The computer read her suit as an enemy and registered her as yellow. Unknown, in other words. Dane coded her in as a friendly. He did the same with the others. Thankfully, he finished coding everyone before the clanking drew too close.

Dane tested how far the codes would take him. He tried to shut down the security system, and the whole thing obeyed. He sighed in relief.

They had done it! They’d taken control of a Russian ship decades more advanced than their own without seriously damaging it and with minimal casualties. Though Finch didn’t see it that way. He had brought the dead man’s body in with them.

Still, it was a price often paid for victory. Dane knew the man had died with honor.

He couldn’t help but think of all the sleeping people in their hibernation pods. If eight robot dogs had been that difficult to deal with, how much harder would things be once they began waking them?

CHAPTER FIVE

The next two weeks passed in a blur.

Tensions had been high on the way out to intercept the Zhemchug. They had not known what to expect when they made contact and had been juggling dozens of different possible plans. They’d gotten lucky with Dmitry, though managing him had taken a lot of Dane’s time.

There was no time for speculation on the return voyage, though. Dane and his security team stayed aboard the Zhemchug, learning everything they could and making sure the computer didn’t start thawing out the crew before they knew what to do with them.

The language barrier was part of the difficulty, but they’d had ten months to tackle that issue before the Russian ship arrived. Currently, everyone’s helmet HUD automatically translated Russian text on the screens to English. There were occasional errors, but for the most part, they could understand what they had access to. When they could wear their helmets, that was. At other times, they had to make do with tablets doing the translation.

Finding out what they had access to was the trickier part of the operation. The security codes they had taken from the underwater base worked on most of the systems but not all. Lopez’s working theory was that the Russians had known something could go wrong, and they might need to rescue the ship. Why else would they have programmed it to accept the old codes at all? Yet preparing for a rescue was not the same as allowing anyone with the right string of digits unfettered access to the ship.

The biggest issue from Dane’s perspective was the security system. He wasn’t able to do much with his clearance besides marking his team as friendlies, and that only worked as long as they kept their helmets off. At first, Dane thought this might have been an error, but now it made a certain kind of sense. As long as their helmets were off, they could not do any serious damage to the ship without the risk of spacing themselves.

It made things difficult when it came to translation. A good proportion of the consoles automatically recognized the user. Those were the toughest ones to work with because as soon as someone donned a helmet, the system activated a security countdown. Dane was always on the bridge to deactivate it and prevent more robot dogs from awakening, but it was stressful to hear those klaxons and see the flashing yellow lights.

They had full control of the sleeping pods and the navigation system, but security control was limited. Dane would have liked to activate the remaining robot dogs and space them, but his codes wouldn’t allow it. There was also a hangar he couldn’t access, no matter what he tried. He wondered how many secrets were hiding in the Zhemchug. Hopefully, the sleeping cosmonauts had the answers.

Before they got them, Governor Adams wanted a tour of the ship.

“Winters, are we ready to disconnect?”

“Been ready. Let’s do this.”

Darrin was still in control of the Cosmos, while Stark had crossed over to work the helm of the Zhemchug. The two ships had been kept in a perfect synchronized ballet for the last two weeks, and that dance had finally come to an end. The two pilots counted down, then Darrin retracted the tube that had been connecting the two ships like an umbilical cord.

“Separation clear,” Stark called.

“Tube fully retracted. Cosmos returning to order.”

“Roger that, Cosmos. Following your lead but making for a ten-kilometer distance. Will extend to hundred-kilometer distance over the next few days.”

“Roger that, Zhemchug. It was a pleasure to fly with you, but it’s even nicer to be free.”

They watched the Cosmos pulse its maneuvering jets and drift away from the Zhemchug.

Dane breathed a sigh of relief. For two weeks, pressure had weighed on him, a constant feeling of “what if?” Now it was over. They would put space between the two ships, eventually an entire planet’s worth, and the Cosmos would be fine. Though, if things continued to go as well as they had, the Zhemchug would not be a threat.

“Stark, is the governor on her way up?”

“Yes, sir. They should make contact in ten minutes at the airlock.”

“And we’re sure our shuttle can pair with it?”

“Yes, sir. We’ve triple-checked today, sir, like we did yesterday.”

“Right. Sorry, Stark. Nerves, I guess.”

“Of course, sir,” Stark replied. “Don’t want to leave a planetary leader waiting in space, huh?”

“No, Stark, we do not.”

After they had been on Varuna for six months, Adams assumed the role of governor. Dane thought it suited the former astronaut far better than ship’s captain. Her priorities had always been the future of the colony and the well-being of the colonists. She had been a fine captain, though. He wondered how she would handle her first meeting with a foreign leader. There had never been a need for international diplomacy. Depending on what Adams wanted to do with the sleeping Russians, there might never be a need.

Dane moved through the Zhemchug, preferring to pull himself and float between handholds over using his magnetic boots. He reached the airlock a few minutes before Adams’ shuttle and was ready with a crisp salute when the airlock finally cycled through.

As promised, the shuttle paired easily with the Russian ship. The maneuver had never been done in this solar system. The Cosmos had a bay for its shuttles, so they never lit on its exterior like mosquitoes thirsty for blood. There was also a bay on the Zhemchug, but they had not been able to open the outer doors. Dane told himself it wasn’t a big deal. Even if they had opened the bay doors, the two shuttles in there left no room for a third to land.

“Security Chief Dane, I trust I find you in good spirits.”

“Yes, Governor. Welcome aboard the Zhemchug, and may I say it’s an honor to have you here.”

Adams snorted. “Enough with the ceremony. I’ve read your reports, but give me the tour.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Dane first led the governor to the sleeping pod room.

They stopped at the base and peered up into the towering bank of pods.

“There’s so many.” Adams kicked off and floated effortlessly into the air. Dane thought she had misjudged her jump and would float past the pods, but instead, she intercepted one about halfway up and stopped herself with the touch of a few fingers.

She looked at the readout of the sleeping cosmonaut, then guided herself to a few of the closer pods before pushing off and floating back down to Dane.

“Vitals look good. Have we verified if the names on the pods are correct?”

“As far as we can tell, the logs check out. There is a security force, but the vast majority of these people are scientists and engineers.”

“I suppose they could have received military training, but I think it’s a good sign that so many seem to be bonafide colonists. How many people are in this room?”

“One hundred and two. There are three more rooms identical to this.”

“So, four hundred and eight? All stacked up like this?” Adams asked.

“Yes, ma’am. We haven’t taken anyone out yet, but it seems like their hibernation technology works well. We’re wondering what will happen when we take people out, though. No floors nearby.”

Adams peered up at the stacks of pods once more. “Maybe they had underwater training before they left. It’s not the same as weightlessness, but if they knew they were coming here, it would make sense.”

“We still don’t have access to all their systems, ma’am, but we know they brought a good amount of gear with them. From what we can tell, much of it is specifically designed for a water world.”

“Did you finally get into their cargo area?”

“No, ma’am, but we’ve been examining the robot dogs. They’re coated in a plastic that is resistant to corrosion, specifically the corrosion from the oceans of this world. Similar to the windows of Homebase.”

“Interesting.”

“Based on that, we can only assume the Russians did make contact with Earth before they disassembled their ship.”

“Then there had to be major improvements in the speed of the drives since we left. They’re here about a year after we arrived, yet it took twelve years for the messages alone to get back. Unless you’ve found anything that can go faster…”

“No, ma’am. From what we’ve seen, the laws of physics seem to be intact. The ship went faster than us, but their long-range communications are still based on the electromagnetic spectrum.”

“Well, I suppose that’s for the best, then,” Adams conceded.

“There’s another bay we can’t get into, but there are some smaller storage areas we can. Would you like to see them?”

“Lead the way, Chief.”

Dane led the governor to a cargo hold. It didn’t take long to get there. Despite their robot dog fight in a hallway, there were relatively few passages like that on the Zhemchug. It was a ship designed to be filled with things, not people. It felt impersonal, but considering the Russians were operating under the assumption there was an underwater base ready to accept them, it made sense.

Dane showed Adams what they had cataloged so far. There were boxes upon boxes of preserved foods, medical supplies, and manufacturing components.

“Looks like we’ll get to vary our diet a bit.”

“I don’t know, ma’am. Powdered potatoes are great and all, but I sort of miss the kelp burgers from Homebase.”

“Oh, there’s plenty of those waiting for you down there, Dane.”

Dane chuckled and led her into the back of the holding area. There was a pair of mini-subs, a massive 3D printer, and a bank of twenty or so robot dogs that would not awaken no matter what commands Dane gave them. None of that was what excited the governor, though.

“This looks similar to the components of Homebase,” Adams commented.

“You have a good eye, ma’am.” Dane approached the pile of rounded materials. “These are sections of prefab underwater housing. Lopez thinks it’s engineered to be free-standing, so we should be able to attach it directly to our base. We estimate it could almost double our capacity.”

The governor grinned. “We still have empty rooms in the volcano. With all this, we’ll have plenty of space, even when we awaken the Russians.”

“You’ve made your decision, then?” Dane asked.

The center of nearly every conversation on the Zhemchug had been what the governor would do with the Russian colonists. Dane felt like the only person who didn’t have an opinion on the subject because everyone else had told him theirs.

“It’s going to depend on a lot of factors, but this means physical space won’t be a limiting one. I’d rather be able to take everyone down if we can.”

“You sound optimistic, ma’am.”

“That’s because I haven’t talked with any Russians yet. I’m hoping they’ll play nice, but it will be a delicate process. They’ll wake up expecting to find an underwater base filled with their comrades. Instead, the people they came to help are all gone.”

Dane shuddered at the memory. He had shot down plenty of Russians during the war. Too many, really. Yet getting spaced seemed a relatively painless death compared to what the Russians on this planet had suffered. Being digested by the stomach acids of a murder star was not a fate Dane wished on anyone.

“Well, however you decide to deal with it, I’m sure you’ll make the right call.”

“Is that relief I detect in your voice, Security Chief Dane?” The governor raised an eyebrow.

“Ma’am, I trust your judgment. I’d be lying if I said I know the right choice here. I’m glad it’s out of my hands, to be honest. I never did great in ethics in school.”

“Ah. Well, there’s always time to learn, Dane. We have a meeting scheduled to address this issue. All senior staff are required to attend, so I’ll have your opinion yet.”

Dane grimaced. “Wonderful.”

CHAPTER SIX

After they completed the tour, it was time to return to the surface. Being up here had given Dane a positive outlook on their new home. Varuna was a beautiful planet. It had frosty white icecaps, but the vast majority of the surface was a thousand shades of blue.

When Dane first arrived, it all looked like one unknowable color. Now he could see variations in the hue. For example, the underwater mountain range where their volcano base stood was lighter and slightly greenish. The difference was clear as day.

They loaded up in Anderson’s shuttle.

“Good time away, sir?” Anderson asked.

“You could say that, Anderson. We lost a man, which always stings, but we’re glad it was only one.”

Anderson nodded. “I heard about that, sir. Real shame. He and Finch were close.”

They settled in, and Anderson separated from the Zhemchug. The flight into the atmosphere was bumpier than anything Dane had experienced in the depths of space. He almost found it reassuring. The shaking intensified until the air was thick enough for Anderson to switch over to atmospheric flight controls instead of powered space flight.

Dane watched out the window, taking in the world with fresh eyes.

Waves rolled across the surface, and a storm pounded the sea on the horizon. Here and there, the collared necks of nessies poked up from the water. They had learned a lot about the nessies over the last year, largely thanks to relentlessly tagging each one they came across and putting collars on any they saw more than once. For example, the creatures could breathe air, and they gave live birth.

Those discoveries forced Alvarez to totally rethink the history of the planet and the utility of the ice at the poles. Dane tried not to ask their lead scientist about that unless he was having trouble falling asleep.

“Oh, wow, is that the landing pad?” Dane inquired.

“It was the same on the way up, sir,” Anderson retorted.

“I guess it wasn’t on my mind back then.” Dane had been in space for a month, but it felt much longer. If not for the rejuvenation treatments, he imagined he’d have quite a few gray hairs.

It truly was something to behold, though. He remembered when they first arrived and desperately tried to assemble a basic landing pad while under attack from the nessies so Anderson could bring medical supplies. It had been a mesh of floating rectangles held together with glorified string and anchored by landing pods in the corners. When the storms hit, it had been unusable in the shifting waves.

Now, it was something a starship pilot could be proud of. One solid piece, easily large enough for two shuttles to come and go. It still undulated during particularly fierce storms, but only the biggest ones a pilot couldn’t land in anyway. The building across one end not only housed those stationed up here but also had a recreational area for anyone wanting fresh air. Long concrete and steel pylons anchored it to the bedrock below. Best of all, there was an elevator, which Dane had yet to use.

A year ago, this had been the stuff of dreams. Seeing their progress made Dane proud to be part of this project. However, he couldn’t help but wonder what the frozen Russians would think when or if they were awakened. Would they be thankful that someone picked up the pieces of their destroyed colony, or would they resent the ADN for moving in?

The truth was the Russian colonists were gone long before the Cosmos arrived. Would they believe that, though? Dane had video evidence of the murder stars overwhelming the Russians, but would they see his possession of those files as a threat?

There were so many questions. Dane almost wished they could simply take someone out of a sleeping pod and get some answers. They had Dmitry, but he wasn’t that useful in anticipating the general feeling of the average cosmonaut. If Dmitry was the average, they were in deep trouble.

“Any objections to taking the elevator down?” Governor Adams asked.

“Of course not, Gov,” Dane replied.

Adams glared at the bad British accent, but she led him to the elevator. The doors were transparent and slightly rounded. Dane followed Adams inside and realized the elevator carriage was not rectangular like most elevators but a sphere. Even more interesting, it was made entirely of transparent materials.

The elevator entrance was housed in a concrete room, but Dane assumed it would not be concrete all the way down.

“I take it this thing has a decent view?”

“It does,” Adams informed him, though she stared at Dane instead of looking through the windows.

“Then why are you watching me?”

“It’s your first time.”

“What’s that supposed to—”

The elevator dropped into a transparent tube beneath the sea.

The ocean surrounded them, just out of reach. Schools of shrimp-like creatures swam by, trying to avoid alien squids with too many legs. Down below, the coral-like zingers were starting to thrive again. They had been decimated by the murdering space stars, but Dr. Alvarez had proposed reseeding the area.

Dane had been involved in some of that work, but he’d never seen the scale of it like this before. Normally, he saw the ocean from inside a sub. The rest of the time, he swam in a wetsuit, which could be nerve-racking considering there were at least two different types of creatures that ate people. Dane had seen the ocean before, but never like this.

“There it is. That’s the open-mouthed expression I love.” Adams laughed.

Dane chuckled and managed to reel in his jaw. “This is really amazing. It gives an entirely new perspective on this world. It’s…it’s breathtaking. You should be proud.”

“You mean because my chief of security argued against it for months, saying the resources would be better spent on more submersibles, even though the garage and moon pool room can’t fit any more?”

“Well, consider this your chief of security admitting he was wrong.”

“I appreciate that. We did take some of your concerns into account. The elevator drops straight down, then has a horizontal component that runs across the ground and between the valleys to the base. There are two egress points, but so far, no one has had to—”

Adams stopped talking as the carriage lurched to a stop, and they were both knocked to the floor.

“What the hell is that?” Dane asked as a panel opened up on the floor. He grabbed a pair of rebreather kits and gave one to the captain.

“Earthquake,” Adams grumbled as the carriage continued to shake. They weren’t moving anymore, and it seemed like the elevator stopping had knocked them down, not the earthquake itself.

“You say that like it’s not a surprise.”

“It’s not. We’ve had an uptick in geologic activity. The science team covering geology says that technically it’s been increasing for three months, but it’s really come to a head in the last few weeks.”

“Do we need to be concerned right now?” Dane was suddenly quite aware of how little material stood between them and the ocean.

“The elevator shuts down automatically because it’s operated by pressure. We’ll be back online in a minute or two. Nothing to worry about.”

“Earthquakes are nothing to worry about?”

“Homebase is literally built inside the shell of a volcano, which is in turn located in a chain of volcanoes. We know this is a geologically active planet.”

“Yet we’re trapped in an elevator right now.”

“Only until the quake subsides,” Adams reasoned. “You all right, Dane? If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re claustrophobic.”

Dane snorted. “I spent weeks on end living inside the cockpit of a starfighter. It’s not the cramped spaces that get me.”

“No?”

“No. It’s the…well, all of this.” Dane gestured at the ocean world. “Even though I go on patrols all the time, it’s hard to remember how much life is on this planet. We’re always focused on nessies and space stars, maybe some bony fish that Alvarez wants to test. It feels different seeing it all laid out like this.”

“That’s one of the reasons I wanted to build this. To remind everyone why we’re here.”

“You mean because we’re stuck?”

Adams chuckled, and the elevator started moving again. “It may seem that way, but there’s always somewhere to go.”

“Even for the Russians?”

“That meeting is scheduled next. I’ll want your opinions, but until then, let’s enjoy the view.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

The elevator ran along the bottom of the two valleys and into a Homebase outbuilding. They went inside and from there walked into the base.

They ascended from the bottom level to the command center at the top of the volcano. Dane never got sick of the view there. Like the elevator, he could see out in all directions, but unlike the elevator, reassuring pieces of volcanic rock and spaceship decking framed the windows. Funny how things like steel and stone could make a man feel secure.

“The astronaut returns!” Konrad Thorson thumped the table. The head doctor’s hair needed a trim. Instead of the typical fuzz on the side, it was half an inch long. The top was slicked back as always, and his icy blue eyes beamed as he welcomed Dane.

“We made the earth move in recognition of your return. I hope you liked it.” Nat Granger smiled wryly.

“The ocean didn’t crash into the elevator shaft, so I guess I liked that part,” Dane replied.

The chief engineer laughed. “If you think I’d let a little thing like an ocean mess up the view the Governor asked for, you don’t know me very well.”

“Nat’s only happy she invented a way to get around that doesn’t involve her getting into a submersible,” Ginger Alvarez joked with a warm smile. As head of social services, Ginger was remarkably effective at teasing without hurting feelings.

Indeed, Nat laughed and nodded. Dane had spent enough time with her inside submersibles to never want to accompany her in another one.

“The elevator is safer than the subs, then?” Dane asked.

“It might not feel that way to a former starfighter pilot and current submersible aficionado, but I assure you that yes, it is,” Nat reported, warming to her topic.

“That’s why it stopped in the middle of bringing us down here?” Dane queried.

“I’m sorry you weren’t in control for a minute and a half, but that’s what it feels like when anyone gets in a sub with you at the helm,” Nat shot back. “It’s designed to stop. We found records of earthquakes in the Russian logs and engineered the elevator with that in mind. The trick was to allow the shaft a certain amount of movement. That way, it can jiggle instead of snap.”

“So I’m supposed to feel safe knowing the underwater tube is supposed to jiggle?”

“Believe it or not, this base is designed with earthquakes in mind, too. The foundation is equipped with inertial dampeners, which is a fancy way of saying ‘big jigglers.’ The Russians built this place well.”

“Does that mean you think we should give it back to them?” Ginger quipped.

“Let’s wait until we’re all present to start on the topic at hand. Is Carlos here?” Adams took her seat and looked for Winters, who normally brought her coffee but was still on the Cosmos, keeping an eye on the Zhemchug.

“He’s outside running experiments,” his wife Ginger explained.

“I told him I might call a vote.” Adams stood and went for the coffee pot. She poured a cup, sipped, and frowned. “This tastes like crap. Is there any coffee in it?”

“You don’t need so much caffeine. It’s largely a psychological effect. The human body is more than adequate at regulating its own energy levels without coffee artificially interfering,” Thorson pontificated.

“I guess we know who made the coffee,” Nat joked, and everyone laughed.

“Carlos told me no matter how we vote, he’s going to vote with me,” Ginger offered.

“He’s just trying to get in your pants,” Nat countered. Everyone really laughed at that, and Ginger’s face reddened enough to make her freckles disappear.

“Be that as it may, he was quite clear he’ll trust my decision as head of social services. Honestly, I think he wants me to stop giving him a hard time about the new project with the nessies, and this is his way of trying to set boundaries.”

“Your opinion will count double for this meeting, then. Got it.” Adams resumed her seat.

“Not something I’d wish with so much at stake.” Richard Bryson, the chief botanist, was the last person at the table. Even after nearly a year working together, Dane didn’t quite have a bead on the man. He was damn gifted with plants and used the hydroponics level of the base to spectacular effect, but he was an odd conversationalist. The rumor was that he talked so much to his plants, he didn’t have any chatting left for people.

“The Zhemchug’s manifest shows they brought samples of edible aquatic plants, Doctor, so I wouldn’t speak too soon. Utilizing those is going to be your department. I’m interested to know whether or not you’ll need Russian support for such a project,” Governor Adams mentioned.

Bryson tugged at his collar. “Er…well, I suppose it depends on the level of tech they brought with them.”

“You don’t think you could figure it out without them?” Adams asked.

Bryson shrugged. “The hydroponics bay is going well, though there are still aspects I don’t think I’m using as intended. It all depends on how advanced the Zhemchug is.”

“Dane, what are your thoughts on that?” the governor asked.

“I’d say they’re decades ahead of us, though not sure how many. Their robots seemed more advanced than ours. That may be because they’re willing to arm them, and we’re not.”

“You met battle bots?” Granger enthused.

“We did. Robot dogs with machine guns. They were…not fun.” An image of the dead soldier flashed in his head, and Dane tried to shake it away.

“No matter what we decide, it is not going to include battle bots,” the governor insisted. “We made treaties against them on Earth for good reasons, and we’ll continue with that, even if the Russians do not.”

“Fine,” Granger grumbled. “But if someone needs to disable the battle bots, I’m volunteering for the job.”

“Noted. Though, Dane, you had issues with getting everything online, correct?”

“That’s right. Our access codes got us in and stopped the security system from spacing us or sending more robot dogs, but we do not have full access. It’s like we’re operating the Zhemchug in ‘safe’ mode.”

“So if we want to use their gear, we’ll need to awaken leadership, at the least,” Ginger surmised.

“If we want to use their gear? How can we not? We all saw the documents. They have more submersibles and custom-made habitats! We can’t let that stuff go to waste,” Nat cried.

“We have plenty of room here,” Bryson claimed. “I don’t see why we need to bring any of them down. We’re making headway in hydroponics and understanding more of the aquatic plant life. I’m sure I can make their samples work without some Russian breathing down my neck.”

“You can’t be serious,” Thorson argued. “You can’t really be suggesting we leave them inside their pods!”

“Why do you say that, Thorson?” Adams asked, always the epitome of coolheaded.

“It’s not ethical, for starters. Those pods can extend human life, but not indefinitely. Leaving them will increase the risk to their lives over time. It’s akin to murder, Governor.”

Ginger nodded, while Granger and Bryson looked unsure.

“We think their technology is more advanced than ours. Doesn’t that apply to the hibernation pods too? We know they made the journey in less time than we did. Perhaps that means we can safely leave them in the pods longer,” Dane mused.

“Those are complex machines. You’ve said yourself you do not have full control over the system.” Thorson threw up his hands in frustration. “We cannot risk their lives and steal their tools! We have already been using their base. That is theft enough.”

“Theft?” Dane was dismayed that Thorson would describe what they were doing as wrong. “When we found this place, this planet, it was entirely abandoned. The Russians’ mission was unsuccessful. This base is legitimate salvage by nearly any definition.”

“More than that,” Granger added. “We’ve had a few crises here, like when the space stars clogged the intake, and we nearly overheated. If we hadn’t been here, I think it’s fair to say this base wouldn’t even hold water anymore.”

“No one is saying we abandon the base,” Governor Adams pointed out. “I’m only trying to find our best path forward. That’s either with the Russians or without them, but we are not leaving.”

“Do we know if they have soldiers up there?” Bryson asked. “It wouldn’t do to expect botanists and end up with an invading force.”

“Dane, thoughts on that?”

“The records show it’s a mostly scientific crew, though records can be forged.”

“Let’s check in with Winters on that.” The governor sighed, then called up the bridge of the Cosmos on their screen.

“Governor!” The XO saluted smartly.

“Winters, good to see you. We’re discussing what to do with the Russians aboard the Zhemchug. Have you had a chance to ascertain if the crew is mostly scientists or soldiers? Dane is concerned the records could have been forged.”

“We should assume they are, ma’am,” Winters confirmed.

“You’ve found some discrepancies, then?”

“Not yet, ma’am, but we’d be fools to trust these bastards. I’m sure everyone in these pods is a trained killer, even if they’re not soldiers.”

“You have evidence for this?” Adams asked.

“Oh, I’m sure they covered their tracks, ma’am. If Russians know how to do one thing, it’s bury things under ash.”

“Have you found any issues with their records or not?” Adams asked pointedly.

Winters’ scowl deepened. “The records show only a minimal security force. So far, the faces and body statistics have matched, but those can be forged. We can’t let these bastards out, ma’am, especially not while they’re in space. If they get control of the sky, they control the surface!”

“Okay, Winters. Thank you. That will be all for now.” Adams closed the connection. Dismay fluttered across her brow before she got her features under control.

“He’s right about that, ma’am. If the Zhemchug has air-to-ground weapons, that would put our entire mission here in danger,” Dane explained.

“Oh, please,” Thorson interrupted. “He’s obviously not thinking clearly. He thinks we can bring the pods down and take out the Russians here? Simply disconnecting them from the ship’s power could kill the inhabitants. That is not a viable option, especially since they have done nothing wrong.”

“Dane, your thoughts on Winters’ counsel?” Adams inquired.

“I think no matter what, we need to proceed with caution. I didn’t get the sense there was an army up there, though. If there was, why bother with the robot dogs? Why not have more than one person out of the pods?”

“Do you think it’s a possibility?” Adams asked.

“Of course it is, but we have to remember the Russians are not dumb. They would not have sent four hundred people twelve and a half light years from Earth merely to pick a fight with the crew of a spaceship that no one had heard from. They must have mostly sent scientists and engineers like we did.”

“I agree with Dane on this, Governor,” Ginger chimed in. “My hunch is that everyone in there believes they’ll be greeted by Russian colonists and simply slide into their new homes on this world. I don’t think we should wake everybody at once, but I think we can assume we won’t be attacked when we take a few people out of hibernation.”

“Who would you start with?” Adams invited.

“You could pick a few people that look to be experts in their various fields. Check to see if they really know what they’re talking about,” Bryson suggested.

“If we don’t get someone with high enough clearance, we could inadvertently set the entire system to waking everybody up,” Granger noted.

“Eventually, I think we’ll need to wake everybody up,” the governor stated after a moment of thought. “Not at once, though. They’ve traveled for decades, so they can last a couple of months without too much risk. We’ll start with their leadership. Explain the situation, see how they take it and go from there. Ideally, I’d like to integrate the two colonies. Are there any objections to starting from the top and working our way down?”

No one voiced dissent.

“Very good. I’ll put in a call to Winters to find our leader, then.”

Adams did, and Winters went to obey, but not without a scowl.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Dane barely had time to shovel down some food, an actual salad with actual plants, before Adams paged him to return to the Zhemchug.

“You ready to head back up, Chief?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Dane crammed the last mouthful of hydroponic spinach into his mouth and bussed his tray. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes, we’re fine. I’d rather have given you a night’s sleep first, but Winters needs to come down. It seems the committee that staffed our colony ship was rather paranoid about including people who could speak Russian. You’re one of a very few and the only one I want in a meeting of this level.”

Dane signed off and headed to meet the governor. After climbing a flight of stairs, he realized the elevator would be faster than going through the checklist needed to safely pilot a sub to the platform. He turned and headed back for the bottom level.

He found Governor Adams, Ginger Alvarez, and Thorson waiting at the elevator.

Thorson, he understood. They were going to conduct a medical procedure with equipment from the future that operated in a foreign language. He didn’t see why Ginger was coming, though.

“You here to offer emotional support to the Russians, or what?” Dane asked.

“Something like that.” Ginger was unruffled. “Not everyone shares your suspicion of psychology, Chief Dane. Some people like to know that a professional is invested in their head working as well as it can.”

“I meant no offense,” Dane mumbled and wished he hadn’t said anything. He didn’t interact with Ginger much, but he knew she was involved with nearly every project and organization in the colony, with the exception of the security team. If nothing else, she was a fantastic judge of character. She had a knack for anticipating whether people would work well together.

Dane was about to ask her thoughts on integrating the two populations in an effort to make amends, but the elevator started its vertical assent, and his breath was once more taken from him. This time, it was not the entire panorama but a specific activity.

“Are those people swimming with nessies?” he gasped.

“Technically, the nessies are swimming with them. At least, that’s what my husband keeps saying.” Ginger giggled. “I think it’s semantics, but he’s committed to his theories on nessie social behavior.”

“I knew he was studying behavior, but swimming with those things?” Dane asked.

“He’s been working on it for months. It’s all he talks about,” Thorson commented.

“I hadn’t realized,” Dane admitted. He had been preoccupied with the approaching Russian ship and the lone Russian awake upon it. It seemed like every spare moment of the past month had been spent talking with Dmitry or running through training routines for when they reached the Zhemchug. Too bad none of those had featured robot dogs with machine guns.

“You’ve been busy and will get some time to rest, I assure you. But you’re not the only one who’s had a full plate. Carlos has been busy, especially after we captured some young ones,” Adams explained.

“They were not ‘captured.’ They are being domesticated,” Ginger drawled in a good impression of her husband.

Thorson and Adams laughed. They must have heard the line before.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dane inquired.

“Carlos insists that since their parents died, we did not actually capture them. More like we saved their lives and are now caring for them.”

Dane realized the nessies were smaller than usual. Young, then. Still longer than a human with their stretched necks, but not bigger than a sub.

“Don’t call them pets, though,” Thorson warned.

“We do not run behavioral experiments on pets!” Ginger rebuked in her husband’s voice. Thorson and Adams smiled. It seemed like Dane really was the only person who hadn’t heard Carlos go on about this.

“I’m sorry, but how is this possible? How are they not ripping them apart?”

“You domesticate a Russian but think you cannot do it with one of these beasts?” Thorson quipped.

“I don’t want to hear language like that when we get up there,” Adams snapped. “If we don’t treat them as equals, this doesn’t work.”

“Right. Sorry, ma’am. I only meant animals are not so difficult to train. You only need a carrot and a stick.”

Dane frowned. “The carrot is the murder stars they eat. My security people help gather them. What’s the stick? The shock collars?”

“Don’t let my husband hear you talk that way. If it was up to him, he wouldn’t make the ones we’re working with wear collars at all.”

“He can’t be serious.”

“Oh, my husband can be a lot of things. Believe it or not, serious is one of them.”

“The shock collars are the only things keeping them at bay!” Dane had seen one of those animals rip a man apart. Surely, they couldn’t be domesticating them! At the same time, he wondered if this was how primeval man felt when he first tossed a scrap to a wolf waiting beyond the firelight. Could they turn these nessies into allies like their ancestors had turned wolves into dogs?

“The shock collars keep the adults back, and Carlos doesn’t want to change that system. Not yet, at least. Still, everything we’ve learned about the nessies indicates they’re intelligent creatures. For example, we set up ‘hard’ barriers that the nessies aren’t allowed to cross under any circumstances. Near doors, airlocks, things like that. Some of the nessies found out the hard way. Then they taught the others that those places result in shocks.”

“Makes sense, I guess. They sing practically all the time,” Dane mentioned. They could hear them now, calling to each other or perhaps the humans swimming with them. “Why do they keep coming back if they get shocks, though?”

“Because this is good habitat. There are plenty of zingers and kelp here, which means plenty of fish and space stars. Plus, we are still feeding them.”

“Why?”

“To keep our area clear of murder stars and to encourage the same group of nessies to stay around. Better to know them and have them collared than drive them off and have to deal with a new group.”

“We’re still not swimming with the adults, right?”

“No, not yet. Carlos doesn’t think we’ll ever be able to swim with wild nessies.”

“So those two aren’t wild?”

“Correct. Their mother was attacked while giving birth and didn’t make it. We’ve been fostering them ever since.”

“This is unbelievable!” Dane blurted.

Adams smirked. “Gee, can’t imagine why I didn’t tell you all this while you were in space.”

“Fair enough, I guess. I’ve had my plate full. But this…this is huge. I never thought I’d see people swimming with nessies.”

“We’re incredibly pleased with your husband’s work, Ginger. Thank you for letting him talk to you more about it than the rest of us,” Adams declared.

Thorson chuckled. “I can only imagine.”

They reached the surface and climbed from the elevator. Normally seeing the shuttle on the platform filled Dane with a sense of wonder, but at the moment, it only made his stomach flip. He had just gotten down from up there. He wasn’t in a rush to return to zero gravity. How different from when he had been in the war. It seemed like he’d practically lived in his star fighter back then. He’d felt worse being out of it than in it.

“Welcome back, sir,” Anderson said to Dane.

“Anderson,” Dane greeted and strapped himself in.

They took off, and Dane relived all the launches he’d done in the war. How many had it been? Dozens from the surface alone. Maybe hundreds when counting all the missions that started above the atmosphere. Was this launch like those? Would he face an enemy or a potential ally? His reputation as a war hero had finally faded, and now he was only the chief of security. These Russians might not see it that way, though.

They might remember George Dane as the man who had killed as many Russians as anyone else. They might remember there was a bounty on his ship. Or they might not. They still didn’t know how much later the Zhemchug had launched than their own. It felt fresh to him, but the war could be a distant memory, with the heroes and villains of each side lost to the fog of time.

For all he knew, the Russians and the ADN could have been allies when the Zhemchug launched. The U.S. and Soviet Union had been allies during World War II, after all. Maybe their enemy status had dissolved with the end of the third World War.

Dane hoped that was the case. He knew he had Russian blood on his hands. There was no way around that. The Russians had been the first to drop rocks from the upper atmosphere, and he’d been fighting to prevent the destruction of cities from space. He had no idea how the Russians would view his actions, though. They had dropped rocks first, but they had not been the only side to do that, nor the only one to obliterate cities.

Here on Varuna, it had been possible to leave all that behind. Would it still be possible when both factions of that war had to share this world? Would the Russians want to live in peace? Would the colonists agree to take them out of hibernation and give them a chance to at least try?

They docked on the side of the Zhemchug, and the press of the shuttle’s acceleration faded to nothing. Dane unstrapped himself, activated his magnetic boots, and removed his helmet.

“We’re sure it’s safe to breathe in there?” Thorson asked.

“Winters and a crew are aboard, so we are sure. I understand wanting to be cautious, but there have been issues with the security system and helmets because we engaged in that firefight. I’d rather not risk it.”

“Remove your helmets but keep them handy,” Adams instructed, and everyone obeyed.

Dane led them inside. He glanced at a screen near the airlock and noted the ship’s computer was still actively scanning everyone who came aboard. They were all marked in yellow, so not an immediate concern, but Dane did not like that the ship was monitoring them. Especially when there were still more robot dogs they hadn’t yet been able to deactivate.

They reached the bridge and found Winters in a bad mood. Dane wished he’d brought the XO a thermos of coffee.

“Winters, you’ve located the ship’s captain?”

“Yes, ma’am. Mikhail Petrov. Forty-six years old with a doctorate in engineering. Here’s his file.”

Dane’s tablet blipped, and he brought the file up. Petrov had split his time between academia and engineering projects for a few major international companies. Dane still had to meet the guy before he knew what kind of person he was, but he hoped a science background was a positive thing.

“His file looks promising,” Adams remarked, thinking along a parallel track.

“If it’s real, ma’am.” Winters didn’t bother hiding his scowl.

“Do you really think someone would fake a patent on regenerative brakes for bicycles? It’s not very prestigious,” Ginger pointed out.

“There’s no telling what these Russians are capable of. They might have put that in there precisely because it doesn’t seem like anyone would bother faking it.”

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Adams assured curtly. “I trust you can mind the bridge while we get Dr. Petrov?”

“Of course, ma’am.” Winters bit off the words. “Nothing will get past me.”

Adams led them from the room and followed the ship diagram on their tablets to the hibernation pods. With their helmets off, they had no HUDs to illuminate the appropriate pod. They had to figure out which stack it was in based on the numbers in Petrov’s file.

“Without my helmet translating, most of this file is meaningless to me. Dane, any pertinent details?”

“Other than the stuff Winters translated and sent to us? Not really. He never actually served in the military, which I must say is surprising. Looks like he was an advisor for a lot of their science projects, so he’s likely used to working with military and civilians.”

“Seems like a reasonable choice to lead a mission like this,” Adams mused.

“Don’t let Winters hear you say that,” Ginger cracked, then immediately cleared her throat and apologized. “Forgive me. He’s under a lot of stress. Governor, I do recommend him going back to the planet to decompress.”

“Oh, he’s definitely coming back down with us,” Adams insisted.

“I found Petrov!” Thorson leaned over a hibernation pod.

They all approached and surrounded the sleeping Russian.

He looked like a random crew member stuck in at the bottom of a pod tower. The glass was tinted a slight green, so it was hard to read Petrov’s complexion, but his white-flecked black beard was heavier than regulation would have permitted for a military man.

Dane felt something like vertigo as he stared at the unconscious man who was completely oblivious to his situation. He’d never had this much power over an enemy combatant. He knew Mikhail Petrov was not that. He was a civilian, not a military leader or a former fighter pilot. Yet, years of war had left Dane suspicious by nature. Perhaps it wasn’t fair or even right, but he considered how easy it would be to end this problem.

Taking someone out of hibernation was a delicate process. If they simply cut the power, everyone in this room would die. No blood. No suffering. Only a dream that faded into blackness forever.

Thorson pressed some controls, and the pod disconnected from its place in the tower.

Dane blinked. “I thought we were going to talk to him.”

“Of course we’re going to talk to him. Were you not listening?” Thorson snapped.

“You unplugged him!”

“So I can take this capsule to a medical bay. I don’t want to awaken him here with all of you standing around. There’s a built-in battery supply for doing things like this.”

“Oh, right.”

“Are you all right, Dane?” Ginger patted his shoulder. “Your glare got so intense there. For a minute, I thought you were going to crack the glass on the front of that pod.”

“Yeah. I’m fine. Sorry. It’s…well, this is a lot. When we found the first Russian base here, I guess I should have anticipated another ship showing up, but it’s still so wild. To think they’re here. After ten months of knowing they were coming, we’re finally going to talk to someone besides a cadet who refused to do his duty and put himself back into a pod.”

“I’d like to have you on standby, but are you sure you’re okay?” Adams asked. “If this is too much for you, there’s no shame in that.”

“No, no. I’m fine, Captain. I can help translate when he’s awake.”

Thorson tried to wave him off. “The computer can handle that. You stand so stiffly that one can only assume you’re military. Better if you head back down.”

“I’ll be fine. Really.”

Adams nodded. “Thorson, take Petrov and get him awake. Call me when he’s up, all right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Thorson confirmed and went on his way.

CHAPTER NINE

A long twenty minutes later, the governor’s tablet flashed with a message.

“That’s Thorson. He’s awake and cognizant enough to talk. Let’s go.”

“You want me to come in?”

“I think so unless Petrov speaks English.” She typed something into her tablet, waited a moment, and nodded. “Okay, I guess he does speak English. Still, I’d like your thoughts on him. Here…” She typed something else, then Dane’s tablet binged. He opened the link and found a feed to the webcam mounted on Adams’ suit.

“Please text me if you think of any questions or have any concerns. Otherwise, I’ll expect your full thoughts on the situation when I’m done. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am. No problem.”

They headed to the medical bay, but while Adams went inside, Dane waited by the door and watched the exchange on his tablet.

“Hello, Dr. Mikhail Petrov. I’m Kelly Adams, former captain of the ADN Cosmos mission to this planet and current governor of the colony. You must have a lot of questions.”

“Quite a few, yes,” Petrov replied in accented but clear English. “The Zhizn. It arrived here, as the doctor told me?”

“If that’s the name of the first Russian ship, then yes. Before the Cosmos, in fact. We’re not certain how, but all evidence indicates it was here decades before we arrived. Our assumption is that it launched later, though.”

Petrov nodded. “Great advances were made in the interstellar drive after the Cosmos left. The Zhizn launched more than ten years later, but we built it to go faster than your Cosmos.”

Dane was relieved that Petrov wasn’t trying to hide the improvements in the drive. The engineers had not been given access to it yet. The security system still made the prospect fraught with danger, but that had not stopped them from developing theories and sending them to Dane while in transit.

“Well, it worked. You should be proud.”

“I think perhaps I would be prouder if we were speaking Russian instead. The crew of that ship. They are…”

“We never had the honor of meeting them. When we arrived a year ago, we found the Zhizn had been converted to an underwater base but had been attacked by some of the indigenous life. There were no survivors.”

Petrov nodded and grimaced. “We knew there was life when we launched, you understand. Yet to think they were overwhelmed…not to be rude, Governor, but you have evidence of this?”

“We were unable to resist investigating the records we found, so yes. We have records of what happened. I will be honest with you, Petrov. It’s not pretty. The attack came from an invertebrate roughly analogous to sea stars from Earth, though much more powerful. Thousands of them overwhelmed the base. We nearly suffered the same fate, but thanks to those records, we were able to avoid it.”

“So this alien is no longer a threat?”

“Not exactly, no.” Adams weighed her words. “We have a better understanding of the planet’s ecology. We’re using that to help protect us.”

Petrov nodded. “Clever. Very clever. Better than ignoring ecology until it’s too late like they did on Earth.”

“The ecology on Earth. It’s still…”

“We left in 2216. Not so much later than you. Only twenty years. Some areas are doing better, but the planet…well, there was so much ash. It takes time to clean all that. I would like to see this world very much. To see this…life.”

“We would like that as well. We are calling this world Varuna, and while it can be dangerous, it is also beautiful. We hope we can share it with you and your crew.”

“Like how we are sharing our base with you?” Petrov asked.

Dane might have punched the man for that, but Adams hardly bristled.

“We found Homebase on the verge of collapse. Had we not intervened and maintained it, I assure you there would be no base for you to come to.”

“You have proof of this?”

“I do. However, if you’re going to try to eject us from it, I might point out that your crew is still in hibernation.”

Petrov chuckled and shook his head. “Forgive me. English is direct when I do not wish it to be and indirect when I wish to be clear. I only wish to help make sure it does not happen again. Rest assured, Governor, I am pleased to be conscious right now. I cannot say that all of my council would have advised waking up your people were our situations reversed.”

“I can also assure you that not all my staff is as trusting as I am.”

Petrov chuckled. “Yes, we know that George Dane is aboard. I am surprised he is not here to greet me.”

“He’s watching this exchange via camera right now, in fact.”

“Ah! Very smart, Governor. We were aware we would meet him, but I had not known it would be so soon. You may as well bring him in.”

“Dane?” Adams asked.

Dane didn’t need to be told twice. He entered the room and joined Adams, Petrov, and Thorson.

“George Dane, chief of security here on Varuna. It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

“A pleasure to meet a living legend as well. Tell me, how did you come into control of our ship? We had designed it to be tamper-proof.”

Dane glanced at Adams, who shrugged, then nodded. Obviously, she believed in the free exchange of information, or at least of this information.

“We found security codes from the last ship.”

“Those were programmed in, yes. In the event that if something malfunctioned, we could be saved. There were other systems in place, though.”

“You mean Dmitry?” Dane grinned.

“You’ll forgive me, Mr. Dane, but I do not know whom you’re speaking of. If my still-hazy memory serves, there are at least three people by that name aboard the Zhemchug.”

“This one decided he didn’t want to go back into a capsule. I convinced him I was a Russian. I think it only worked because he was so lonely. He did most of the talking while you came closer to the sun, then he let us aboard.”

“Ah! Curse our Soviet efficiency. I argued that at least three people should be awake at all times, but this would cost three times the resources, you see. Well played, I suppose.”

“You’re not angry that we deceived one of your own?”

Petrov chuckled. “I am not pleased with much of this situation, but it also could have gone much worse. You fooling a lonely cosmonaut? That sort of thing happens. The security systems of the ship, you have not tampered too much with those?”

“We have not,” Adams confirmed. “Only coded it to not attack us.”

“That will be one of the first things we’ll need if we’re going to let anyone else out of hibernation,” Dane insisted. He had not discussed that with Adams, but it seemed like an obvious concession for Petrov to make. They couldn’t risk the Zhemchug being able to attack them.

“Always down to business with you Americans. Very well. Let us discuss the plan moving forward. I hope it does not surprise you when I say that I have no desire to turn over the security systems to you. Even if I did, I cannot do it alone.”

“Then who do we wake up to make that happen?” Dane asked.

“You did not come to this planet for the Zhemchug anymore than we came to this planet for the Cosmos, no?”

“We came to colonize this world on behalf of humankind with the blessings of all countries. Russia signed onto that treaty as well,” Adams remarked.

“Well said, Governor. We came to colonize as well. The Zhizn was made to break apart and become a colony. The Zhemchug was provisioned to help that colony thrive. That is all we wish to do. That is why we are here. From my perspective, we have similar goals.”

“I agree, Petrov. Though Dane does have valid concerns. We do not wish to live in fear of your ship in orbit above us.”

“Of course not. And I assure you, my people wish to go to the surface. We all trained for years up here. We are quite ready to return to the embrace of a mother world. However, you must understand there was still some lingering antipathy between the U.S. and Russia when we left. Two superpowers will never sit still, no?”

“We have been preparing for your arrival and are ready to integrate your people into the colony. We have quarters prepared for them and enough room and positions for people to start waking up and getting to work. We don’t have the shuttle capabilities to bring everyone out at once, and we’ll need to be strategic as far as preserving your chain of command and making sure those awakened are brought up to speed in the best possible way. However, we wish to make this colony together. I would like to bring down a team of your choosing to help make this possible.”

“Wise words, Governor. I too wish to make a colony together. If you and your people truly wish to cooperate, I am sure we can build something better than either of our mother countries dreamed. Yet, in the twenty years since you left, Russia has been in the shadow of the United States and its allies. If my people are awakened, brought to a stolen Russian base, and told to work at the behest of American bosses, it might not go so well.”

“We didn’t steal that base. We salvaged it,” Dane remarked.

“Forgive me. I was in hibernation for ninety years and am now speaking a foreign language to Americans on my own ship. I am only trying to express how some of my crew will surely see the situation.”

“What do you propose?” Adams asked.

“For starters, I agree to bring some of my top command team down to the planet to see the place and how the mission is progressing. We are willing to help, but you must understand we have specialized supplies aboard that we have designed and built for this purpose. My people will need autonomy in some of their decisions. Where to place the new habitats, for example. They will not like it so much if you point to a spot and say dig.”

“That’s fair. Your ship is obviously more technologically advanced than ours, so it stands to reason your supplies are as well. I would like to brief you on the full extent of our projects, however, and urge you to consider my team’s suggestions in choosing sites for habitats. We have come to understand the local ecology better than your predecessors and would like to make sure we do not make any mistakes.”

“Of course, of course. The Zhemchug is filled with scientists and engineers. If you have reasons supported by data, I will not be able to convince them otherwise!” Petrov chuckled.

Dane was impressed by the man. He had woken up in a wildly different situation than the one he expected, and he was handling it with good humor and grace. Dane had been fully prepared for Petrov to have a full-on meltdown and need to be restrained. From a certain point of view, they did take the Russian base. It was abandoned, but Dane knew his old bosses at the Space Force would not have let China take the moon lander simply because the Americans hadn’t touched it in a hundred years.

“We would be honored to have some of your people come down to the planet with us. I will leave that decision up to you.”

“Excellent. That is very reasonable of you, Governor. Thank you.”

“As for the security codes?” Dane reminded him.

Petrov grimaced. He clearly did not want to speak further on the topic, but he turned and squared his shoulders to Dane all the same.

“Security Chief Dane. I understand your fear, but I cannot give you full access to this ship. Think of it from the position of my crew. They wake to find that not only is our base being used by Americans—”

“We’re not all Americans,” Thorson announced, letting his Icelandic accent out.

Petrov held up his hands. “We find our base being used by the Alliance of Democratic Nations. That might be a challenge. We had come expecting to share a planet, not hallways. Then they discover that we will not be sharing, not truly. All the cosmonauts who left for this world a hundred years before we did, died decades ago. Their faster drive let them beat you here, but that extra time bought them nothing. We were expecting to see children and grandchildren here.

“Now you tell me they are all gone. You say you want my people to join you in the base. I want this too, but it will not feel like a home for us. Not at first. It will not smell the way we wish it. The music will not be right. We will adjust, but perhaps not for some time. We need the Zhemchug to stay ours, Chief Dane. Do you understand? My people will not be able to work if they know there is no escape. As long as this ship is still up here, and we have complete autonomy of our shuttles, at least they will know there is somewhere they can go that does not smell of burgers.”

“Excuse me?” Adams blustered.

“You see? This is common joke in Russia. There must be a place where my people can say such things. Because you are living in what is left of the Zhizn, then it must be the Zhemchug.”

“I still don’t like this ship being up here.”

“You think my people will like knowing the Cosmos is still in orbit? It was designed to land on this world. Everyone knew this. Your western media talked about nothing else. Now we find it high in the sky?”

“Only because we failed to anticipate this world would be completely covered in water,” Adams pointed out.

Petrov shrugged as if a world-spanning ocean were nothing. “That is convenient excuse. I believe you, of course, but my people will not. Come, there is much to discuss. I would like you to meet some of my crew so you know we come here in good faith.”

“Very well. Give Dr. Thorson your list, and he’ll wake them up. We’ll let you bring them up to speed, then we’ll go down to Varuna in our shuttle. Agreed?”

Petrov’s eyes sparkled. “Ah, politics. Even so far from Earth, we cannot escape them. Yes, Governor Adams. Let us awaken my people and get down to business.”

CHAPTER TEN

The ride to the surface of the planet was perhaps the most awkward twenty minutes of Dane’s life. Part of the problem was his own mental state. He had spent a month on the Cosmos, captured someone he had been lying to for months, and battled robot dogs. Then he’d flown to the surface, ridden in a discombobulating elevator, learned that some of his fellow colonists were trying to train sea monsters as pets. Gone back into space and met the captain of a Russian spaceship far more advanced than their own.

Now he was crammed in the back of the shuttle with four Russians who wore varying levels of “I can’t believe this shit” plastered on their faces.

Dane wanted a shower, a nap, and another meal in no particular order. Instead, he had to maintain a smile as he appraised the Russians across from him.

“This shuttle has similar engines and capabilities to the star fighters of the ADN, no?” Sophia Novikov asked, each word sharp as a dagger. Every part of Novikov was sharp angles. Her cheekbones, her nose, the way she filled out her uniform. Dane had checked her file and did not doubt this woman was the same captain from the Russian army listed there.

“Same engine, different capabilities,” Dane revealed. Adams had given him orders to share any information with the Russians they asked for, with the exception of security codes to the Cosmos. She and Petrov agreed that if everything went well over the next twenty-four hours, the Russians would stay off the Cosmos, and the ADN people would leave the Zhemchug to the cosmonauts.

Though Adams was clear she would not abandon their presence on the Russian colony ship until a not-insignificant number of Russians were awake and working on colonization efforts. Both she and Petrov understood this as insurance, though neither said as much. Beyond that agreement, there was much to be worked out. A world’s worth of arrangements.

“How can a ship with the same engine be anything but the same ship?” Novikov demanded, scowling.

Dane glanced at Adams, which only made Novikov’s scowl deepen. Something Dane had not thought possible. Adams nodded, so Dane explained.

“Same engine but bigger ship means it can’t handle the same pressures. The star fighters had highly specialized cabins with rotating seats that helped us avoid the most extreme stresses of g-forces.”

“Yes, we are well aware of this design.”

Dane had to bite his tongue. She was practically admitting to shooting down his fellow soldiers and stealing their ships. The ADN had done the same thing, but that didn’t make it sit easier. Dane swallowed his feelings and tried to force his smile wider.

“Well, then, you’ll understand that the pilot of this shuttle can’t perform many of the moves we were trained to do.”

“I am to believe the ADN specifically made these ships less useful than the star fighters which were so effective?” Novikov pressed. She was relentless.

“Given that the mission here is to colonize and not dominate space, they are far more useful.” Winters’ words were almost as clipped as Novikov’s.

“These ships always carry something more.” Ginger made far more of an effort to keep her voice neutral than Winters or Novikov. “Between extra passengers and cargo, it would be dangerous if the pilot could even think about doing what the star fighters could do. Psychologically, if you give someone the capabilities, it’s harder to stop them from using them.”

“A paradox, don’t you think? How do you prepare for a planet with unknown threats? The powers that be don’t want to send too many weapons or soldiers, but even more certainly, they don’t want to send too few.”

Dane snorted at that.

The speaker, Lev Kozlov, appraised Dane with keen eyes. He wore a buzz cut and a perennially serious expression. He was a one-star general, or general mayor, as the Russians called the role. He served as the Zhemchug’s chief of security.

For Dane, looking at him almost felt like looking into a mirror. He had obviously taken rejuvenation treatments, as Dane had, and he maintained the same posture Dane valued. In a different world, Dane could see the man as a good workout partner. He was sure he could bench press more than Kozlov, but it might be a close thing.

“Tell me, General Dane. Have your security forces been sufficient for these nessies, or have you had to train more people?”

“It’s Chief Dane here, General Kozlov. I’m no longer working for the military.”

“Ah, yes, forgive me. You may call me Lev. Use the name General Kozlov, and I may be tempted to use the title, no?”

Dane snorted. “Lev it is.”

“In all seriousness, Commander Petrov told us about these beasts of the sea. Did you find zero gravity training useful enough to face them, or did you require underwater training instead?”

“That’s a good question.” Dane warmed to the idea of talking to someone about stuff like this. Athanas was a fantastic soldier but never one to disagree with orders. Ever. That made her less than useful in brainstorming sessions, though she was far and away the best of his security team when it came to tactics.

He continued speaking to Lev. “We have found that zero gravity training helped give our people three-dimensional awareness, but they will need to be retrained to use their legs. If you’re going to train your security people on one thing, I’d start with flippers.”

“Interesting. Surely you do not keep these nessies away with nothing but flippers and handguns?”

“They are pain-sensitive, so bullets and spearguns are both effective against them. We don’t rely on hand-to-hand combat, though. Protocol is to keep security forces inside our submersibles unless the situation calls for a specific action.”

“These nessies must run rampant, then! If you have to get into a submersible each time you drive them away, how do you keep up with it?”

“You’ll be interested to learn that our head biologist and engineer have devised a solution for that,” Dane explained. “They’ve collared all the nessies that live near the base. Those collars shock them if they get too close to established perimeters or if an operator decides they need a reminder.”

“Fascinating!” Alexei Lebedev exclaimed. Practically everything he said was an exclamation. He was the head of the Russian science department and a logical choice to help spearhead the integration of the more advanced tech from Earth with what existed at the base. As a bonus, he was almost overbearingly positive compared to Novikov, Lev, and Petrov.

“A very clever way of doing things!” Alexei continued, slicking back his long blond hair. It was about the same length as Novikov’s, but while hers was almost terrifying in its perfection, Alexei’s was anything but. His hairline was receding, and there might have been another bald spot on top, though his messy ponytail made the top of his head difficult to see. All the Russians held their helmets on their laps. They were either too suspicious of the ADN people to behave differently or too trusting. Dane hoped it was the latter, but he wouldn’t bet on it.

“I’m sure Dr. Alvarez will be more than willing to tell you how the behavioral training is coming,” Ginger informed them.

Everyone stopped talking when the shuttle started to rattle as they entered the atmosphere. Then they were through and flying above the watery world Dane now thought of as home.

“Wow! That is the platform you spoke of? Very impressive!” Alexei exclaimed, shamelessly peering out a porthole at the world below. “It is floating, I see. Moving a little bit in the waves. That does not cause landing problems?”

“It’s better than it used to be,” Anderson answered from the pilot’s chair.

“I see you Americans have finally learned the value of regular maintenance,” Novikov drawled.

Dane didn’t know what to say to that, so he let it pass as Anderson came in for a landing.

They disembarked and stepped from the shuttle.

Three of the Russians appraised their surroundings with cool indifference, a mindset that Alexei apparently would never have.

“Is this bunker designed with the direction of the wind in mind, or is that not so much of an issue?” he asked and continued talking as they headed toward the elevator. “Ah, it is anchored to the ground below but still able to move with the waves. Clever combination of technologies, I would say. An elevator? Oh, this is too much! Very impressive!”

“Wait until you see the view,” Dane offered as they crowded into the elevator. There wasn’t quite enough room, so Ginger offered to stay behind with Winters. They had left Thorson on the Zhemchug until the Russians returned. That placed Dane, Adams, Petrov, Novikov, Lev, and Alexei in the carriage. Dane thought they could have fit Ginger and Winters too. Perhaps Ginger wanted a minute to talk to the XO, who had obviously been stressed for the entire duration of the flight down.

“Wow!” Alexei gushed after the carriage departed its concrete housing and descended into the transparent tube. “This is amazing! Truly amazing! How long has this been in place? It cannot be long. It still smells new!”

“Only a few weeks,” Adams confirmed.

“Very impressive to have done so much in so short a time! The platform is a good solution for a water world and looks sturdily built. But this…this is something to behold!”

“It is secure?” Novikov asked.

“Most certainly, yes. We’ve collared the nessies, and the entire length of the elevator is coded to give them the strongest possible shock,” Adams explained.

“Very nice!” Alexei continued to gush. “I did not expect you to accomplish so much so quickly. It must have been difficult, not knowing what was here and making all these adjustments. You will find the Zhemchug much better suited for this world. Our supplies were custom-made in advance.”

“What sorts of supplies are those?” Dane urged.

“More habitats, submersibles, and a shuttle capable of—”

“Alexei, that is quite enough,” Novikov interrupted. “We are not even sure that we will not be poisoned or that they will take the rest of our people out of hibernation.”

Dane frowned. “Excuse me?”

“Poison is joke. Other part, up to you,” Novikov uttered.

“Sophia, that is enough,” Petrov scolded. “We are quite far from Earth with no one to rely on but each other. To thrive, we will each need to know what the other is capable of.”

“A fair exchange of information is one thing. It is different from Alexei giving something for nothing.”

“We knew the Cosmos would be here,” Petrov chided. “We knew we would have to share this world. Perhaps this is not what we anticipated, but we are colonists now. We must make best of the situation.”

Novikov nodded, though her scowl did not diminish.

“Ah, those are the nessies you keep speaking of.” Lev gestured. “They are large.”

“Dangerous, too,” Dane added as he watched them in the open sea. These were wild ones, fully grown with no humans swimming around them.

“Yet it was not these that nearly lost you the base, correct?” Lev asked.

“That is correct, sir. Not sure how much of the video you all saw, but that was an animal more like a sea star from Earth. We keep the nessies around because they eat the murder stars and work as a sort of natural pest control.”

“A bit more daunting than ladybugs, no?” Lev asked.

Dane chuckled. “That’s right.”

“We are glad to have figured this out, though,” Adams proclaimed.

“No issues with the system, then?” Petrov inquired.

“Not since we’ve got them collared, though my team will be the first to tell you tracking their movements is the essential component. That has allowed us to learn how they control, erm, territory. You know what? Dr. Carlos Alvarez is going to love telling you all about them.”

“What behavior is this, then?” Novikov asked.

Dane turned. The group of eight nessies was swimming toward them.

“They live in family units, so they are often together like this,” Adams reasoned.

She kept a cooler head than Dane, who was trying to work his way over to the elevator control panel. The nessies looked like they were coming right at them. He knew the shock collars were supposed to stop them, but when exactly would they activate?

“They are fast,” Lev noted.

Dane grimaced. “No kidding.”

“Could they be hungry seeing so many people in the elevator?” Alexei asked. He did not seem concerned, simply curious. Typical scientist behavior.

“No, we’ve had this many people in the elevator before. They’ll turn as soon as the collars activate. You’ll see.” Adams was the only person with any confidence in the elevator. Everyone else was bracing for impact.

Then the nessies crashed through the invisible barrier. They stopped their rapid approach as they twisted and gyrated, trying to escape the shocks.

Yet rather than swimming back to the depths from which they’d appeared, they kept coming. Directly for the elevator.

“Brace yourselves!”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The nessies broke formation and scattered to the sides just before they reached the tube.

“Is this supposed to be a show of force?” Novikov furiously demanded.

“A secondary level of voltage is activated when they get too close to the tube. We were never in any danger,” Adams insisted.

“Why did they keep coming this way? You could see that your shock collars worked well. They did not like the first shock, yet onward they continued,” Lev pointed out.

“Does this thing have a way to increase the speed?” Dane asked as he fiddled with the controls. They were not at all like the controls of a spacecraft.

“Yes, but we should be fine. They pulled off,” Adams asserted.

“It’s not the nessies I’m worried about,” Dane muttered. “It’s whatever’s got them scared.”

“Scared?” Alexei questioned. “I thought your people had an understanding of the ecology here. Surely you must know what would frighten these beasts.”

“Oh, I have an idea, all right,” Dane professed. “Adams, a little help here?”

“It’s fine, Dane. The nessies broke up.”

“They’re not going back down or leaving the shock zone,” Dane advised. Sure enough, the nessies continued to swim around inside the perimeter. They twitched every now and then as if trying to ignore being shocked.

Suddenly, they had their answer why.

At first, it appeared the seafloor itself had risen, or more accurately like a cliff had raised from the depths. The cliff, covered in corals, alien barnacles, and all manner of living things, split in half to reveal it was not a stone but a massive set of jaws. The body of the mighty leviathan followed, though its sheer size challenged Dane’s understanding of a “body.” It looked as big as the dead volcanoes on either side of it. It had multiple flippers on both sides, each larger than a submersible.

The beast swung its head down and opened its jaws. The nessies scattered, but one was too slow. The mighty creature caught the nessie between its jaws. Its hooked teeth dug into the flesh of its struggling prey. With a flick of the leviathan’s long jaws, the nessie was torn in half.

“What is that?” Petrov demanded.

“A Big Damned Fish,” Dane ranted.

“It’s like an ichthyosaur from Earth,” Adams mumbled. “A megichthyosaur.”

“Whatever it is, it’s coming this way!” Alexei shouted.

“Governor!”

Adams pressed a button on the elevator controls, and it felt like the ground dropped out from under them. Most people would have gotten dizzy or felt their stomachs tie in knots, but everyone in the elevator had experience in micro-gravity. They simply took the plunging elevator in stride.

The Big Damned Fish was still hungry. Using its massive, multi-finned tail, it propelled through the volcanoes and into the valley where the base was stationed. It went after the nessies and chomped another in half before swallowing both parts whole. The nessies were still dealing with the shock collars, but the meg was not. It had no collar and no way to know there was a perimeter designed to keep monsters away. It only knew it was hungry, and something in front of it was moving.

It darted toward the elevator, moving faster than they were dropping. It looked able to destroy the entire structure with a gesture, even as an afterthought. Dane wondered if it had seen them move or simply sensed them like a shark of Earth could have.

The elevator shaft reached the ground and shot off horizontally. That seemed to confuse the massive sea creature. It gave up its chase to follow a nessie instead. The nessie tried to swim around the Big Damned Fish to position itself behind its tail. It worked! The snapping jaws were long and deadly, but the creature’s neck was not particularly flexible. It could not reach behind its tail. Though it did not try too hard because another nessie swam by, and it caught the creature between its jaws.

Apparently, three nessies counted as a decent snack. After the gigantic creature swallowed the third one, it swam toward the gap in the mountains where it had come from and wedged itself between them. It caused an underwater mudslide when it finally pushed through. The last impression Dane had was its skin covered in the growth of the seafloor. That a creature so massive could also be a stealth hunter with effective camouflage seemed wildly unfair.

The elevator entered the base and lurched to a stop.

“Welcome,” Adams announced, her voice somehow not shaking.

CHAPTER TWELVE

They managed to refrain from arguing for the three minutes it took to settle at the table in the command room.

“We give you this, and you cannot even properly secure it?” Novikov griped, gesturing at the windows that looked out from the top of the volcano base.

“Sophia,” Petrov snapped.

“I am wondering how much you truly know about the ecology. If you had not seen that before, what else have you not seen?” Alexei asked.

“We have seen one of those before. Never this close to the base, though,” Dane revealed. “They’re normally on the ocean floor.”

“This base is located on the ocean floor,” Novikov shot back.

“I do not think Chief Dane is saying we are in its normal territory.” The look Lev gave Dane said he’d best not disagree.

“No, sir. We believe those creatures are from the depths.”

“If they are from the depths, why did they come up to eat those nessies? Do the nessies normally go down deep?”

“That is a question for Dr. Alvarez,” Adams demurred.

“Well, summon him and let us ask it,” Novikov demanded.

“You will not give orders here,” Dane flung out.

“Oh, forgive me. I forget that we are working together. Please summon him so that we may ask. Is that better for your American sensibilities?”

“We want you to meet our entire senior staff.” If Adams was shaken, she did not let on. “However, we’ve had a perimeter breach, so our heads of engineering and research are both working on that at the moment.”

Novikov looked like she would say more or maybe spit in Adams’ face. Petrov held up a hand, and she bit off her words.

“We would like to talk about joining the settlement since the supplies on our ship are custom-made to work with this base,” Petrov expressed.

“And we want you to join us—”

“However,” Petrov continued with a smile, though he didn’t seem to appreciate being interrupted. “We need to know if this is indeed the safest place to be. You have taken over our base and claimed it would have been abandoned and derelict otherwise. Perhaps you are right. Perhaps not. I am wondering why we should stay here instead of going to another spot on the planet?”

“You said yourself that you can’t. You came here to support this base,” Dane mentioned.

“That is true, but we are Russian. We are resourceful and will make do if needed.”

“How?” Dane hoped they didn’t pick up his sarcasm. He could tell from Novikov’s deepening frown that at least she had detected the tone.

Petrov turned to Lev and nodded.

“We have four large prefabs,” Lev explained. “Basically, they are metal disks. We drop them in, do some work on the structure, inflate them, and they are ready to go. We had planned on connecting them to the base via underwater walking paths, but it could be a structure on its own somewhere else.”

“Do you have power?” Adams prodded. “The power plant supplies more than we need. I’m sure we could power whatever else you have with it.”

Lev glanced at Petrov, who cleared his throat before answering. “We do not have any turbines as heavy as the one the Zhizn brought, but we have sources of power. What it comes down to is this. Are we safe here? Or is there somewhere better, somewhere without these…how did your security chief say? Big damn fish?”

“We cannot vouch for your safety anywhere but here,” Adams advised. “We chose to stay at this mountain range because we heard the distress call of your people. We investigated and found this place. There have been threats, but we have overcome them. I am sure there will be more, but we will overcome those too.

“I understand you wish to be as safe as possible, but I do not think you will find what you are looking for in the open ocean. That…big damned fish could barely make it into this area. We have found sources of food here and a way to protect ourselves from the creatures that killed the last colonists. Understanding why that creature came up here is our priority, and I do not think you going to another part of the planet is the best way to achieve that goal.

“We are both on this planet, for better or worse. I, for one, think we can make this work. We can stake a claim on this world and make a future for ourselves. Your people and ours can make this dream a reality.”

“That is all well and—” Novikov began, but Petrov silenced her with a gentle hand on her arm and gestured for Adams to finish.

“I will not force any of this on you. If you genuinely believe your best option is to go somewhere besides this mountain range that is temperate, rich in food sources, and equipped with a working infrastructure, we will help you do that. There will be inefficiencies, of course, and it will take more time to get your people out. That is why we brought all of you down, though. I want to make this work, but if you don’t, it won’t. So. What do you say? Do we build this world together, or do we cut it in half and keep the old tribalism from Earth, twelve light years away?”

Dane appraised the Russians. Novikov was not sold. Alexei seemed eager to explore both this world and this place. Even now, after the governor’s speech, he stared out the windows with a look of wonder. The other two were harder to read. Lev seemed like he was trying to get a sense of the base and how strong it was while Petrov watched Dane and Adams, perhaps seeking a sense of how strong they were.

Novikov could not hold her tongue. “Half a planet is more than enough. We should set a line, and you will not cross it once you are settled there.”

“Settled there?” Dane asked.

“Obviously, this base belongs to us. Our people built it. Once we review the video, we can see if your words are true. If they are, we will help relocate you as compensation.”

“I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear about this, but we are not moving,” Adams warned. “This is our home now. We found it abandoned because of the last occupants’ oversight. We have since rectified that. We have built an elevator and a platform. We are not moving.”

“Nor should you,” Petrov interjected. “It makes little sense for your people to be in one place and ours another. There is no one else coming to help. If we try to build separate bases on the other side of the planet, we will be competing. That will not do. It is clear to me that we should work together.”

“I agree,” Lev chimed in. “We have submersibles that should be helpful in facing this BDF, as you call it. We will investigate this together, I think.”

“That’s fine by me,” Dane agreed.

“Excellent. We also have a shuttle larger than the one we came down in,” Petrov offered. “We will start by awakening the people qualified to fly that. It is able to bring down all of our supplies. Once we begin that process, we will bring our people out. We will need temporary quarters before we assemble our new habitations.”

“We will help however we can, but you don’t need to think of these spaces as temporary. Our best chance of working together is full integration,” Adams professed. “We have rooms prepared for your people on the same floors as ours.”

“That sounds very good, Governor, thank you. We will use those. If these new settlements can be better used for another purpose, for example, farming or research, that is what we will do.”

Novikov cleared her throat. “I still think we should—”

“I know your opinion and respect it, but that is not the way we will be going,” Petrov interrupted.

Novikov said something in Russian, too fast for Dane to track. Petrov only raised an eyebrow in response.

“Now, if you please, we would like to provide a list of pilots so we may best control the Zhemchug and its shuttles during this process.”

“Very well,” Adams conceded.

They got to work.

It took less than two days for the Russians to begin their own colonization mission. Thorson remained on their ship long enough to help them bring their own doctor out of hibernation. After that, he was sent back to Varuna.

Adams provided them with a timeline and room assignments. Even in those first two days, the Russians did not miss any deadlines. Soon, the sounds of spoken Russian echoed in the hallway. Dane wished that was enough to make him trust them, but he had suspicions about what was happening above in the Zhemchug.

One thing was obvious. There were far more Russians awake up there than had come down below. Dane knew this because they never missed a shipment, nor did they request help with their supplies. Part of this was simply old-fashioned nationalist pride. It would not do for the Russians to arrive on this planet with more advanced tech and foreknowledge of what to expect, then ask for help!

Yet it was more than that. The Russians had made it clear that the Zhemchug would be their cultural center, and Dane was certain every Russian they awakened went through a training regimen before they were sent down to the planet.

He might have complained if not for the results.

It took less than a week for them to train their pilots and get all four of their submersibles to the surface. They must have practiced on subs back on Earth because each of the pilots was as skilled as any Dane had been working with on Varuna.

That was fine, though. What they needed to accomplish would take every bit of skill they had. The Russians had planned the area well. All four of their habitations would fit inside the same valley as the volcano base. It would have been less of a headache if not for the elevator shaft snaking across the floor. They could not simply drop the huge metal disks to the seafloor and readjust them. Instead, they needed to make sure they did not accidentally crush the elevator tube.

They accomplished this using their admittedly awesome tools.

Their heavy shuttle was impressive enough. It was big enough to fit one of the Cosmos’ shuttles inside. It must have been designed with the disks in mind because they barely fit.

Dane stood on the platform as the shuttle darkened the sky, then hovered two valleys over where the volcano hid beneath the surface. While it hovered, using an unbelievable amount of fuel, the Russians sprang to action. They opened the back of the vessel and lowered cables into the water.

More Russians waited there, swimming on the outside of their subs.

Dane had offered to help with this particular mission. Given the size of it, the Russians had been unable to say no. Yet rather than have the ADN’s subs connect to the disks, they had them working security duty.

No one had seen any BDFs since that one had come up and eaten three of their nessies, and that was fine with Dane. For a few days, they had actually managed to track the thing with the chips embedded in the nessies before its stomach acid ruined the components, and they lost sight of it. Dane had hoped a few days’ worth of data would be enough for Alvarez to figure out the thing’s habits, but unfortunately, it had been relatively still. Likely digesting its meal, Carlos had said.

If anything was going to wake the BDF from its slumber at the bottom of the sea, it would be dropping massive metal disks on the ground. That kept his people inside their subs on the edges of the base’s perimeter. The nessies seemed unperturbed, which was a good sign. Dane had given orders for someone on each sub to monitor the nessies, as they would likely be the first indicator a BDF was coming.

He pushed all that from his mind as he watched the Russians work.

After the cables touched the water’s surface, the Russian swimmers each grabbed one and affixed it to their sub. With the disk connected, the shuttle tilted upward, and the entire thing slid out and splashed into the ocean.

Only a huge wave was visible from the surface. Beneath the water, the subs headed in opposite directions to stop the descent of the massive disk. It was an impossible task, but with the help of the ship’s computer from orbit, the four subs pulled the disk where it needed to be. It gracefully completed a quarter-turn and moved a few meters one way, then another, before settling down. Novikov claimed they were within a centimeter of where they had anticipated, but Dane knew bravado when he heard it.

The next few hours were tense. Everyone waited for the Big Damned Fish to show up. When it didn’t, they got right back to work. They did three more runs that day and managed to get all the disks into the base valley. It went so fast that if Dane didn’t know better, he’d almost call it an invasion.

Three days later, the first of the habitats was ready to inflate. The Russians had accepted the colonists’ help assembling the frame, but now was the all-important inflation of the tent-like material. Before they could do that, they had to make sure there wasn’t anything on it. Dane was almost ready to begin his visual inspection when a highly unwelcome visitor passed by.

“What the hell is that doing here?” Finch demanded as he pointed at the robot dog through the screen of the sub. “That…that thing murdered Joe! This can’t be right!”

“It’s all right, Finch.” Dane attempted to calm down his man while he called Lev on the radio.

“Everything okay, General?” Lev invited.

“You didn’t tell us you were going to activate your dogs.”

“They are designed to walk on the seafloor. There is a problem?”

“The problem is one of those goddamned things killed our man, you goddamned animal!”

“Jesus, Finch, not like that!” Dane pushed Finch off him. He had physically grabbed Dane’s tablet.

“You’re sick. All of you!”

“Finch, give me the tablet, all right?”

Finch thrust it back at Dane. “Fine, but I’m not standing by while they get us to accept those damn murder dogs.”

“I understand, Finch. Really, I do. Take five, all right? We’ll get this sorted out.”

After Finch went to the back of the sub, sat down, and started taking deep breaths, Dane turned back to Lev. At least the Russian had the decency to look ashamed.

“We could have used a warning on that, Lev.”

“A warning? You did not think we brought those dogs for fun? They are designed to walk the floor. I was hoping they could help with perimeter, but we thought to start them with this job instead. The material of the dome is highly reflective. They would easily be able to find holes.”

“It’s fine. Give us a heads-up next time, all right?”

There were no more major pieces of tech to introduce, but that didn’t mean things were going any better. After they set up the first hab, it became clear the Russians intended to spend most of their time there. Even before they’d finished the tunnel connecting it to the base, the Russians spent most of their time inside, despite frequently having to get in and out of wetsuits. The tunnel was a transparent wonder, like the elevator shaft. Once it was finished, the Russians practically never left the habitat.

They didn’t tell Dane or anyone else to keep out, but going there was…awkward, to say the least. Every time Dane went in, he felt like he’d interrupted a conversation about him. Everyone was quiet and avoided eye contact with him. When they did speak, it was exclusively in Russian. Which was fine unless you wanted two crews to unite rather than pull away from each other.

“No hydroponics here, then?” Dane gestured to the built-in tanks along one of the edges of the round hab.

“We think it might make more sense to keep all that in one area,” Alexei explained with a glance toward Novikov, who watched Dane like a hawk from a corner. “The next hab will be hydroponics, while this one will be—”

“Living quarters?” Dane suggested.

Alexei only shrugged.

It was frustrating because the space was obviously not for living. There were no partitions anywhere. It was simply a huge, open area, yet the Russians bunked and slept there as much as they could. This would only get worse when they inflated the next hab. Despite the captains’ best intentions, two colonies were forming where there should have only been one.

Some days, Dane wished there really were two colonies. Like today. He walked into the cafeteria and found one of his security people—not Finch, thank God—nose-to-nose with a Russian, both posturing like birds fighting over territory.

“What in the hell is going on here?” Dane demanded as he stepped between the two fuming men.

“He said coleslaw sucks!” Dane’s man said.

“You can’t be serious. We’re better than this.”

“Sir, you’d be pissed, too. It was the way he said it.”

“Do I need to tell Lev about this?” Dane asked the Russian.

The man only shrugged and sneered. Then his eyes widened, and Dane looked behind him to find Novikov and Lev.

“What are you doing? You do not have the right to discipline our soldiers,” Novikov spat.

“Neither do you,” Lev pointed out more politely than Novikov was capable of.

“They were fighting over cabbage or something. I don’t know. It’s fine. I broke it up.”

“Cabbage?” Novikov’s lip curled.

“What, you have an opinion on that too?” Dane asked more hotly than he’d intended.

“No. I am only saying if they argue about cabbage, they will argue about all things. Perhaps this one-colony solution is not the way forward. This is simply more false idealism. Like you Americans love so much.”

“For the last time, this is not an American mission. We came here with the Alliance of Democratic Nations on a mission that Russia agreed to.”

“After the war, when we were weak? We agreed. Yes, this is true,” Novikov purred.

A vein in Dane’s temple started to pound. This was fine. This would be fine. He… He could…

“That is enough, Sophia. Go check on the hab. I will talk to Dane here.”

“Da. Fine,” Novikov snapped and marched off.

“Is she trying to ruin this whole thing?” Dane demanded.

“She is young. Hotheaded. Give her time, and she will see the way. Not everyone on this mission chose to be here. Sophia was very qualified. Too qualified, maybe. She had little choice.”

“That must be hard, but it doesn’t give her the right to try to push this colony apart.”

“I don’t think that is her intention, but I will speak with her. Things are going well! We have already inflated our second hab. Everything will work out. You will see.”

Dane wished he had Lev’s optimism.

The cafeteria became fraught with tension a second time when an earthquake struck. It wasn’t a bad one, according to the scientists, but it was still strong enough to spill drinks and send plates of food clattering to the ground. It would have been a non-issue if there was only a single population inside Homebase. Yet instead of everyone banding together to clean up, factions formed.

The Russians started it. When the earthquake began to make everything rumble, they grouped together and excluded anyone from the ADN. To make matters worse, they refused to clean up their own mess nor even pretend to help with the cafeteria as a whole. They acted like Homebase was a place they could evacuate instead of what it was supposed to be—their home.

Dane finally had enough. He didn’t want to tattle on the Russians for not playing nice, but it had been weeks, and the integration he thought everyone hoped for had yet to happen. It was time to talk to the governor.

“Chief Dane, please tell me this visit is personal and not professional.”

Dane clenched his jaw and almost told her exactly that. She didn’t look great. Like caffeine was the main thing holding her together. Still, she needed to know about the brewing situation.

“I wish, Governor, but no. I have a security concern.”

Adams nodded and stopped pacing in her quarters. The room wasn’t exactly a mess, but it wasn’t spartan either. It was the room of someone trying their best to keep up appearances but missing some of the finer details.

“Simply put, it’s the Russians. They’re not even attempting to integrate with our crew. They’re sleeping in their new hab most of the time, and when they come here, it’s strictly business.”

“We’re building a colony, Dane. Everything has to be business.”

“They don’t share meals with us. They don’t watch the same media we do. They begrudgingly work on teams, but they don’t seem to enjoy doing that either.”

“So what, you want me to put a seating chart in the cafeteria? Boy, girl, boy, girl, except we alternate Russians and us?”

“No, I’m only saying we’re supposed to be working together.”

“I know that, Dane. I really do. Tell me, what are you doing to make that happen?”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. Are you eating with them or watching from afar?”

“Well, I normally prefer to eat alone.”

“Who does that help right now? Huh? What about when you work out? God knows you do that enough. Are you inviting Russians to do Russian twists with you?”

“No, I haven’t started working out with them.”

“For movie night, are you watching Russian videos with them? You do speak the language, after all. If anyone should join them to watch their vids, I’d think it would be you.”

“There’s hardly any time to watch vids.”

“There’s nothing more important to the long-term survival of this colony than cohesiveness. Do you disagree?”

That made Dane pause. From a security perspective, she wasn’t wrong. “I don’t disagree, ma’am, but—”

“I don’t have time for buts, Dane. Petrov has been more than generous with the tech they brought, but if we don’t stay up to speed with it, we’ll be second-class citizens here. Do you see that? There’s still so much we don’t know about each other.”

“With all due respect, I don’t think vids are the answer to integration, ma’am.”

“With all due respect, you’re wrong, Dane.”

Dane’s face flushed. “Ma’am?”

“I’m sorry, Dane. I didn’t mean that, but can you hear yourself? You want me to integrate the crew? How am I supposed to do that when you’re not even trying? You’re not eating with them or spending leisure time with them. I know you’re not putting any of them on your security patrols, either.”

“Of course not!” Dane snapped.

Adams shrugged. “You say of course, but is it really so obvious? I mean, how are the Russians going to believe we trust them when we won’t even let them in our subs to check the perimeter?”

“Are you ordering me to integrate?”

“No, Dane. I trust you. I trust your methods, and I think it might make sense to have the Russians do their own patrols. God knows we caught things the first colonists missed. They might catch things we’ve come to view as normal. Come on, though. You can’t expect me to do things you aren’t doing yourself.”

“What about you?” Dane snapped. “Are you making friends with Petrov?”

“For your information, yes, I am. He enjoys classic French cinema, and his favorite food is mushrooms. He can’t wait to grow some from the spores they brought. He doesn’t have any kids because he’s sterile from being around too many radioactive isotopes, but he used to volunteer with high school kids. Says he was bad at it, and I believe him. His sense of humor is rather dry.”

“You…you learned all that?”

“Of course I did, Dane. Because that’s my job. What’s more, Petrov understands that it’s his job too. He knows about my history at NASA, about the six lives I saved with duct tape and a socket wrench. He knows that I miss cheese and I prefer to read instead of watch vids. He knows all this because he, like me, understands the greatest asset we can offer each other is each other.”

“Ma’am?” Dane balked.

“Pardon me for sounding like a goddamned greeting card, but it’s true. They have all this fancy tech, and we have a fully functioning surface-to-surface base. None of that matters if we can’t all get along. That was true before they came, and it’s even more true now. We have to work together, Dane. Don’t you see that? We have to think of everyone on this planet as us. There’s no room for them. Do you get what I’m saying? If we fail to integrate, to become a community, we will tear each other apart.”

“I… I guess I see your point,” Dane stammered.

“You damn well better.” Adams sighed and rubbed her face. “I meant to say ‘good.’ Or thanks, or…look, Dane, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have unloaded on you like that. But if you’re not actively trying to integrate, I don’t know what to tell you. I need you to be part of the solution. Otherwise, you’re part of the problem. Do you understand?”

“I understand, ma’am.”

Dane managed not to stomp his feet on the way out of her office, but it was a close thing.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Dane really tried to take the captain’s advice, but work kept getting in the way. That same day, two megichthyosaurs were spotted outside the base. They were only caught on video and never came too close, but it was enough to warrant extra patrols. On top of that, there was the matter of security items from the Zhemchug. He was reviewing a list of them now.

The robot dogs were the most obvious, but the Russian submersibles were formidable things as well. Faster and more streamlined than Dane’s. He was still trying to wrap his head around what they were capable of. He considered it might be good to ask Lev about that. Maybe he would let him take one for a spin, and he could try to do what the governor had told him.

Then he noticed something on the list.

“That’s funny,” he muttered. The items were listed by name, cost, and mass. The third item had caught Dane’s attention. He had been looking at the mass of the Zhemchug as a whole, and he seemed to remember the security section of that manifest having a different number. It had ended in sixty-nine, at least. A juvenile detail to remember, but there it was.

This list didn’t, though. A few kilograms here and there might not have been a big deal if the Zhemchug hadn’t traveled over twelve light years to reach this planet. Over such a distance, a few kilograms could spell the difference between success and failure. Certainly a few thousand, which Dane thought the difference really was. Rocket science was still rocket science, after all. Accelerate a certain mass for a certain amount of time, and presto, you were on another planet. If those numbers were off, you could careen on past.

Obviously, their numbers weren’t wrong because the Zhemchug had made it here. Which meant that mass had to be somewhere else. Likely some Russian bureaucrat had simply misclassified something. Called some of the robot dogs a non-security asset, for example. Which was still significant information.

“Goddamn it,” Dane cursed as the base rumbled and he bumped the tablet, losing the line of the ledger he’d been looking at. The earthquakes were definitely not going away. None of them had been bad enough to cause any serious damage, but Dane felt it was only a matter of time. The geologists didn’t have a straight answer.

“No one has a damn straight answer in this place.”

“Are you talking to me, or have you started the slow descent into madness?” Lopez stood at the door holding what looked like a steamed bun.

“Lopez. How are you?” he grumbled.

“Better than you, apparently. Do you want a piroshki? No, wait. These are zakuskis, I think.”

“Zakuski means appetizer. At least, it does if that’s what you were trying to say. Piroshki means little pie.”

“Oh. I was right on both, then. Do you want one?” She held it out to Dane.

Dane decided that the spreadsheet could wait. He stood and accepted the little round bun from Lopez.

“Where did you get this?”

“The Russian kitchen.”

“The Russian kitchen? Jesus, now they have their own kitchen? What’s wrong with our cafeteria?”

Lopez shrugged. “Our cafeteria doesn’t make piroshki.”

“Don’t you see this is only going to push us further apart? How are the Russians eating their own food in their own base helping us come together?”

Lopez shrugged a third time. The shrugs and her little smirk made a maddening combination. “Maybe—and hear me out on this—if the dude who speaks Russian actually goes over to their base to get a snack, it would help?”

“I don’t have time for snacks. This manifest. There are issues with it, I think. I don’t see how they could have gotten here unless—”

“Don’t see how they could have gotten here? Dane, they are here. And they’re making us treats. I think you need to take a break. These things are delicious, though everyone says they’ll be better with—”

“Let me guess. Mushrooms?”

“How did you know?”

“Lucky guess. You’re right, though. I could use a break, and I will. As soon as I’m done with these spreadsheets. I’m telling you, the mass doesn’t seem right.”

“The thing about spreadsheets is that they’ll always be there for you. That is their blessing and their curse. How about you come with me and have a little fun, and when we’re done, I’ll look at your spreadsheets with you? If you tell me what’s going on, I’m sure I can help prove you right or wrong.”

“You want me to come with you and have a little fun? Are you serious?”

“Not as serious as you, obviously, but yes. I think a little fun is in order.”

“Fun is for the weak,” Dane quipped.

Lopez only quirked an eyebrow.

“That was a joke,” Dane explained. “I guess you would know that if I actually did anything fun.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’ve been busy and all that. Come on. This won’t take long.”

Dane followed Lopez out of his quarters, through a hall, and down the stairs toward the lower levels.

“It feels good to go for a walk,” Dane noted.

“I see you running around here all the time. Unless you’re telling me that your obsessive workout routine isn’t actually fun.”

“You have a point. So, what are you going to show me? You and the engineers figure out how to make ice cream or something?”

“Oh, wow, Dane. If that’s your idea of fun, we have a lot of work to do. This way.”

Lopez opened an airlock and led them into a transparent tube that ran along the ocean floor.

“Lopez, if you’re taking me to the Russian base, I’m not in the mood, all right? Can we do this another time?”

“Last time I checked, the Russians are part of our base and also not inside a different mountain.”

“I… Where are you taking me?” Dane realized Lopez was leading him not to the area in front of the volcano but into another mountain. The transparent tube led directly inside. They followed it into the gloom.

“We discovered this cavern about six months ago. Believe it or not, it already had a pocket of air when we found it. Toxic, of course, but it got us thinking we could use this area as a second moon pool.”

“A second moon pool? For what, the Russian subs?”

“Oh, this is much better than Russian subs,” Lopez promised.

They emerged from the tunnel into a wider room…and what a room it was. Every centimeter of the ground, ceiling, and walls was covered with crystals.

Dozens of different shapes and hundreds of colors sparkled all around them. Huge, multifaceted crystals jutted from the walls, many thicker and longer than a man’s arm. Some bigger than a person. Sprays of red and yellow crystals emerged from the ceiling. Sparkling flows of multifaceted gems covered the ground. Some looked like flowing liquid, while others appeared made of glass. Still more resembled growths of coral. With every step Dane took, different facets sparkled and changed. With every turn of his head, a hundred majestic stones caught his eye.

“Believe it or not, the ambiance is only a bonus,” Lopez divulged.

“You mean you didn’t bring me here to look at all this?”

“I didn’t take you for a crystal bro, but if you need your chakras aligned, we can make that happen.”

Dane chuckled. “No, that’s fine. “I’m only surprised there’s more to this cave than…this cave, I guess.”

“We were surprised, too, except we didn’t find this end first. We discovered the other end from the water. After we realized we had something this close, Granger decided we had to connect it to the base. We punched through the rock back there and paved this one path.”

Dane looked down. He hadn’t even realized they’d been following a path, but it should have been obvious. Every other part of the ground bristled with variously shaped crystals. Some looked like they could poke a hole in his shoe, while others appeared slick as ice. The path they walked on meandered through it all. “I’m surprised you paved it,” Dane managed. He was still awestruck.

“Most of the crystals in here are still growing, at least as far as we can tell. One of the engineers is a rock nut, so Granger put her in charge. She chose this path because it was the ‘least destructive to the energy of this place.’ Her words, not mine.” Lopez lowered her arms after making air quotes around the borrowed phrase.

“Well, not to be a crystal bro, but she did a good job. It’s cool how the path gets closer to some of the walls, then pulls away.”

Currently, they were an arm’s span from what looked to be an entire wall made of emerald. It sparkled with an inner light.

“Once she decided on the best path, Granger stepped in. She said no one would want to preserve this place unless we lit it up.”

“I don’t see any light fixtures.”

“They’re all hidden behind crystals. Melinda, that’s the crystal girl, didn’t want anyone to go in there at all. Granger said that wasn’t an option, though.”

“She pulled her from the mission?”

“Nah. Put her in charge of doing as little damage as possible.”

“Clever.”

“Right? Maybe you should try it with some of the Russians.” Lopez raised an eyebrow.

“Wait a minute. Did you bring me here to help me cleanse my aura or whatever, or did Adams put you up to this?”

“I…might have been asked to help you decompress, but I swear I did not expect you to nerd out over the crystals. That’s a bonus.”

“Then why did you bring me here?”

“Right this way.”

Dane followed Lopez down the twisting path.

After a thousand more crystals, they came to a part of the cave where none grew. Instead, whitish rock led down to a pool of water. The rock looked like it had been scrubbed clean, which almost made Dane’s soul hurt to think what must have been here before.

“I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not what it looks like. This part of the cave was submerged in seawater until we took over, so there were no crystals here. Only some of the zingers, which we relocated, and some urchin and barnacle analogs.”

“This is what you wanted me to see? Another entrance into the base? You understand that from a security perspective, this is bad, right?”

Lopez giggled. In the echo of the cavern, the sound was almost intoxicating. “I don’t think you need to worry about anything getting in through here. Certainly not murder stars.”

“What is that supposed to mean…” Dane trailed off when something popped from the water, then dropped back beneath. “Was that a nessie?”

“Not one, but two.” Lopez walked to a workstation built into a stone wall. It was perhaps twenty feet from the water’s edge and surrounded by crystals. It had to be the most awesome workstation Dane had ever seen. It became even more impressive when Lopez opened a cabinet door to reveal a fridge.

“Oh, now I get it. You brought me all the way out here for snacks!” Dane slapped his own forehead as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Didn’t realize you liked raw fish guts soaked in vinegar, but sure, Dane. Whatever floats your boat. Or submersible, I guess.”

The smell coming from the bucket Lopez took from the fridge made it clear she wasn’t bluffing about the contents. When she used tongs to toss a chunk of fish into the water, he realized he wasn’t wrong about snacks. They simply weren’t for him.

As the stinky fish hit the water, a head emerged, followed by a long neck. The nessie scooped up the fish guts and happily munched them while a second nessie surfaced and extended its long neck toward Lopez.

“Don’t you think you should step back?” Dane asked.

“Ugh, fine.” Lopez took a few steps back so the long-necked creature could not quite reach her or the bucket. “For the record, I’m not stepping back because I’m scared of them biting me. Only because if I don’t, Agus here will eat the entire contents and get a tummy ache.”

“Agus?”

“We went Scottish since we call them nessies. His sister is Isla.”

Isla raised her head from her snack and looked at Lopez. Dane told himself the creature had not recognized its name, and coincidental timing made it look that way.

“So you’re feeding them rotten fish guts…why?”

“The viscera of these fish are particularly high in calories and nutrients. Our food engineers tried to find a way to feed them to people, but there are toxins, particularly in the liver. The nessies are adapted to it, but we’re not. We get fish sticks, and they get the rest.”

“Why does it stink?”

“Oh, that’s vinegar. It turns out they prefer to eat acidic things. The working theory is they adapted to be able to eat the murder stars and their super-corrosive digestive juices, and their sense of taste followed. A lot of this is still guesswork and conjecture, you understand, but one thing’s for sure. Agus and Isla love stinking fish guts.”

“I can see that,” Dane remarked.

Lopez tossed another stinking helping of fish guts toward Isla, who caught them in midair. She threw some to Agus, but he was too close. He tried to move back but only succeeded in bumping his head against the ceiling. The fish guts hit the floor, and Agus lapped them up with a frighteningly long tongue.

“And it’s safe to feed them?”

“Dr. Alvarez thinks it’s our best bet for fully integrating them into our society.”

“Fully what?”

“Calm down. He means integrated like dogs or cats. It’s not like he wants them to live inside the base with us.”

“Oh, right. Because dogs and cats never share living spaces with people.”

“Fair point.” Lopez giggled. “You want to feed one?”

“Sure…if you’re certain it’s safe. These things… You understand that they’ve killed people. That Stark still has a limp because of them.”

“I am. Their parents feed them in the wild, though, so we think this is the best way to build a bond. Look, this project is special to a lot of people, but no one who volunteers here thinks it’s not without risk. That’s only part of interfacing with the natural world. Some of the first people who domesticated wolves into dogs must have been bitten, but think of the rewards!”

An image of a nessie shrunken to the size of a pug, with a fat neck and bulbous eyes, briefly flashed through Dane’s head. “You mean training them to help us?” Dane tried to conjure images of German shepherds and sheepdogs instead.

“Precisely. They’re already helping us with the murder stars, but if we can actually train them, there’s no telling what we’ll be able to do in twenty years or so when children born here on Varuna start to swim with them.”

“This is…a lot,” Dane contended.

“Right, which is why we won’t really know their potential until people who’ve always known them as pets work with them. I think they’re awesome, but I still can’t help remembering what they did to Stark when we first landed.”

Dane nodded. Logically, Agus and Isla—he could not believe he was using their names—had not harmed Stark or anyone else. That was like comparing the family dog to a stray one. Different circumstances made for different behaviors.

“I get that you wanted me to relax and have fun, but I have to admit, seeing these things isn’t really doing it for me.”

“Oh, I know. It’s impossible not to see them as predators until you get in the water with them.”

“Wait, what?”

Lopez had retreated to the workstation once more. This time she produced a pair of wetsuits from a drawer. “Put this on.”

Dane took the wetsuit, turned his back to Lopez, and changed. “You decent?” he asked, trying not to think too much about what Lopez looked like out of her uniform and not yet in a wetsuit.

In reply, she splashed him.

Dane was shocked to find her already in the water with the two long-necked sea beasts.

“Grab those harnesses before you get in.”

Dane nodded and dragged the bundles toward the water.

“All the wetsuits down here are custom-made with an activator in the wrist. Do you see that button?”

“I do.”

“That will shock them. Hit it once, and their collar gives them a small zap. A warning. Hit it repeatedly or hold it down, and it will overwhelm their system. Do that if they bite you, and use the small shocks to redirect if needed.”

Dane nodded. “This is a bit more than training a puppy.”

“I prefer this, actually. These two are already potty-trained.”

Dane waded into the water.

“We’re still working on the harnesses. Obviously, we feed them more fish once it’s on to reinforce that it’s good to wear harnesses, but it’s a work in progress. If they nip you, shock them, but they shouldn’t if you do what I do.”

“Easier said than done, I imagine, but let’s see what you got.”

“Sure.”

Lopez left the water and grabbed one of the harnesses, untangling it from what Dane thought was a sort of saddle. In her other hand, she grabbed a chunk of stinky fish and held it out for the nessies.

Isla came forward first, extending her long neck toward Lopez. Lopez tossed the fish on the ground, and the nessie lowered her head to pick it up. When she raised her head again, Lopez was ready. She slipped the harness over the nessie’s head and down her long neck until it rested on her body. She moved quickly, so by the time the nessie finished chewing and swallowing, the harness was in place.

“You need to work quickly. They don’t like their necks being touched, but we haven’t found a better way to make sure it’s secure enough. They won’t bite, but they will nip.”

“Nip? Couldn’t they take off a finger?”

“More like a hand, but I bet Thorson could grow it back for you.”

Dane took a deep breath, grabbed the other harness, then tossed some fish guts on the ground. Agus moved for the fish, and Dane braced himself. The second the nessie raised its head, Dane slipped the harness over it. Agus didn’t seem to mind. Dane slid the harness all the way down its long neck, then nestled it against its…his body.

“Well done!” Lopez enthused.

“Thanks. Now what?” Dane asked.

“Now comes the half saddle.” Lopez picked up a circular pad with a large knob sticking out from it and slung it across the nessie’s back. She affixed it to the harness around Isla’s neck. Isla didn’t seem to mind this part of the process at all.

“They’re still too small to ride, but we want to acclimate them to wearing saddles. Once we get into deeper water, we’ll attach the strap across their belly.”

“Isn’t the knob a little much? We’re not in Texas.” The saddle’s knob made it look like they were trying to ride overgrown water horses.

“Honestly, I thought the same thing, but it’s the most useful part. You can actually get a decent grip while they swim.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t ride them yet!”

Lopez winked. “I may have exaggerated. You coming?”

Dane tried to push everything from his mind except the task at hand. At least the spreadsheet was no longer weighing on him. Agus didn’t appear to mind the saddle any more than Isla did. Dane got it connected and positioned it on his back without issue.

Now that he was in the water with the nessies, he was immediately aware of how intelligent the creatures were. They appraised him with as much interest and caution as he appraised them. Agus watched him carefully while using the lines of fins on either side of his body to pedal backward from the shore.

“They can’t escape into the open sea? This guy seems nervous.”

“There’s a gate at the end of the shaft. Necessary for now. And of course Agus is nervous. He’s never met you!”

Dane shook his head. Were the nessies really capable of recognizing people? He didn’t see how it was possible. After all, he couldn’t tell the nessies apart. Well…that wasn’t entirely true. Agus had more horizontal stripes on his body than Isla. She had stripes too, but they looked better camouflaged. Plus, Isla’s fins seemed slightly thicker than Agus’.

The two nessies behaved differently as well. While Agus carefully backed away from Dane, Isla swam in circles around Lopez. Lopez laughed as she splashed at the nessie and tried to move toward it, a futile gesture considering how fast the creature was even in this relatively shallow water.

“Are you two…playing?” Dane asked.

“Oh, yeah. Getting her to stop playing is the hard part. Alvarez says they learn through play, which means you need to help yours catch up!”

“Hard to believe we ever called these sharkosaurs,” Dane muttered. To Lopez he said, “How do I play with it?”

“I thought you said you weren’t the antithesis of fun.”

“I definitely didn’t say that,” Dane countered.

“Try splashing. Or have you never played in a pool before?”

Dane didn’t point out that the last time he’d been in a pool was to practice zero gravity maneuvers before the war. He had swum outside the base in the ocean of Varuna plenty of times, but considering the two known human predators and countless unknowable threats, Dane rarely thought of his forays into the ocean as “fun.”

Still not quite believing what was happening, Dane splashed the sea monster.

Agus immediately froze, his questing head and neck still for once. Then a great wave splashed Dane in the face.

“Pretty good aim!” Dane sputtered and splashed at the nessie’s face.

Agus whinnied. The noise was hollow and empty compared to how it sounded underwater, though the reverberation of the cave wall made it beautiful in a different way. The nessie dove underwater and vanished from sight, only to reappear next to Dane and positively swamp him with another splash.

“I liked you more when you were a cryptid!” Dane splashed the nessie while it swam circles around him, dipping its head out of the water and back in like a dolphin.

“Agus likes the ball, for your information.” Lopez gestured toward a floating ball that Dane hadn’t noticed. Probably because he’d been paying too much attention to the crystal cave, the living alien dinosaur, and the smell of the fish guts.

Dane swam to the ball and lifted it above his head like a soccer player ready to throw in bounds. Agus waited, his head slightly cocked. He threw the ball, and Agus tried to intercept it. He failed miserably, missing the ball with his head, neck, and a last attempt with a flipper, but he didn’t seem to mind. Instead, the nessie dove under and bopped the ball from beneath the surface with the tip of his nose. It flew out of the water and came close enough to Dane that he was able to dive and catch it.

As soon as Dane’s feet left the ground, Agus swam beneath his body and kept him from touching the ground. Dane might have freaked out if the sea monster wasn’t already harnessed and saddled. He grabbed the saddle horn. Agus took off, swimming underwater at a pace that Dane would need a machine to accomplish. The mouth of the cave shimmered in the water, beckoning them. Agus swam toward it, eager to go out into the world. Dane might have let him, but he was already out of air.

Dane let go and kicked for the surface. Agus did not continue into the open sea without him, but he didn’t come back and check on him either. Dane breached and sucked in a delicious breath of air, made sweeter because his lungs had started to burn.

“He tried to take you out?” Lopez asked.

“Yeah! I think he wants to go for a real swim.”

“He’s not supposed to do that unless we have on rebreathers. We need to give him a shock.”

Agus surfaced then, though he didn’t look like he wanted to play anymore. Instead, he hung his head and looked at the water in front of Dane.

“Aw, you know you messed up, don’t you, Agus?” Dane asked.

Agus made a different sort of fluting whinny and swam toward Dane. Dane reached out and rubbed his snout, and the nessie perked up.

“He knows he did wrong. We don’t have to zap him, do we, boy?” Dane asked.

“Well, we can’t zap him now. Reinforcement like that needs to be immediate.” Lopez chuckled. “Still, I’m surprised the military man is opposed to punishment.”

“If I could make him do pushups, I would. Actually, I have a better idea. Let’s make him do some laps!”

“Sounds good to me. Grab some rebreathers, and let’s go.”

Dane splashed from the water and snagged a pair of rebreathers. In the time that they’d been here, they had developed a variety of systems for moving about underwater. Nearly all the devices let the user stay underwater for an extended period of time, though these looked more elaborate than the ones in the elevator’s emergency supply cache. Instead of simple devices that fit inside the mouth and were held in place with the user’s teeth, these looked more like helmets. A large mask fit over the face, a hose went to a small tank and apparatus that strapped to the body, and best of all, a fin stuck up like a mohawk.

“What is this for?” Dane asked, trying not to laugh. “Is there a chance we’re going to meet Poseidon and need to look the part?”

“I know you’re joking, which is a shock, but you’re actually not that far off. We’ve discovered the nessies communicate at least on some level with their fins. They don’t have sign language or anything like that, but we’re fairly certain they pay attention to the fins for emotional and contextual cues. There’s a ‘hunting’ movement, for example.”

“So what, you want me to wiggle my head around to tell Agus where to go?”

“If you can figure out how to direct an alien by wiggling your head, then yes, I think you should one hundred percent go for it. The fins are there so they know when it’s safe for them to tow us around. We figured if they can recognize fins, they can recognize whether one is there or not and make that connection. I like your idea, though. What wiggles were you thinking of using, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Never mind.” Dane put his rebreather mask on and tightened it, so Lopez couldn’t see his face. It wouldn’t do for the chief of security to be caught blushing.

Mask on, he tossed the other rebreather to Lopez. He adjusted the straps and made sure it was watertight while she did the same. He was about to head into the water when he spotted a carbine hanging from a vertical shelf of the workstation.

“Better to have one and not need one than to need one and not have one,” he remarked, quoting one of his favorite classic vids.

“Are you serious? Being on the back of an alien marine predator isn’t enough for you?” Lopez teased.

Dane shrugged. “You never know. Do I need to put a fin on it or something?”

“It’s fine. If we see any murder stars, though, let Agus get them before you try to take any potshots. All right?”

“I’ll have you know, I don’t take ‘potshots.’ But sure, I’ll let the nessie snack.”

“Great. Let’s go.”

They dove underwater as the pair of nessies circled around them. Now that Dane was looking for it, he could see their fins moving differently. They were faster now, as if the motions were less intentional. Perhaps ready for action.

“You ready?” Lopez asked over the radio inside the rebreather.

“What do I do?”

“Grab the saddle horn and try to hold on.”

Lopez, ever the model of an active style, grabbed the horn on Isla’s saddle and allowed the nessie to tow her down the tunnel to the exit.

Agus seemed eager to go, so Dane clutched his saddle horn, and the nessie dragged him into the depths of the cave. The creature was almost breathtakingly fast. Dane nearly slipped but managed to hold on. He could only imagine how amazing this would be if he could actually ride the things. He was getting ahead of himself, though.

They reached the end of the cave. Lopez inputted some commands, and the gate opened. The ocean world lay before them.

Dane held on tight.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The cave opened into a valley next to the one that housed Homebase. This was the least developed of the three. Small posts marked its edges, the electric fence to activate Agus’ and Isla’s collars if they went the wrong way. Other than that, not much had been done to it.

A few large stands of zingers reached toward the sun, their branches shimmering like topaz, rubies, and emeralds. Among them swam an assortment of bony fish, odd crustaceans, and a few well-camouflaged creatures that Dane could not guess the parentage of. The plague of murder stars had cleared out most of the area. In the intervening time, stumpy zingers had begun to regrow, and towering strands of kelp had already reached the surface.

Dane was accustomed to scanning these environments for threats. Now, on the back of a nessie, he saw them simply as part of the world where he lived.

“We normally let them explore a bit when they first come out. It seems to help with their energy levels,” Lopez explained.

Dane glanced over to see Isla swimming toward the bottom of the valley and Lopez holding the saddle horn with both hands. It was a beautiful sight with the sun streaming down and the riot of seafloor colors reaching up to meet it. Isla swam high enough that her body would not bump any corals but low enough to poke her head around inside the growing structures.

She snapped at something, and a sort of squid with a shell swam away. She snapped a second time, then a third, but was unable to catch it. She reminded Dane of a toddler trying to spear a grape with a fork. Obviously, she was still young and had a lot to learn.

At least she had figured out how to swim above the coral. Rather than coasting along like Isla, Agus twitched after each creature that swam past him. This was not a successful strategy. By the time Isla had caught three snacks, Agus had yet to catch one.

“Is there a way to help this guy steer?” Dane asked over the radio.

“We’re working on getting them to respond to taps near the shoulder. Tap once to go right or left, or at the base of the neck to go straight, though they don’t always listen to that one. Tap twice for a tighter turn and more than twice for an emergency.”

“What about making them go faster?”

“We’ve tried the base of the neck, but it doesn’t seem as sensitive.”

“Port and starboard but no acceleration. Got it,” Dane replied.

He watched the play of creatures below them. They were far enough behind Isla now that many of the creatures that took shelter when she passed were starting to poke from their hiding places.

A sort of crab with a boneless, tail-like appendage that looked like a cross between a scorpion’s stinger and a tentacle watched Isla retreat instead of turning toward Agus. He tapped on Agus’ right shoulder. To his delight, the nessie readjusted its course, then noticed the crab creature.

The crab caught the approaching predator as well, but not soon enough. It tried to bury itself in the sand, but Agus nipped its tentacle tail and pulled it off the seafloor. He slurped it up like a rice noodle, then chomped through the crab like the world’s crunchiest spring roll.

After that, Agus became much easier to work with. Dane led him to catch another couple of morsels. As far as he could tell, there was no food the nessie did not like. He marveled at how well they worked together after only a little practice.

“Agus seems to really like you,” Lopez remarked.

“I like him too. I mean, what’s not to like? Submersibles are cool, but riding a sea monster is amazing.”

“Never thought I’d hear the hero pilot admit that a water horse is better than a water car. Strange times, these.”

Dane chuckled. “My forearms aren’t tired from holding on yet. Agus seems at least temporarily satisfied. Where else can we go on these two?”

“We can take a lap around the whole base. If you can keep up, that is.”

Without releasing the saddle horn, Lopez changed her stance. She brought her legs down and planted her feet on one of the pairs of fins that ran along the nessie’s legs. Not the last pair, Dane noticed. Those looked more maneuverable than the other sets. With a bit of shifting, Lopez had both hands and feet on the sea creature, and her body scrunched like a horse jockey.

Isla took off.

Her fins blurred into motion, and she darted toward the passage from this valley to the next.

“Come on, Agus. We can’t let a couple of girls beat us!” Dane tried to lower his feet to the right spot and managed to plant one of them before Agus darted off with a burst of speed. Dane held on, his shoulders aching as he attempted to place his feet in the right spot.

“Oh? Did your sexist nonsense not carry over to an alien species on an alien world?” Lopez quipped when Dane finally planted his feet so he could ride Agus at higher speeds. She’d waited for them in the next valley, far enough inside to make it clear she’d won the race.

“I guess it did not,” Dane admitted.

“Not a surprise, really. Try to keep up, boys.”

Lopez and Isla led them into the next valley at a more comfortable pace. Agus’ flippers were quite sturdy. That explained how the nessies were so fast. Still, it was amazing to feel the bone and muscle of this great beast working when before he’d only seen them as a type of deadly fish.

This valley housed Homebase and all the Russian disks. From their vantage point, swimming above and beside it, the view was breathtaking. Homebase remained an engineering marvel. One never got used to the sight of a volcano dotted with windows and bits of spaceship plating. It had only grown more impressive since Governor Adams implemented her plans and Petrov incorporated his own.

The most obvious expansion was the Russian disk-shaped habs. They sat in front of Homebase, four circles arranged in a near-perfect square. Two of them were already inflated. They looked like bubbles trapped in a spider web, but Dane knew they were sturdy. The other two disks lay flat, their scaffolding still unassembled.

Despite the Russians’ hurry to set up the habs, there was still a labor pipeline. They had taken close to half of their people out of hibernation, but it wasn’t enough to necessitate opening a third hab. The Russians could not reasonably deny there was room in Homebase. Not when another hab would require more air and more maintenance. It was only a matter of time before they finished all four. However, maybe he could use this time to foster relationships with the Russians like the captain had recommended.

“I love the look of the tubes from out here,” Lopez declared.

“Oh, wow,” Dane voiced. Perhaps not his most elegant statement, yet it did a decent job of summing up what was happening below.

The busiest tunnel was the one from Homebase to the closest inflated Russian hab. Through the transparent material, people could be seen coming and going. Some walked unencumbered, but most either carried boxes or tools or pushed carts. Robot dogs with loads on their backs trundled along behind a few of them.

Another tube led from the first hab to the second. It also bustled with activity. The laborers’ attention focused on connecting a tube that would run from the second hab back to the tube that led from the first to Homebase. This central tube would become a walkway connecting all four habs to the base.

Dane imagined pedestrian “traffic jams” as people in Homebase waited for the airlocks to cycle so they could head for the domes and get to work. Maybe one day, they wouldn’t need airlocks between the various sections. Maybe they’d find a way to coexist with the Russians that didn’t scream “danger” every time anyone passed through a doorway.

Or maybe not. Dane considered the captain’s words. She was right. He should be trying harder to build bridges with the Russians. He spoke their language, after all. As chief of security, it would be useful to get to know who they were.

“Oh, look, there goes the elevator!” Lopez pointed out.

The second tube extending from Homebase led to the small outbuilding that served as the base of the elevator. Dane watched as the sphere slowly pushed into the transparent tube, then gained speed.

“You can’t tell when you’re in the elevator, but the car slightly rotates when it’s going horizontal at full speed like that,” Lopez remarked.

“I used to fly fighter jets in space. I can tell when the floor is weird,” Dane joked.

“Fair enough.”

“It is quite the ride, though,” Dane agreed. The elevator shaft snaked through the first valley, then through the kelp forest in the second before ascending in the third, above the regrowing zinger habitat that lived beneath the floating platform. He glimpsed the elevator starting its upward journey through the gaps in the mountains and the obscuring effect of the water.

“That’s why we designed it. There was a real lack of rollercoasters on this planet.” Lopez laughed.

“And here I thought you were looking for ways to get around besides a good old-fashioned submersible.”

“That had nothing to do with it. We’re pro-rollercoaster, not anti-sub. Follow me if you can. Let’s go to the next valley.”

Isla instantly obeyed Lopez’s command to turn right. Dane tapped Agus’ shoulder, but his mount did not respond. He tapped again, and Agus swam in a circle, chasing his own tail. Obviously, Lopez and Isla had been practicing. Dane wondered if he needed to spend some time practicing with Agus. From a security perspective, of course.

Fortunately, after a moment of chasing his tail, Agus either spotted Isla or got Dane’s message and followed the other nessie to the next valley.

As they crossed into it, a new sensation filled Dane. He was currently holding Agus with both hands, his forearms resting on the nessie’s body, feet on fins, and shins pressed to the creature’s sides. So when Agus sang, Dane’s body vibrated with the nessie’s song.

This was how their song was meant to be heard. Dane was certain. In the air of the cave, the sounds had been off. Hollow and incomplete. Here in the ocean, there was a richness to the vibrations. He obviously did not know what the call meant, but he felt Agus was definitely saying something.

“The way they sing. It’s incredible.”

“That’s their greeting,” Lopez informed him.

“Greeting?” Dane asked.

“Ten o’clock. Past the perimeter.”

Dane looked and discovered a pack of wild nessies. Five of them, all collared, swimming along the edge of the perimeter.

“Is that a problem?”

“We don’t think so…” Lopez sounded unsure. “We keep the perimeter up when our nessies are out. In fact, it’s keyed to the gate on their pen. When we open the gate, it pings the system to make sure the perimeter is on. So far there haven’t been any problems. The wild nessies stay out, and ours stay in. It is something we’re watching.”

“They’re communicating, though?” Dane inquired.

“We think so, but again, we don’t know the complexity. Many animals on Earth greet each other. Birds, for example. That did not necessarily indicate any higher level of intelligence.”

“I seem to recall ravens being one of the more intelligent animals.”

“Don’t let the nessies hear you say that. Come on. Let’s check out the new kelp farm.” Lopez urged Isla to go faster, and the young nessie was happy to oblige. She dove down into the kelp valley.

Dane had hardly given the place a thought, but now he saw people had been busy here. Much of the area was still in its wild state. Humans swam among towering pillars of kelp, hunting for creatures of this world with spear guns and nets. A more predictable form of agriculture took place on the floor of the valley.

People in wetsuits moved back and forth between rows of kelp. Unlike terrestrial crops, these were vertical rows. Ropes spanned the fifty or so meters, anchored to the seafloor and a floating buoy at the surface. They were not as lush as the native kelp, but there were many more varieties in greens, reds, and purples.

“Those are Russian samples,” Lopez explained when she noticed where Dane was looking. “They brought quite the library from Earth. For all the bounty of this planet, it’s mostly the meat we’ve found digestible. Like Earth, nearly every plant has a defense system. The creatures here have organs to filter that out, but we don’t have their tens of thousands of years of evolution.”

“That was…nice of the Russians. To bring all that, I mean.”

Lopez giggled. “I don’t think nice had anything to do with it. They thought the colony ship they’d sent here was successful, remember? They probably figured these kelp samples were the final component to outcompete the Cosmos crew.”

“They’re sharing them now, though. That counts for kindness,” Dane stated, though he didn’t know if he was trying to convince Lopez or himself.

“Agreed.”

They passed over the farm, the nessies slowing only to snatch a jellyfish-like creature from the net of a fisher, then entered the third valley of human habitation. This one was less cultivated than the last, though Dane could see the work of humans here as well. The space stars had wrecked the ecology, but the humans had not been willing to wait long enough for natural regeneration. They’d harvested zingers from up and down the underwater mountain range and re-planted them here.

It looked natural enough if one didn’t notice the clumps of color were roughly the same size and seemed to follow a pattern. Dane wondered who had designed it. Whoever it was must have considered the view from the elevator, as this was the first place visible when descending from the platform.

In a way, it made Dane jealous of the last Russians brought out of hibernation. He had emerged to a cruel world that had taken the life of every human who’d previously visited its surface. Those brought out now would find not only a thriving underwater base populated with a diverse community but also a farm, pets, and even an ornamental garden.

He wondered how seeing the world like that for the first time would color his perspective. Heck, he could already feel his perspective changing from this one jaunt. More people needed to go on nessie rides!

He scanned for the other nessies. They had been swimming around the outside of the mountains that bordered these valleys. Sure enough, he spotted them placidly swimming outside the human zone. Could the adults be tamed? If they accomplished such a feat, it might change the trajectory of their entire mission on this planet.

Agus seemed to think along similar lines because he let out a plaintive cry.

“You think you can convince them to be our friends, buddy?”

Agus did not reply, of course. He only let out another of the calls. When Dane looked to see how the nessies responded, they were gone.

“Lopez, do you have eyes on the wild nessies?”

“I don’t, but that’s typical. They come and go as they please. You don’t need to worry about it. They’re all being tracked. Someone would let us know if they were too close.”

“Actually, it’s them being far that concerns me.”

“What are you talking about?”

Dane tapped Agus to head toward where the nessies had been. Agus sort of rumbled and refused to go.

“It’s all right, buddy. We just want to see where your cousins went.”

Agus refused again and nearly knocked Dane off.

“Fine, then. I’ll go myself.”

Dane pushed off Agus and swam toward the edge of the human area. He made it about four meters before a set of incredibly long jaws filled with hundreds of serrated teeth emerged from the depths.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Dane immediately tried to retreat and grab his nessie, but Agus was gone. The young nessie was already twenty meters away and getting farther every moment. The only good thing about Agus’ flight was that he’d headed for the cave where Dane first met him. Though that was also a bad thing, as the Big Damned Fish was following the movements of its favorite prey. That meant it would crash through three valleys of human habitat, potentially wrecking the elevator, farms, Russian habs, and maybe the volcano base itself.

None of that was permissible in the chief of security’s mind.

Thanking his past self for bringing the carbine and cursing that same self for not bringing a larger weapon, like a missile, Dane unslung the carbine.

He got his legs going in an eggbeater pattern to remain as stable as possible, then took aim and fired. He hit the side of the BDF, as evidenced by a tiny cloud of red in the water. Yet the fish did not care, if it had even noticed.

It pumped its huge tail and drew closer to Agus. Dane couldn’t see Lopez anywhere.

“Lopez, are you all right?”

“We’re fine! We see Agus, but where are you?”

“Trying to stop the circle of life,” Dane grunted and fired another shot. This one hit the meg in the tail. The fish did not slow its pace an iota. It was closing in on Agus and knew it. It spread its huge jaws and pumped its tail harder to overtake the struggling nessie.

Dane took aim at the base of one of its fins and fired. He hit, and this time the megichthyosaur noticed. It turned toward Dane as it snapped its jaws shut. It missed Agus, but the eddies from its huge mouth sent the nessie tumbling.

Dane aimed, but as the mighty creature faced him, he understood the futility of the gesture. One did not try to stop a charging buffalo with a BB gun. Firing the carbine at the BDF would be even less effective.

Instead of firing, Dane tried to swim laterally. Not away from the BDF but out of its path. He cleared its body length but not its massive, crocodile-like snout that could grab to either side. Dane’s only hope was to be swallowed whole. The roof of the creature’s mouth was wide enough that he might be able to avoid the teeth on either side.

Before Dane became Varuna’s own Pinocchio legend, Lopez and Isla swooped in and grabbed the strap of his carbine. Isla was swimming at full speed, and the BDF had not seen her approach. They cleared the megichthyosaur’s snapping jaws with inches to spare.

“I guess this gun was good for something, after all!” Lopez remarked.

“It saved Agus’ life! That counts for plenty!”

Whatever quip Lopez might have replied with went unheard. While the nessie had been able to make it past, the megichthyosaur could not turn quickly. It crashed into the base of a mountain with bone-shaking force.

Rocks tumbled from the volcano as the eddies caught Dane and tore him from Lopez’s grip. It seemed the waves would never cease, but Dane was certain when they did, the megichthyosaur would still be hungry.

Before he’d righted himself, Lopez once again grabbed him.

“You all right?” Dane asked.

“Not really, but Isla is fine!”

The young nessie bleated an underwater call and swam full-speed for the base. At least, her frantic movements said she was trying to swim at full speed. Too bad she was a small nessie with two adult humans slowing her down.

The megichthyosaur righted itself and once more set its sights on its snack, which had tripled in size.

“Grab my belt,” Dane urged.

“Not easy to do,” Lopez replied, but she let go of the saddle horn with one hand to grab Dane’s belt. He gave himself a moment to fall into the bouncing rhythm of the nessie’s swimming, then fired.

He either missed, or he hit some part of the meg with zero nerve endings. Either way, the result was the same. The leviathan kept coming.

“This is Lopez, calling for help! We have a meg that’s crossed into human waters! Requesting backup from a submersible and anything else we’ve got out there!”

“Roger, Lopez. We have a sub heading for you. ETA is six minutes,” came the reply over the radio.

“We don’t have six minutes.” Dane took aim, fired, and missed again.

Lopez ignored him and continued to call for help and send warnings on the radio. Even at Isla’s slower speed, they were already entering the kelp valley. There was no way all the people they’d seen fishing and farming here had already made it back to base. Dane didn’t know if the BDF would be curious to try a new food, and he didn’t particularly want to find out.

“Lopez, you need to make it back to the base, all right? These nessies are important. Make sure they’re safe.”

“Shut up, Dane. People only talk like that when they’re about to do something stupid.”

“Or brave.”

“No, I wasn’t going to say brave. Just stupid.”

“Call me stupid, then.” Dane pushed Lopez’s hand from his belt and kicked off Isla. Without the nessie to carry him forward, he instantly fell behind in the drag of the water.

He raised his gun.

Took aim at the eye of the approaching megichthyosaur.

Missed.

Aimed again and fired.

Hit.

But not anywhere that bothered the BDF.

“Oh, man.” Dane regretted not wishing upon a star the last time he’d seen one.

The megichthyosaur opened its huge jaws. It wouldn’t even have to slow down to eat Dane. It could simply close its jaws and keep swimming.

Then Dane saw a target. One of the BDF’s forearm-length teeth was brown and emerging from a bright pink, swollen gum. It was infected. Dane gave this no more thought than he did aiming for the thrusters of enemy ships. He simply pointed his gun where it was supposed to go, squeezed the trigger, and prayed.

The tooth shattered, and the BDF flinched. It was not the retreat Dane wanted, but it was better than nothing. Rather than being chomped, he slammed into the side of its long jaws. He planted his feet on its gums and pushed off, climbing onto its huge snout rather than inside it.

The BDF’s huge eyes focused on the comparatively tiny creature, then it opened its jaws and snapped them shut. The force knocked Dane loose. The BDF cruised beneath him, but before it could travel more than a couple of meters, Dane pulled the diving knife off his belt and plunged it into the BDF’s face.

It didn’t even slow. Now that Dane had left its line of sight, it chased Lopez and Isla. Isla was doing better, but she still swam too slowly. They would both be eaten unless Dane did something.

So he did something.

He grabbed one of the ridges on the BDF’s face and stabbed the creature’s face closer to its eye. It shuddered in pain but kept going. Dane yanked the blade out and stabbed again. And again. And again.

The megichthyosaur thrashed. It abandoned its nessie chase and fixated on the creature near its eye. One massive orb rotated toward Dane.

He plunged the knife into its pupil.

The megichthyosaur did not like that. Not at all.

Its mighty convulsion bucked Dane off and sent him tumbling through the water. He hardly knew if he was being hit by the waves or the creature itself. Either way, he prepared to meet his maker.

The waves subsided, and Dane caught the tail of the megichthyosaur pumping back and forth as the fish propelled out the way it had come.

It shot into the open sea and dove for the depths.

Dane felt his abdomen. Every piece of him seemed either bruised or broken, but he started back to base all the same.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The sub Lopez had called for appeared to check on Dane. He sent them on to watch the perimeter. He had no idea if the submersible could do much against the meg, but they needed something watching out there. Besides, swimming helped his aching body feel better, or so he told himself.

He reached the cave entrance where the nessies were stabled and swam inside, past the open gate. He emerged from the water and limped onto the shore of the crystal cave.

“Oh my goodness, Dane! You’re alive!”

“I am, but what about Agus?”

“You almost died, and you’re worried about the lizard?”

“I didn’t die. I’m hoping he didn’t, either.”

“He’s fine. Agus!” Lopez called and fetched a fish. The long-necked nessie’s head slowly rose from the water and tentatively took the fish. Dane hadn’t seen either of the nessies but now realized they were as close to being out of the water as he’d ever seen them. They were crowded on the shore, clearly scared but safe.

“Okay. Good. I was worried about him.”

“Well, the entire colony was worried about you,” Lopez retorted.

“Me? I’m fine. Hey, I caught a fish that was, well…” Dane spread his arms, then spread them further, bending them backward like a child trying to describe how big a piece of cake they would like. “It was a lot bigger than this!”

Lopez laughed. The first giggle seemed genuine, but the second sounded like she was humoring him, which honestly was more than he deserved.

“Chief Dane!”

“Winters.” Dane looked up through the crystal cavern and waved to the XO.

“We saw one of those Big Damn Fish come up, and the nessies were out. I didn’t realize you were down here.”

“Yes, sir. We were there for the whole show. It tried to eat Agus and Isla, here.”

“They would have, too, if not for Dane,” Lopez put in.

“Pah. It was a carbine, my knife, and a bit of luck.”

“Well, whatever it was, Governor Adams wants you in the command center. Especially if you were out there with the thing.”

“Yes, sir, more than happy to. I don’t think my plan was the best one, though.”

“Don’t pretend like you planned any part of this, Dane,” Lopez rebuked.

“We’ll want to know the full details. Come this way.”

They followed Winters through the crystal cave, into the base, and up to the top floor. When they reached the command center, Adams waited for them along with Petrov and Lev.

“Dane. Rumor has it you faced that thing down with a knife.”

“How is that already a rumor? It just happened!” Dane exclaimed.

“It is true, then? If so, wow.” Lev nodded appreciatively.

“Yeah, how weird. I have noooo idea how that could have gotten out,” Lopez drawled.

Right. Of course. Lopez had told someone, and they’d told two people, and so on. It wasn’t like anyone would sit out a rumor about the giant fish that had attacked the base.

“What happened, exactly?” Adams asked.

Dane explained how he’d seen the wild nessies vanish and how the BDF had come right for their nessies. He discussed how Lopez and Isla had saved him and that the only weak spot he’d found on the fish was not in a convenient place.

“Do we know what lures them up?” Petrov asked when Dane’s tale finished.

Dane only shrugged and looked around.

“I have no idea. I don’t think Dr. Alvarez does either,” Lopez commented.

“The nessies were out when we saw the last one,” Lev mentioned. “Could they be luring it up from the depths?”

“It’s possible,” Dane admitted, “I don’t think that’s what’s going on, though. There are almost always nessies around the base. We made the perimeter porous for that exact reason. I don’t know why two young nessies would attract that fish over a pack of wild adults.”

“Maybe they’re easier to catch?” Petrov wondered.

“I don’t think the nessies would be happy if we kept them penned in,” Lopez hastened to add.

“I don’t think that’s a viable path,” Adams agreed. “The nessies are still our best solution against the murder stars. This megichthyosaur is a threat, but it hasn’t actually killed anyone yet. I am not going to throw away our defenses against the murder stars when we know they can completely wipe out a colony if their numbers get too large.”

“I agree with that, ma’am. Better to understand these megs before we make plans around them.”

“Better to understand how to kill them, you mean,” Lev clarified.

Dane held up his hands. “I mean, yes? That would be ideal, but I don’t see how we can stand against these things. They’re what, thirty meters long? The carbine did next to nothing to it, and our subs aren’t that heavily armed.”

Lev sent a knowing look at Petrov, who clenched his teeth and nodded.

“There might be supplies aboard the Zhemchug that could perhaps generate something to do the job.”

“There might be something that could perhaps help?” Adams raised an eyebrow, though she looked at Petrov rather than Lev.

“The team on Earth was convinced this world would have life. They were less convinced the life would be pleased we had arrived. They took necessary precautions,” Petrov explained.

“You’re only telling this to us now?” Adams asked.

Petrov grimaced. “I would have said something sooner, but tensions are still high. If we started unloading weapons…well, I did not think it would help the one-colony plan.”

“Keeping secrets between commanders is not a good way to help that plan, either,” Adams suggested.

This time, Petrov shrugged. “Russia and the U.S. have worked together for centuries. Never in that time have we shown the other team all the cards. Secrets are part of our history. I do not assume you have told me every single thing about this place. Like what you have done to the security system, for example. I am completely locked out of that despite having arrived with codes specific to it.”

“That’s different,” Adams claimed.

Petrov waved away her words. “It is a secret, and that is the way of things. I tell you now that we have capabilities that might work against this fish. Do you wish to pursue them, or should I continue to keep them secret?”

Adams’ posture stiffened. Before she could answer, Lopez cut in.

“I’d be glad to connect some of these armaments to their subs, or to ours.”

“I will have my engineers examine the issue and get a report to your superior,” Lev promised.

Lopez’s eyes widened as she realized she was the only person in this room not at the top of the command chain.

“Improving the subs’ offensive capabilities is a good plan, but I don’t think we should wait around and hope that works,” Dane declared.

“What are you proposing?” Adams asked.

“We need intel. There’s no way around that. We can shoot these things when they get to our perimeter and hope it works, but I’d rather figure out why they’re coming to the perimeter at all. We might be doing something to attract them. Heck, it could be their breeding season. The fact is that we don’t know.”

“You wish to go into the deep?” Lev asked.

“Do I wish that? No. Do I think that’s our best way to get answers? I do. I understand it might be safer with a weapon, but if there’s a whole school of those fish down there, a gun will only make things worse.”

“I did not know Americans could express anything but enthusiasm for guns,” Petrov remarked.

Dane grinned. “I’m not opposed to a gun, but we need to make sure it’s big enough.”

“It’s a risk, but it makes a lot of sense. How soon can we go down?” Adams questioned.

“It’ll depend on the sub. The Dinodestroyer is rated to what, five hundred meters?” Dane asked Lopez.

“Yeah, but the seafloor is deeper than that. We could make some adjustments and maybe squeeze out a few hundred more meters, but that kind of thing takes time. We can’t rush the process and miss even a single gasket.”

Lev once more looked at Petrov. There seemed to be a river of information passing between them that Dane could not read. Again, Petrov nodded.

“Our sub can take it. We designed it to withstand pressure up to three kilometers. There is some medication we will need to take first to help with decompression, but the sub can dive that deep.”

“Great. Can one man pilot it? I’d rather not risk anyone else’s life.”

Petrov snorted. “We will not be sending you down in our submersible without a Russian aboard.”

“That’s not necessary. I’m sure I can pilot it.”

“If you think I will let you take my baby down there alone, you are crazy,” Lev retorted. “We will go together.”

“I don’t think that’s best.”

“Nonsense. Sounds like a good way to kill two birds with one stone,” Adams noted.

Lev frowned. “Two birds? But we have no guns, and I thought they were fish.”

“It’s an expression that means I’m sure Chief Dane will be more than happy for you two to go together,” Adams asserted.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

To Dane’s surprise, Lev offered to let him drive the sub.

“You’re sure? I figured there would be some proprietary Russian tech I wasn’t allowed to operate.”

“Oh, I will not be showing you any of the good stuff,” Lev countered with a smirk. “If we are attacked by one of your Big Damn Fish, I will take control. Unless that’s a problem for your American ego?”

“My American ego is so strong, nothing gives it a problem,” Dane retorted, which earned a guffaw from Lev.

“Very good, very good. Really, I would have you drive because this sub is advanced. Something like fifty years from the future, compared to when you left, and designed specifically for a water world. If we are going to integrate our people, some of yours will need to know how to drive our superior subs.”

“I thought Americans were supposed to be the arrogant ones,” Dane remarked.

“Ha! I guess you are accustomed to your tech being behind ours. Maybe fifty years doesn’t feel like so much to you.”

Dane laughed. He might not have trusted Lev, but he understood the old soldier.

They set off from the moon pool room and headed for where they had last seen the megichthyosaur emerge from the depths. The sub’s sonar found nothing in the water table beneath them, so they began their descent.

“Is this fish going to sneak up on us?” Dane asked.

“I don’t think so. We have sonar, radar, and laser scanners on this sub. We have high-powered lights too, but I am thinking we should shut those off as we go deeper.”

“Yeah, makes sense to me. I’ll take us down slowly. I’m wondering if mudslides or something like that are disturbing them. We’ve been doing a lot of construction. Maybe we dislodged something.”

“I will look for places lacking what you call the zingers,” Lev offered.

They descended slowly and saw nothing. Zingers lined the walls of the mountain range, and though they became less colorful as they dove deeper, Dane did not think it was an indication of what was happening with the megichthyosaur.

With nothing to focus his attention on and the sub scanning around them, Dane thought back to what Adams said about making allies with the Russians. Really, she had directed to make a community. Could he do that? Could he treat Lev as a friend? He knew he needed to for the good of the colony.

“So I haven’t had a chance to ask anyone except Dmitry, but how are things on Earth?”

Lev snorted. “Dmitry. The little punk found a way to ferment alcohol from our food stores. If your people had not already figured out how to fish and use our hydroponics, we would have starved.”

“Hey, we’re in this together. Our salad, your sub, huh?”

“Certainly, yes. Eh, things on Earth…things were good when we left. We had been preparing for this mission even before we heard from the Zhizn, so when we did hear, we were ready to launch. You understand we left a hundred years later than you? Comparing the worlds is…difficult.”

“Sure, sure. But you were at peace, at least?”

“We were, yes. Another period of unbridled American enthusiasm. While we Russians focused on improving our spaceships and underwater exploration, your people focused on more ways to watch television.”

“Something replaced the tablet, then?”

“Around 2150, your people found a way to fully integrate a circuit into the human brain.”

“Well, that’s…that’s amazing!” Dane remarked. People had been talking about such an advance when the Cosmos had left, but after a decade-long war, no one was spending money on research.

“Spoken like a true American. So trusting of technology, all of you.”

“I take it you didn’t trust these things, then?”

“The first one was called the Mplant, and no. To get one, you basically had to agree to put an American media corporation in your brain. At least until the Chinese and Japanese reverse-engineered their own. Then you could choose whose media you wanted.”

“So you don’t have one? The Russian version, perhaps?”

“I never saw the appeal. Why listen to music no one else can hear? Why read a book I cannot lend to a friend? And yet…”

“You got one.”

Lev nodded. “Mine does not give me directions to pizzeria, though.”

“What does it do?”

Suddenly, all the lights inside the sub turned on, then winked back out. “If I tell you that, Security Chief George Dane, I would have to kill you.” Lev actually kept a straight face for a moment before bursting out laughing.

“The technology in my head is decades old now,” he explained. “I cannot see that there is anything your own country has not done better there. Plus, without the proper tools and experience, it is not like you can take it from my head.”

“You just demonstrated that you can at least partially control this sub with your brain. The last thing I want to do is attack you.”

“Excellent. My petty theatrics worked!”

“Got me scared and curious. That’s kind of the motto of the Russian air force, huh?”

Lev chuckled. “I like you, Dane. I am glad we did not cross paths in your ancient war. It would have been a disappointment to shoot you out of the air.”

“What makes you think you could have shot me?”

Lev tapped the side of his head. “My Mplant allows me to connect with a space fighter, as it does this sub. I had a retinal heads-up display and could control it with a thought. Some systems were mind-controlled. Not weapons or steering, but others. You would have been at a disadvantage because you are dinosaur.”

“Wow, that sounds amazing!”

“Eh. It is pain in ass when you are sleeping and General wakes you up even though your phone is off.”

“Still, I can see the advantages. Though I guess there’s no burgers to be delivered on this planet.”

“You Americans and your—wait, that was joke!” Lev laughed.

“It was.”

They fell into a companionable silence as they continued to descend.

“I can’t see much down here,” Dane admitted. “Can you see anything with your augments?”

“Nothing. Mine do not allow me to interface with cameras, much less scanners. I propose we jettison a few light pods and follow them. I worry that we might attract attention. Better to have something more interesting than us, no?”

“Makes sense to me. Here, let me slow down.” Despite the controls being in another language, Dane already had a decent sense of how they worked. There were only so many ways to make something go up and down or forward and back.

They jettisoned a pair of light pods and watched them sink into the ocean of this alien world.

They were more than a kilometer down at this point, and nothing could be seen except the pair of lights descending below them.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

After eight minutes, one of the light pods vanished.

“Is it supposed to do that?” Dane asked.

“Vanish without trace? Nothing is supposed to do that,” Lev replied.

“I’m going to increase speed and head for the other one.”

“Okay, but not by much. The light pod could have been eaten by something.”

“Fair point,” Dane conceded and drove deeper.

Before they had closed the distance to the light pod, which was no longer sinking, an alarm blared.

Dane nearly jumped from his seat. Lev only cursed, then the alarms silenced.

“What the hell was that?”

“An alarm. It is my bad. I should have been paying attention.”

“To the pressure? It looks fine.” Dane gestured at the digital gauge on the screen.

“The temperature is what set off the alarm,” Lev revealed. “It’s hot out there. Much hotter than it should be.”

To make matters worse, the other light pod chose that moment to wink out. They were plunged into darkness, though without the light pods, even the gentle glow of their instrument panels seemed too bright. Yet nothing came for them. Nothing moved in the depths, at least that they could detect on their instruments. The sub’s instruments might not pick up every creature down here, but Dane was fairly certain they would find the thirty-meter-long monstrosity they’d come to see.

“I’m going to drift down a little closer. Maybe we can turn on a light and see why everything is so hot. Do we have time for that?”

“We should be safe at this temperature for at least twelve minutes.”

“At least?”

“At twelve minutes, we go. Yes?”

“Sounds good. I’m drifting down.”

“Do that, but don’t hit the lights yet. The sonar should be able to make a model of the seafloor.”

Dane watched as the sonar seemed to activate itself, though now he knew it was Lev’s Mplant. The bottom of the sea emerged on the display. It took Dane a moment to make sense of it, but when he did, everything tracked.

“It’s a deep-sea vent. That’s why it’s hot down here. I wonder if it’s related to the earthquakes.”

“Likely,” Lev agreed. “This is a volcanic mountain range, after all. I know the plates move over the hotspot, but such vents can obviously still be present.”

“These things existed all over Earth, right? Does it make sense this one would bother the meg?”

Lev rubbed his chin. “Maybe we can find a way to tell if this is a new problem or an old one.”

“I’m all ears, man from the future.”

“I think first we jettison a light pod. Then we flash the external lights for a second, and at the same moment, we take pictures and scans with every camera and device we have. While I do all that, you prepare to get us out of here.”

“It’s risky, but it could work. Hopefully, if anything sees us, it’ll go for the light pod.”

“The biggest risk is if nothing uses light down here. If there is a creature with its own sonar, the sub may be a more tempting target.”

“And if that’s the case, the light won’t matter.”

“Yes. So we are in agreement? We do it?”

“I’m ready when you are.” Dane felt the controls in his hands.

“Three…two…one…go!”

On one, Lev had already activated the flash, so when Lev said “go,” Dane drove the sub forward. The bright light made it impossible to see anything outside the vehicle. That was fine for the moment. He didn’t want to see anything out there, anyway. He drove across the landscape, gaining some altitude and placing them in a different location.

They stopped and waited. Dane watched the panels, but nothing revealed itself. “I think I’ll take us up a bit to get out of this heat,” Dane announced. Despite Lev’s assurances that the sub could take the heat, it was getting hot inside.

“Yes, makes sense.”

Dane rose a hundred meters. Though it was an insignificant distance considering they were more than a kilometer down, he swore he felt less pressure and cooler air.

“Better,” Lev remarked after Dane stopped the sub.

“All right, can you put any images on the screen?” Dane asked.

“Oh, right, sorry. There are things of interest here.”

Lev played a series of photos across the sub’s viewscreen. What Dane saw was, in a word, messy.

The vent was active. That much was certain. The photo sequences showed the hot magma spewing forth and instantly cooling. The ecosystem surrounding the vent looked every bit as complex as the one in the valleys. There were zingers down here as well, though they were pale and colorless. Equally pale crablike creatures and space stars bigger than a human. Here and there, the tails of fish retreated from the light.

Or maybe from the heat.

Clearly, this vent was active in a way it had not been previously. A ten-meter circumference of death surrounded it. Broken zingers, listlessly drifting crabs. Other creatures, impossible to describe, showed no signs of life.

“These organisms weren’t expecting whatever happened,” Lev surmised.

“Let’s see if we can find another. One vent doesn’t mean much, but if they’re all like this, it would explain why we’re getting visitors up above.”

It did not take them long to find another few vents using the built-in infrared scanners. Each was the same as the first, with evidence of recently flattened and killed life surrounding it. Obviously, the geothermal activity in the area had picked up.

Lev pointed. “There’s one that’s not yet exploded.”

“I think you might have spoken too soon!” Dane grabbed the controls and steered them away as the ground shifted and a huge bubble of superheated air rose. A flash of light and a jet of steam bubbles followed the burst from the seafloor.

Then they found what they were looking for.

“That’s a Big Damn Fish!” Lev shouted, pointing at the display as the massive monster emerged from the deep.

Dane did not need to be told twice. He threw the sub into top speed and found it was much faster than the ones they had constructed. It raced toward a mountain wall as the BDF closed the distance between them.

“We’re not going to outrun the bastard,” Dane gritted out.

“Then we hide! Look there. The sonar shows a cave!”

Dane hoped it was big enough to fit the sub, but he didn’t pay too much attention. He would much rather bump the sub’s nose on a rock than let the meg chomp it. Lev might believe his sub was strong enough to take it, but Dane had serious doubts.

It wasn’t an issue, however. They fit inside the alcove with moments to spare. The BDF rammed the wall with its long snout, filling the water with sediment and murk that obscured the creature from their sonar.

“Quick, kill everything! Everything but life support!” Dane ordered.

Lev nodded, and the sub went dead. The displays went out. The lights dimmed. Even the sound of the motor slowed and stopped. It was next to impossible to see anything in the dark, or so Dane thought, until a single jellyfish-like organism appeared in front of them.

At least, he thought so until he noticed the teeth as big as his forearms surrounding it. It was a lure, like some deep-sea fish and certain aquatic turtles used. The BDF knew they were in here and that it couldn’t reach them. That was fine with Dane. Its dangly throat jellyfish might have been appetizing to a nessie, but to him it resembled a giant, stinging booger.

Somehow, he was able to resist.

After a moment of waving its tongue lure back and forth, the BDF grew bored and swam back for the depths. They waited five minutes before so much as speaking. When they turned the sub’s systems back on and checked the sonar, the BDF was nowhere to be seen.

They went over what they learned as they ascended.

“So the megs are pissed because of this volcanic activity,” Dane surmised.

“I think we can be certain of that,” Lev agreed.

“We also know they hunt by lure, at least when they’re down here. Does that mean that they hunt by sight?”

“I do not think they have sonar,” Lev professed. “If it did, we would have heard something while we waited. I think it uses sight and touch to hunt.”

“Sight and touch. I guess that’s something.”

Lev nodded. “If they are sensitive to touch, it makes sense that the superheated water would bother them.”

“Sure. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do about that, though. We can’t drop a bunch of ice down here and expect everything to go back to normal.”

“That is true. Fixing a planet’s geologic activity might be beyond both Russian and ADN forces. We will find something together, yes?”

All Dane’s doubts raced through his head. How he had killed Russians in space, how they had tried to kill him. How he’d lied to Dmitry and taken him prisoner. How they had nearly been destroyed by the space stars and would have been if not for the theft of the Russians’ intellectual property. Despite all that, Lev still wanted to trust him.

How could someone be that willing to forgive the past? True, it was farther in the past for Lev than Dane, but Dane also knew that, in general, the Russian people had a longer memory than Americans. If this man could forgive, surely Dane could move past a grudge he’d held for over a hundred and fifty years.

“Yes, Lev. It would be an honor to work together with you. I don’t know what in the hell we can do against these Big Damned Fish, but let’s figure that out as a team.”

“Teamwork on three!”

“You really do have some weird stereotypes about Americans.”

“What, too much? Then we drink vodka and get tattoo when we return topside.”

“Now you’re just messing with me.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“So that’s what we’re thinking, anyway. The increased seismic activity causing the earthquakes has also split these deep-sea vents. It’s disrupting ecosystems down there, so the megs are coming up here for food. I only wish I knew what to do about it.”

Adams nodded. “You did well, Dane. We’ll turn over your report to our science team and see what they can come up with. It was a good idea to take the images and readings, too. You never know what someone will find.”

“My team would like to work on this problem as well,” Petrov chimed in. He had been in the command center when Dane arrived, and Adams had not hesitated to have Dane share his report. Dane had balked for half a second before remembering that Lev had literally been down there with him. No point in being nervous about Petrov finding anything out. He really did need to move past his hang-ups with the Russians. It wasn’t productive, and it was rooted in a history from another world. Now was a time for new beginnings.

“Of course. Talk to Alvarez and tell him I want half the team to be Russian.”

“With respect, Governor, it might be a better approach to have two teams work on this in parallel. One may explore an idea that the other does not.”

Adams stifled her grimace and nodded. “Makes sense, Petrov. I’ll leave it to you to brief your team. Though I’d like to know any ideas you have so we can look at implementation.”

“Of course.” Petrov nodded and excused himself.

“Anything else, Dane?” Adams asked when Petrov was gone.

“We think the megs are visual or tactile hunters.”

“As opposed to?”

“As opposed to a sense we’re less familiar with, like sonar or that things sharks do when they smell blood.”

“I’ll give Alvarez the message. Though maybe you and your security team could work something up. Could we blind or deafen them? That kind of thing.” Adams sank into a chair and rubbed her temples. “This isn’t getting any easier, Dane.”

“I understand, ma’am. I want you to know I’m ready to start helping. I went out in that sub with Lev, and…and I think you’re right. We’re going to be stronger together. Everyone who came here feels that way. I need to get over the past.”

“It’s good to hear you talk that way, Dane. Let’s hope the Russians feel the same. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to make sure Alvarez gets on this as soon as possible.”

“Of course, ma’am. Thank you for your time.”

Dane headed to the cafeteria for a quick bite to eat.

While in line, he discovered the first samples of the Russian kelp had been harvested. It had been dried, shredded, then rehydrated before being mixed with beans to form burger patties. He looked around the room, wondering how the Russians felt about their contribution being used to make American burgers.

Apparently, the Russians liked burgers as much as everyone else. Dane saw as many cosmonaut plates as Cosmos plates with burgers. Better yet, the simple fare seemed to bring everyone together. Russians gesticulated about the merits of cabbage, while Americans argued that yes, ketchup can go on a burger. The international members of the Cosmos crew looked down on either opinion, asserting to both sides that spicy toppings were the way to eat a burger.

The burgers had even brought together the most unusual of companions. Winters hunkered down with the standard American version of a burger while next to him, with far more onions and no tomatoes, sat Sophia Novikov.

“Well, there’s something I never thought I’d see,” Dane muttered.

“Sir?” the line cook in front of him asked.

“Oh, sorry. Burger, please! And give me some of that cabbage.”

The cook nodded and started fixing Dane’s burger.

Seeing all this put a smile on Dane’s face. They could make this work. Food had been the first thing to make the people of the Cosmos feel like they belonged here. Even though they’d stopped eating nessie nuggets, these kelp burgers might serve a similar purpose. Assuming they tasted good.

With a burger on his platter, Dane looked for an empty seat. Once more, he spotted Winters and Sophia dining together, though this time, he let his gaze linger. While most of the cafeteria engaged in lighthearted, full-throated discussion of their meal, Winters and Sophia seemed agitated. Winters’ brow furrowed as he leaned in so close to Sophia that their heads nearly touched. Sophia spoke rapidly in a low tone that Dane couldn’t hear over the pleasant roar of the cafeteria.

He approached them.

“You two seem to have pretty strong opinions about burgers. Mind if I join you?” Dane asked when he reached their table. He would have preferred to simply sit by Winters, but Sophia had caught his approach and glared at every step he took.

Winters said nothing, though he did not look as if he wanted company. Dane wondered if the XO had been having a less-than-platonic conversation with Sophia.

If that was the case, she was clearly not interested.

“Please, have a seat. I was finished.” Sophia stood with her tray.

“You haven’t even touched your kelp burger.” Dane pointed to the uneaten sandwich.

“I had thought it might be decent, but seeing it reminds me of the morbid obesity that plagued your people for so many decades. I am no longer hungry.”

“But it’s kelp,” Dane pointed out as Novikov stalked off.

“Don’t mind her,” Winters uttered. “She’s always like that.”

“It’s fine. Really, it’s good to see you sitting with her. I was under the impression you didn’t fully trust the Russians.”

“I don’t,” Winters said flatly and without elaboration.

“Governor Adams put you up to this, then?” Dane asked.

“Governor Adams?” Winters bit into his burger.

“Yeah. She’s been hounding me to make friends with the Russians. Saying we’re all in this together. You know, that kind of thing.” Dane took a bite and hoped Winters would pick up on the cue and continue the conversation while he chewed.

“Oh, right, yeah. Yes. That’s why I was talking with Novikov.”

“Did it work?”

“Did what?” Winters asked.

“Talking with Novikov.”

“Oh, well…” Winters paused, seeming to weigh his words. “No. No, it didn’t. I don’t trust her any more than I trust the rest. I don’t think I’ll ever trust them. Not after what they did.”

“I’m sorry?”

“In the war, Dane. I thought you of all people would know what they’re capable of.”

“We all lost people.”

“Yeah, but not everyone lost both their parents. Not everyone lost their entire city. Not everyone lost every friend they had. Their uncle. Their two cousins. Everyone.” Winters sat there staring.

“Not everyone went through that, Winters, but other people did. A lot of cities were hit with rocks. Russian cities, too. I know they struck first, but we weren’t innocent either.” Dane almost hated himself for saying it. This kind of talk was what made him distrust psychologists. How could grief be boiled down to a few sentences? How could talking to other people help? You didn’t know what they went through, and they didn’t know what you went through.

Yet at this moment, Dane wished he’d given therapists and psychologists a better shot. If he had, he might have something more to say to Winters.

“I know cities were hit,” Winters rasped. He sipped his drink and seemed to draw strength from it. “But not New York. Not Moscow or DC. They hit the port cities but not the ones where the powerful people lived. No one expected them to hit Kansas City.”

“That’s where you’re from?”

“I guess. It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s gone. They used the biggest rock they’d ever dropped, and for what? Kansas City wasn’t manufacturing anything for the war. We weren’t a major port or a financial hub. We had grain silos, but at that point, they were mostly empty. I hadn’t had corn on the cob for years. Hell, cereal was hard to find when they hit us.”

“I’m really sorry, Winters. I didn’t know that. That must have been terrible. How old were you?”

“Old enough to know it wasn’t fair or my fault. Old enough to know that whoever did it needed to be paid back.”

“Is that still how you feel? The Russians deserve payback?”

Winters drew a deep breath and sighed. All the rage seemed to flow out of him. He wilted and shook his head. He looked so weak in that moment, like maybe all that coffee he drank was the only thing keeping him upright.

“No. Of course not. I don’t know. I accepted this posting to get away from all that, you know? I didn’t have anyone back home. Passing a hundred fifty years into the future wasn’t a problem for me because I didn’t have a past I cared about. I came to Varuna because I wanted to start over. Then they showed up.”

“Which makes it a lot harder. Believe me, I get that part of what you’re going through,” Dane professed.

Winters looked at him, and for a moment, Dane saw the tears in the man’s eyes before he hastily wiped them away. “How do you deal with it?”

“With what exactly?” Dane asked, once again regretting his avoidance of therapy. As it stood, he had no chance of reading subtext.

“With them being here. I mean, they killed our people in the war. You can’t trust them, right?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. When the Cosmos launched, it was international news. Yet somehow, the Zhizn beat us here, and the Zhemchug arrived a year after us despite leaving way later. I’ll admit I feel sort of blindsided by their presence, but I think I’d feel that way if anyone showed up. At least this way, I speak the language. I don’t speak Mandarin.”

“They killed your friends, though. Right?”

Dane nodded. “Russians did, but not the Russians on this ship. These people were kids during the war. I probably killed some of their relatives.”

“Do you really think they’re going to forgive you for that? Russians have long memories, Dane. They’re not like us. Americans, I mean. We’re always innovating, looking to the future, moving on. They look in the other direction. They have an old country that’s lasted much longer than us because they hold grudges.”

“That might be true about some of them,” Dane conceded. “Still, the Russians who boarded the Zhemchug did so knowing they’d never return home. They left that history behind. They knew this world would be different. Hell, they had more of an idea of how different it would be than we did. The kind of people who’d agree to something like this are like…well, like us. People who want to build. People who want to create and grow.”

“I know you’re not that naïve,” Winters snapped.

“Heh. I wish I was,” Dane said wistfully, trying to ignore Winters’ jab. Obviously, the guy was under a lot of stress, and Dane finally understood why. Like Winters, he’d lost people in the war, but he had also taken lives. Revenge was bitter to Dane because he’d already tasted it. He knew taking a life didn’t do anything for lives already lost.

Winters had been fostering revenge fantasies for decades. He’d agreed to go on this mission simply to escape those fantasies. Now the Russians were back. It couldn’t be easy. The least Dane could do was offer reassurance.

“Obviously, we can’t trust them completely,” Dane commented.

Winters met his eyes and seemed to find strength in that statement. “We can’t?”

“My job here proves that ultimately, we can’t trust anybody, whether they’re from the Alliance of Democratic Nations, Russia, or somewhere else. People do bad things. Sometimes it’s an accident or an oversight, and sometimes it’s intentional. From a security perspective, it’s simply part of how people are. A person might follow the rules, but people never do.”

“Especially if they’re not their rules,” Winters added.

“Right. Considering how the Russians didn’t sign the same forms and swear the same oaths we did, we can expect differences in behavior. Believe me, Winters, I’m keeping an eye on them. It’s my job to keep an eye on them.”

“So you don’t trust them.”

“Not completely. I wish I did, really. It would make my job easier, but I can’t. Mistakes can cost lives. Merely following different protocols than ours could be disastrous. I promise you that if they do step out of line, I’ll be there to stop them. Even if it’s an accident. We need everyone here on the same page.”

“And if they do something intentional?”

“There will be dire consequences. We have to make sure of that,” Dane assured him.

Winters nodded and relaxed a little. “If I find any hard evidence of problems, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

“Hard evidence? Of what?” Dane asked, surprised by the phrase. He’d been trying to emotionally comfort Winters, not asking him to build a case.

Winters had already stood, his tray in hand and his burger mostly uneaten. “Thanks for talking with me, Chief. It’s good to know you’re still on the right side of this.”

“Sure, but Winters—”

The XO was already gone. As he watched Winters push past colonists, Dane wondered what their conversation had really been about.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Though the kelp burger was delicious, Dane’s stomach was unsettled at the end of the meal. He did not think the food was bothering him, though. Rather, it was what he’d heard from Winters. Dane had been so wrapped up in his own feelings about the Russians, he hadn’t stopped to think about how everyone else felt about their new roommates.

He was a war hero. He had fought back and given the Russians as many reasons to hate him as he had against them. Others might not feel that way. It felt like he’d found a sandbar, only to fall off the other end into deep water once more.

Always one to calm mental problems with physical activity, Dane sped through the corridors of the base. As a rule, he didn’t like to run right after a meal. It could make him nauseous and cause stitches. He also knew that an emergency could strike at any time, and therefore he needed to be able to run toward danger with food in his belly. Which was how he rationalized this jog.

It was harder to rationalize what led him to the tunnel into the nessie room. Part of his brain insisted this was simply a new place to run, and rather than bland walls, it led to a crystal cave. The other part was delighted to find Lopez down here.

“Dane! God, you really never stop exercising,” she commented when he came around a bend in the cave path. She wore a wetsuit and stood knee-deep in the water with Agus and Isla flanking her. She had a bucket of fish guts and a few objects, including a ball, a floating ring, and a helmet. No doubt she’d been using them to teach the nessies.

“What can I say? I exercise when I’m stressed.”

“Are you telling me that your job as chief of security for Earth’s first space colony is stressful?”

Dane laughed. He truly enjoyed Lopez’s sense of humor. For the first time, he wondered how old she was. She looked much younger than his sixty years, but then again, so did he. The rejuvenation treatments kept his body and mind in their prime. Well, as close to prime as possible without a healthy dose of exercise. Had Lopez undergone a similar procedure, or did she look her age?

“It’s not the most calming of professions, no. Lately…well, it seems twice as hard.”

“Only twice? Considering we’ve got megichthyosaurs coming up from the depths and a former enemy spacecraft in orbit above us, I figured it’d be much worse than twice as bad.”

“Ah, so you’re assuming that my months on the Cosmos trying to convince the one conscious Russian that we were friends was not stressful.”

“It must have been hard for you. Not being able to jog up there.”

“Brutal,” Dane quipped.

Lopez smiled, then nearly got pushed over as a nessie nuzzled against her, looking for a fish. “Dive, Isla,” Lopez commanded. The nessie seemed to watch the hand gestures she made more than listen to her words. When Isla surfaced, Lopez fed her a fish, then repeated the entire procedure with Agus before he pushed her over as well. Both nessies satisfied, she once more turned her attention to Dane.

“Well, what brings you down here? Unless it was the scenery.” She gestured at the crystal cave.

“I don’t know. Bad feeling in my gut. I was trying to jog it out.”

“Do you want to go out with me and the nessies again?”

“Ha. No. I’ll pass on that. I’ve had enough of the outside world for a while.”

“Oh, right! You were out in a Russian sub, huh? Down to the depths? How was that?”

“Informative.” Dane explained the broad strokes of what they’d seen—the volcanic vents, the once-thriving ecosystems now dead from increased activity, the agitated megichthyosaur that had tried and failed to lure them into its mouth.

“Dane, that sounds like really good intel. Plus, you did it with Lev! That’s got to make the Governor happy, and I’m sure Carlos will come up with something using data like that. You shouldn’t be stress-jogging. You should be doing…um, what do you do when you’re not stressed, exactly? Wait, don’t tell me. You crochet, right?”

Dane snorted. “When I’m not stressed? I don’t think I understand the phrase.”

They both laughed.

“You’re right that I’m not stressed about going down there. We did find something out. At least we hopefully know the megs aren’t coming up here because of us.”

“So what’s got you all hot and sweaty in my cave?”

“I don’t know.”

Lopez raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, that’s not true. It’s Winters.”

“Ah! Well, there we have it. What’s he done now? Is it his breath? It’s weird. I love the smell of coffee, but coffee breath is not the same.”

“Not his breath. Not the coffee. Did you know he was from Kansas City?”

“Oh, damn.” Lopez sucked in a breath. “I didn’t think anyone was from Kansas City anymore. It got hit with the biggest rock.”

“Winters lost everyone he knew there. I guess he’s been carrying it with him his entire life, not that I blame him.”

“So you’re worried about him?” Lopez prodded.

“I guess so, yeah,” Dane admitted. “I wonder if he can get over those wounds. We came so far to reach this world. Many of us because we wanted to start something new. Now the Russians are here, and it’s starting to feel like we’ll never escape Earth’s history.”

“Is Winters feeling that, or are you?” Lopez asked.

Dane didn’t know what to say, so he only sighed.

“Mm-hmm,” Lopez tutted. “I’m sure Winters is hurting. I mean, Kansas City changed the war. Got both sides to agree to limit the size of the rocks they dropped, at least. But that’s not for you to deal with, Dane.”

“He’s part of this crew, part of this community. He deserves to have help.”

“We have Dr. Ginger Alvarez to help him. She’s brilliant, Dane, and this is her job. If you’re worried about Winters, you should send him to her, or at least alert her. We’ve all been through stuff. I mean, the entire ecology of Earth collapsed because there was so much ash in the air from the war. It’s not like anyone on this ship had an easy life.”

“That doesn’t mean Winters doesn’t need help.”

“I agree, but it’s not Winters who’s compulsively stress-jogging. How are you?”

“Me? I’m fine,” Dane insisted too quickly.

“Careful. You might lose your ability to jog if you jerk your knees that bad,” Lopez intoned.

Isla bellowed in agreement.

“You’re right. That’s fair. Honestly, I try not to think about it.”

“Repression is not your friend,” Lopez told him.

“I know. It’s just… I spent a hundred and fifty years dreaming those memories. I guess I want to move past them.” As he said it, the memories kept at bay for so long surged over him.

“I lost a lot of friends up there. It got to the point where seeing a ship blow up wasn’t the worst. It was worse when they got damaged. There was one time when a ship got partly destroyed, and the pilot—his name was Kevin—his severed hand bumped against my screen. I… I knew it was him because he had these stupid knuckle tattoos…”

“You couldn’t save them.” Lopez made it a statement, not a question, yet Dane answered anyway.

“We never operated alone. Neither did the Russians. When a ship went down, there were always more threats. Some people ejected, but it’s not like they could parachute to safety, you know? For most of them, when their ship went down, that was it.”

“Them? Not us? You mean the Russians.”

Dane sighed and sank to the ground. Agus stuck his neck out and rested his head in Dane’s lap.

“I mean everyone but me,” Dane admitted. It wasn’t something he often spoke aloud. “I was an ace. Like really. I’m not trying to brag, but that’s what I was. Every time one of my friends got shot, I wished it was otherwise, but I couldn’t make myself fly worse.”

“Of course not.”

“So I kept flying, even when I lost friends. Even when I tried and failed to save them. I kept following orders, and I kept shooting down Russians. And when they put me in charge of a rock dropper, I did that as well as I flew my star fighters. It’s only because we won the war that I’m called a hero and not a monster. The Russians…they have every reason to hate me.”

“Do you hate them?”

Dane released a bleak guffaw. “This is going to sound cowardly, but no. I don’t hate the Russians. How could I? I took so many of their lives. They don’t deserve to be hated by someone like me.”

“So you’re ready for a fresh start.”

Dane nodded and stroked Agus’ head. “That’s why I came.”

“I think that’s why a lot of us came,” Lopez agreed.

When she didn’t continue, Dane did. It was nice to have someone to talk to. “I wanted to build something fresh, something new. Earth has had problems for as long as we’ve had history.”

“Longer, I’m sure,” Lopez remarked.

“Yet all those problems seem so far away on this world. Which is not to say this world is easy. I mean, I’m sitting here cuddling a dinosaur. We are not lacking new challenges. I didn’t want any of the old stuff to follow us here, but it seems like it has.”

“Do you think we can get past it now that the Russians are here?” Lopez asked.

Dane petted Agus’ head as he considered the answer. He thought for so long that the nessie retracted its head and returned to the pool.

“Once all the Russians are awake, we’ll have around a thousand people here. It sounds like a lot, especially after having six hundred for so long, but it’s really not. The human population capped at what, ten billion?”

“Ten point two,” Lopez agreed.

“Right. So many people that we reduced two hundred million of them to ‘point two.’ A thousand people sounds like a lot, but back on Earth, most people wouldn’t even stop for gas in a town with less than a thousand people. It’s not like those towns existed in vacuums, either. They had stores supplied by factories in other cities or other states. They had food grown hundreds of miles away and brought in by trucks. We don’t have any of that here. Until the Zhemchug arrived, we didn’t even have a working radio to contact the folks back home.”

“Not that any of us want to wait twenty-five years for the messages to bounce back and forth.”

“That’s my point, exactly. We’re alone out here. All we’ve got is each other. I know people have histories and those they left behind and a hundred other things to think about, but I hope we can all see the survival of this colony is more important than any of that. I hope that doesn’t make me sound naïve.”

“Not at all.” Lopez smiled gently. “I think you have more reasons to have issues with the Russians than almost anyone. It’s really great that you’ve been able to get past that old hate. It’s not always easy to move on.”

“I’m still working on it, but it seems best. We’re moving forward. We need to work together.”

Apparently, Agus agreed because he chose that moment to surface and make a wave that absolutely soaked Dane. It was exactly what he needed. His and Lopez’s laughter bounced off the cave walls as they took turns training the nessies and feeding them fish. Life on this world might always be hard, but Dane felt certain it could also be a good life. A satisfying one, in which one could see the efforts of their hard work pay off in their own lifetime.

They could live a dream on this planet…if they could survive the nightmares that already called it home.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The sound of a blaring alarm pulled Dane from his dreams.

“Evasive maneuvers,” he muttered, reaching for the controls of a star fighter he was no longer inside. His waking brain jumped more than a century into the future, and he remembered he wasn’t in space above the Earth but under the sea on Varuna. He was not a star fighter pilot sleeping in his cockpit but the chief of security sleeping in his quarters. Which meant alarms blaring were more important, not less.

He scrambled from bed, tugged on a uniform, and slapped the screen mounted on his wall.

“What’s going on?” he demanded of his security person on duty.

He was surprised and more than a little concerned when Adams answered.

“There’s been an explosion in the power room. Granger is already down there. No breach reported yet.”

“I’m on my way.” Dane made for the door and discovered he’d grabbed his sidearm and tucked it into place without a second thought. He hoped he wouldn’t need it, but as he jogged toward the stairwell, he wondered what could cause an explosion. That was what the governor said. She had not said malfunction, issue, or anything like that. She’d said explosion.

Dane was familiar with those. They were almost invariably caused by people. If that was the case here, the issue would be figuring out which people.

Things were tense enough before this, but now Dane’s thoughts ran along the same lines as Winters’. Could there simply be too much of a history between the colonists from Russia and colonists from the ADN? Dane had thought they could move past whatever happened on Earth. That would not work if new atrocities were committed on this world.

He started down the stairs. He’d chosen them over the elevator so he wouldn’t get stranded in case their power failed. They had since come up with backup power plans, but they focused on life support systems. Elevators were a convenience, not a necessity. It would not do for the chief of security to get stuck in one.

He smelled smoke before he reached the power station.

When he emerged from the stairwell onto the bottom floor of the volcano base, thick smoke clouded the hall.

“That you, Chief?” Robinson asked, handing him an oxygen mask.

“It’s me.” Dane put the mask on and moved deeper into the smoke. “I want a note of anyone who leaves. Do you understand me, Robinson?”

“You got it, sir. I’ll log anyone who comes by.”

“Do that.”

Dane followed the hallway, waving a hand in front of his face as the smoke grew thicker. In the large power station room, he could hardly see anything through the thick clouds.

“This is Security Chief George Dane! Is everyone all right?” Dane yelled.

“We have wounded over here, Dane,” Granger shouted.

Dane cursed and went toward the sound of her voice.

Granger knelt beside one of the many machines in the power generation room. The front of it was torn to shreds, and black scorch marks surrounded her. Worse were the three people on the ground. One of them sat upright, holding his gut, while a second was lying down with her hands over her ears. The third wasn’t moving.

“Is she…”

“She’s got a pulse, but it’s weird. I think. I don’t know. I’m not a doctor.”

“Let’s get her out of here.” Dane headed for one of the first aid stretchers they kept on the walls. While he walked, he radioed Robinson and instructed him to have Thorson get his medical center prepped and to send people down to get the wounded out safely.

Then he went back to the injured. When he reached them, all three were sitting up.

“Come on. Let’s get you on your feet and out of here,” Dane cajoled.

“Shouldn’t we, like, not move them or something?” Granger asked.

“They already moved themselves.” Dane knew moving injured people could cause issues, but he had other things on his mind. Those scorch marks were top of the list.

Granger didn’t argue. They helped the three injured people to the stairwell, where medical techs had arrived and waited for them.

“Is the power all right?” one of them asked. “I’m wondering if we can use the elevator to get them upstairs.”

“It should be all right,” Granger confirmed. “The explosion hit a substation. My team and I can work around that without taking too much time. No one should use the elevator to the surface, but the one inside the volcano’s fine.”

The med techs nodded and took the injured away.

“All right, let’s get to work.” Granger addressed her engineers.

Dane stepped in. “You’ll need to wait on that.”

Granger’s eyebrows nearly shot off her forehead. If they had, she simply would have gotten them tattooed back on, likely in a color or pattern to match her arms. However, they managed to stay put. “I need to get in there and fix that, Dane.”

“That’s Security Chief Dane, Granger, and believe me, I understand. I need to take a look at it first, though.”

“I’m sorry. Do you have a degree in electrical engineering that I’m not aware of?”

Dane knew she was stressed, so he resisted the urge to arrest her for insubordination. Instead, he asked her to step aside with him. She agreed, and they moved closer to the station that had sounded the alarms and filled the room with smoke.

“Do you have any idea why the substation exploded?” Dane asked.

“Of course not. That’s why I want to check it out and fix it. We do weekly checks and monthly maintenance on every component in this room. There’s no good reason for it to have done this.”

Dane gave her half a second to draw her own conclusions, but if something wasn’t powered by electricity and held together with screws, Granger could be rather oblivious.

“This needs to stay confidential, but I have to make sure this was an accident.”

Granger finally got it. He thought her eyebrows had risen before, but now they could have achieved orbit. “You don’t think that someone—”

“It’s not my job or my business to make assumptions about any of this until after I gather some data. I’m only going to take a look around, get some photos, and have a drone grab a 3D render. Then you can have your people go about keeping us alive.”

“Yes, of course. Take your time. Like I said, we should be fine in the short term.”

“Great, thanks.”

“Security Chief Dane?”

“Yes, Granger?”

“Would you like me to come with you? I can help you look for…evidence. I know what a shorted circuit looks like and doesn’t look like. If I can help, I would like to.”

“That would be great, yes. Can you ask your people to wait outside, then meet me back in there?”

“Of course.”

Together they walked back to the entrance. Granger told her people to wait outside while Dane greeted Good and told him to come in and start scanning with his drone.

He didn’t know whether he wanted to find something that proved this was sabotage or if this was merely a symptom of an aging base. Both prospects seemed bad.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Good finished his scan of the area, and Dane was ready to give up the search and try to find something in the data when Granger approached him. She had a piece of wire in her hand and a grim expression on her face.

“What’s that?” Dane asked, feeling like he already knew the answer.

“It’s a bit of wire that doesn’t belong,” Granger reported.

Dane took the wire. “Explain.”

“Everything down here uses the same gauge and plastic coating. This isn’t from here.”

“Could you and your team have put it in a while ago?”

“There’s a huge stash of spare supplies down here. We’ve been using that.”

“Where did this wire come from, then?” Dane asked.

Granger took a deep breath. “The Russians. They’ve been using this kind of wire. There’s spools of it in their finished habs and tons more in the ones that haven’t been inflated.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“I’ve seen this wire myself. Yes, I’m sure. It’s definitely Russian. Does that mean…one of them did this?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Dane admitted. “If you’ve seen spools of this wire lying around, anyone could have taken it.” Really, the definitely Russian wire could make it more likely this was a frame job, but Dane wouldn’t say that aloud. Everyone in this base was about to become a lot more paranoid about half the people here. The last thing he needed was for the colonists to suspect everyone else.

“Keep looking around. I’m going to have Adams come down here.”

By the time Adams arrived, they had gathered more evidence. Another few bits of the out-of-place wire, plus something Good believed was a blasting cap. Dane had never actually worked with explosives that weren’t launched from one space fighter to another, but Good showed them images that left no doubt in either his or Adams’ mind.

“So what does this tell us?” Adams asked.

“Most importantly, this was not an accident. Someone did this.”

“Who?” Adams demanded. “Do you have suspects yet?”

“No, ma’am. I’d like to bag what we’ve found and fingerprint this entire substation.” One benefit of everyone here traveling through space was they had the fingerprints and DNA of every person here. The downside was living in this tiny base together. An eyelash could be evidence, or it could simply mean the ventilation systems worked well. Fingerprints on the bit of blasting cap would be their best bet. Granger had been careful not to touch it without gloves, but there was so little of it left that Dane wouldn’t hold his breath.

“Damn it,” Adams cursed. “I would have liked to arrest someone and be done with this.”

“Without evidence, ma’am?” Dane was surprised. Adams was normally so level-headed.

“No, not without evidence. I don’t want anyone arrested, but God. I’ve only ever dealt with a bomb threat once, and I was an astronaut, not the head of anything. This is not something I’ve planned for.”

“I don’t have a ton of experience here either, to be honest. We normally knew who was trying to blow us up in the war,” Dane admitted.

“I’ve run a few investigations,” Good mentioned. “Not bombs, but thefts and destruction of property. They paid well for people who could do that kind of thing and keep a low profile in the private sector.”

“Then I want you working with Dane on this,” Adams told Good.

“Yes, ma’am. Of course.”

Adams paced around the site of the explosion. “I don’t think it would be wise to make this open knowledge yet. It could cause panic. Even if it doesn’t, it’ll make the issues between the ADN and the Russians even worse. Petrov and I have been trying our best, but tensions are high.”

“I thought it was getting better, ma’am, but Winters recently dispelled me of that notion.”

“No surprise there,” Adams scoffed. “What’s important right now is that we find out who did this and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Dane, that’s your priority.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Granger, tell me about the power situation,” Adams continued. She already sounded more comfortable. She preferred thinking about saving lives over ending them, that was certain.

“Well, I don’t think it’ll take us long to get all our systems back online. This power substation could have crippled the entire base, but whoever did this obviously wasn’t an engineer.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“If they had tucked the explosive under the other side of the machine, it would have been much harder to replace the damaged parts without interrupting power to the entire base. The power could have been out for a week. Maybe a month if we were forced to evacuate.”

“Who could have done such a thing?” Adams muttered. “We’re all in this base together. I don’t see why anyone would risk their own life.”

“Could be someone who knows they have an escape route,” Good suggested. “Someone with access to a sub, or the elevator, or one of the ships in orbit.”

“That’s pretty much everyone, though,” Dane pointed out. “Besides, access implies rank. If someone of rank did do this, they could have easily ordered someone beneath them to plant it. I don’t think a targeted list of suspects is the way to go.”

“You think we’ll find more of these?” Good asked.

“I do. Especially because there’s a blasting cap. I think someone made this and has likely made more. If the plan was to scare people and increase the pressure, a couple of bombs could do that.”

Good sighed but nodded.

“What are you thinking, then?” Adams asked.

“You’re not going to like this, but we need to search the complex, room by room. The base isn’t all that big, so I think we could get it done in a few hours.”

“We can’t let people see you searching, though,” Adams protested.

“People are going to know we’re searching. The thing is that the person who set this off already knows. We need to get in front of that before they can destroy the evidence. The exits are locked down thanks to the alarms, so at least we know they couldn’t have disposed of any evidence outside the base. However, we need to do more than that.”

Adams nodded, though she looked ashen. “This is not going to help with the tension.”

“No, ma’am. I imagine it’s not.”

“What exactly are you proposing?”

Dane gestured. “We need to make sure nobody can move about freely while the search is underway.”

“You want me to confine everyone to quarters? That’s not so bad.”

“Actually, I’d rather check the cafeteria, then have everyone confined there.”

“Dane, if we drag everyone out of bed and cram them all in one room—”

“It’s going to be a headache, yes. I can see the arguments over the proper use of cabbage getting bad. Yet with this base, we have the capability to do a full sweep. I think it’s our best option, but we need to do it now. The longer we wait, the less likely we’ll find anything.”

Adams did not appear to like it, but she agreed. “Very well. I’ll make the announcement.”

At that moment, a booming sound rang through the base, and the walls and floor shook.

Adams jumped. “Was that a bomb?”

“An earthquake?” Good asked.

All the speakers on every tablet and comm in the base spoke at once. “We’re under attack! One of the megs is back and just smashed into the base! Chief Dane, report in!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Dane’s string of curses was loud, long, and colorful. Every minute mattered when it came to searching the base, yet, none of those minutes counted if a megichthyosaur breached the base and gobbled the colonists like bread in a duck pond.

“Good, you’re in charge of this scene. I want pictures of everyone who comes through. Any changes. Anything at all!”

“So can we repair it, then?” Granger asked.

“I’d like to have power if this Big Damned Fish doesn’t destroy the base, so yes. Go for it.”

Granger nodded. Dane admired her focus. She knew if the base survived the attack, it would need a fully functioning power plant. Her job might become irrelevant in the next few minutes, but if it was not, she intended to do it to the best of her abilities.

Dane knew what he needed to do as well. One could not ignore a thirty-meter-long, hangry fish. In order to tackle this problem, he had to temporarily ignore the implications of the bomb. Not an easy thing to do, even with Good on the job.

Dane raced for the stairs and took them two at a time. He reached the sub garage and found the alert over the comms had brought most of his security forces to the room and a good number of Russians as well. Dane tried not to let his suspicion make him unnecessarily distrustful. These people had likely not planted the bomb. They were invested in the security and safety of this base. Even if they had, sabotaging the power station was on a different level than having their base smashed open like an inverted aquarium.

These were the thoughts Dane tried to repeat in his head while he appraised the Russians queuing up to help. They were here despite not having access to their own subs. Those were reached through a tube and an airlock outside the main base. Even with the tension of the bomb in the air, this endeared the Russians to Dane. It was not easy to take an unfamiliar craft into battle. Yet all these Russians stood ready to do exactly that.

“Dane! We came to help! How can we be of service?” Lev asked, shaking Dane’s hand. Dane was not about to turn his back on those offering help. He also didn’t want to empty his security people from the base and leave it fully in the Russians’ hands. Multiple reasons led him to respond as he did.

“Let’s get a pair of Russians in each submersible. I want my people piloting and operating the primary weapons, but yours should be ready to step in and man the weapons if anything goes wrong.”

“We can assume that will happen, and we will be ready,” Lev promised.

“These subs aren’t as tough as yours, so be prepared to patch any holes. I’d say someone should be on the outside of each sub, but the risks are too high. Still, it’s good to see everyone suiting up.”

Indeed they were. People donned wetsuits and SCUBA rebreathers with record speed. Not one of them failed to grab a carbine from the open locker. Dane had a brief moment of panic when the Russians also made for the weapons.

Lev noticed.

“Would you rather my people be unarmed?”

Everything it had taken to scare off the last BDF flashed through Dane’s mind, and he shook his head. “We’ll need all the firepower we can muster.”

“Good thing you Americans are here, then.” Lev gestured to the carbines. There were obviously more than enough.

“Grab one of your people who’s good at patching, then join me in the Dinodestroyer,” Dane told Lev before changing into a wetsuit of his own. By the time he was dressed, Lev was too. Dane led the way toward the Dinodestroyer. He climbed aboard its prow and made for the airlock.

The BDF slammed into the base a second time, and Dane fell from the sub and splashed into the water. The moment he surfaced, Athanas grabbed his wetsuit and hauled him to the surface.

“Athanas, I didn’t see you there,” he commented to his most trusted security officer. “I was inside getting prepped. I take it General Kozlov will be joining us?”

“He will, yes.”

Athanas escorted Dane and Lev inside the Dinodestroyer. While Dane settled in the pilot’s seat, she went about the final checklist. Another Russian whose name Dane didn’t know joined them, along with a Canadian by the name of Harris.

“Preflight check is done. We’re ready, sir,” Athanas announced.

“We’re taking point. Athanas, show Lev to the controls for the guns, then I want you back up here with me. Harris and…”

“Babanin.”

“Right. You’re both on standby. If any of us get hurt, you’re on first aid. If anyone needs a sip of water, you’re ready with a straw.”

“Yes, sir!” they both replied.

The Dinodestroyer dove, and Dane piloted them out of the base.

“This sub looked nice from the outside, but the inside is crap! The American way, eh?” Lev joked.

“We could have used your sub, but you Russians are too paranoid to park it with the rest of them,” Dane replied as he drove around the volcano base.

“Pah. It would have been vandalized.” Lev laughed.

Dane knew that adrenaline was spiking in all of them. Despite the high chance of being eaten by a giant fish, Dane was more excited than anything else. This was why he’d come to this world. To defend his people. He’d defend them against any threat, even a Russian bomb, but he preferred to fight the creatures of this world that thought humans could be eaten.

“You understand how the weapons work?” Dane shouted. The BDF had kicked up a massive amount of silt and debris, so he had not yet seen it. Only the eddies it caused.

“The American love of firearms is evident. There is mounted gun above nose, yes? Plus two harpoons?”

“Those have remote-operated explosive tips, by the way,” Athanas put in.

“So unnecessary, and so badass!” Lev crowed.

“Don’t engage until my signal,” Dane warned.

“You Americans might shoot blind, but we normally wait to have target,” Lev replied.

“Aquaone and Aquatwo, report in!” Dane radioed the other two subs. They had been improved so much over the last ten months that Granger insisted on renaming them. Dane thought it a good idea, but now in the face of this monster from the depths, he worried the improvements weren’t anywhere close to good enough.

“Aquaone reporting in. We’re on your starboard side.”

“Aquatwo coming out of the pool. You want us port?”

“That’s right. We’re going to get between the BDF and the base. I want coordinated shots so it feels the sting from all of us at once. None of these subs have enough power to take this thing out alone. Together, we might be able to drive it back to the depths.”

“Either that, or it’ll call more of its meg friends since there’s a school of things to eat,” Athanas quipped, thankfully not into the comms.

Dane piloted them closer to the swirling mass of silt and sand. A fin poked out, then its long tail, followed by the tip of its incredibly long jaws.

“It’s going for the base again!” Aquatwo yelled.

“The base will have to hold!” Dane replied. “I repeat, the base will have to—”

Aquatwo fired on the long, toothy jaw of the BDF. A splash of blood joined the churn of silt and sand, and the BDF noticed.

“Aquatwo, evasive maneuvers!” Dane ordered over the comms. “Lev, open fire!”

Lev fired into the murk. If he hit, the BDF didn’t care. It swam toward Aquatwo, opening its jaws wide.

“I am using harpoon!” Lev shouted. Dane steered the sub and tried to get the nose past the BDF to properly lead the target. The harpoons were not as fast in the water as the supercavitating bullets. Lev fired, and the harpoon hit the tail of the BDF and exploded.

The fish reacted.

It turned from Aquatwo and came for them, but that was not enough to save Aquatwo. The BDF’s tail whacked the sub and smashed it into one of the underwater mounts.

“Aquatwo, report!” Dane shouted as he tried to get them away from the huge, hungry fish.

“We’re taking on water, and the engine’s not responding!” came the reply. Not a good start.

“Aquaone, firing!”

The BDF opened its massive jaws. Its maw was easily wide enough to bite the Dinodestroyer like a dog would a bone. Dane attempted to get them clear, but despite the sub’s improvements, they were still too slow. The BDF was gaining.

Aquaone struck a hit.

“We got a flipper!” They cheered as the BDF turned and thrashed in pain. For a moment, Dane thought it could be enough. Maybe they’d hit a nerve, and the BDF’s pained thrashing meant it would retreat.

As the underwater waves caused by its thrashing hit them, he understood this was a defensive behavior. The force of the water sent the sub toppling end over end. Lev, Dane, and Harris were strapped in, but Babanin and Athanas were not. Athanas seemed to be carved of stone and wired with steel, so she somehow prevented herself from tumbling around in the sub. Babanin was not as prepared, though. His head hit the deck hard.

“Get him strapped in!” Dane shouted after the waves finally subsided.

“Working on it!” Athanas grunted.

Dane wished he could have given her more time, but there was none. Though the waves had flipped the sub upside-down and backward, the pissed-off meg was not at all disoriented. It swam toward the Aquaone with malice in every motion.

“Hit that big damned fish, Lev! Hit it with everything we’ve got!”

The machine gun mounted on the nose came to life. The entire sub shuddered and shook as Lev blasted rounds at the BDF. The Aquaone was no better armed than Aquatwo. Both subs had been repeatedly reinforced in the last months, but neither had been designed with a mounted gun in mind. When they hit the creature, it was only with a couple of rounds. The Dinodestroyer had substantially better capabilities.

The fish had been annoyed when the Aquaone hurt a single flipper. Now, it shifted its focus to the Dinodestroyer as Lev peppered its flank with twenty-plus rounds.

“Damn, damn, damn!” Dane shouted, still trying to pilot them clear. He’d gone into this with a plan, but no part of it had survived first contact with the fish. Instead of three subs working in a line to drive the meg back to the superheated depths, one was out of commission, and the other two did little more than take potshots.

The meg knew it. It came for them, ignoring the bullets striking its long nose. Its jaws opened, sending currents strong enough to jostle the sub, then its teeth snatched the vehicle.

“Impressive,” Lev shouted as the sub creaked and groaned from the pressure of the meg’s bite.

“This thing’s designed to take the pressures of the deep. Surely it can—”

Athanas did not get to complete her jinx. The meg squeezed its jaws harder, and its teeth punched through the sub’s hull in five spots. Maybe Dane should have been proud that only an inch or two of each sword-sized tooth actually penetrated, but a tangle of decidedly more negative emotions overcame that one positive.

“Get those holes patched!” Dane bellowed.

“I wish I could, sir!” Athanas replied. Dane quickly realized the problem. The meg had not actually let them go. Its teeth were still sticking through the sub. Water sprayed around the edges of the punctures but didn’t flood the cabin as it would if the creature released them.

“Should we put on our rebreathers?” Lev asked. “Or are you more confident in American manufacturing than I am?”

“This sub was made right here on Varuna, so yes. Everyone put their rebreathers on. Lev, fire on this bastard already!”

“I have been doing so!” Lev replied. “It has us at a bad angle. The bullets are going wide.”

Fear gripped Dane as he realized that while they were in the meg’s mouth, they could no longer feel the vibrations of the mounted machine gun.

“I’m going to try to get a mask on Babanin!” Athanas shouted.

“No time! Hold on!” Dane yelled and threw the sub into reverse, trying to pry free of the BDF’s teeth.

In response, the fish bit down harder. Its teeth punctured deeper, and a few more cut into the sub.

“Whatever you are doing, it is not working!” Lev cried.

He was right. They hadn’t even moved the fish. Dane felt its powerful tail swishing as it held them in place despite the roar of the motors.

“Trying something different!” Dane shouted and made the engines go the opposite way—forward, into the belly of the beast. It was the kind of maneuver Air Force pilots had always given him a hard time about. Yet it worked fine in space. It worked here, too.

“Work” being a subjective word.

If the goal was to get the fish’s teeth out of the submersible, then the play to drive the sub further down the fish’s throat was “working.” Now, instead of five teeth piercing the sub, there were five large holes and a smattering of smaller ones. Every one of them sprayed water inside with the full force of the sea.

Harris was unstrapped, trying to patch one of the larger holes with a piece of plating. Athanas had ignored Dane’s orders about Babanin and got a mask on him. She’d also strapped him to a wall. He was starting to wake now that the water in the sub was up to his ankles.

Dane tried to drive them out but only succeeded in enraging the meg. It clamped down once more, threatening to add more punctures.

“Sir, that might have given us a firing solution!” Athanas shouted after the groaning metal subsided enough that she could be heard.

“Hasta la vista, fishy!” Lev shouted, then fired.

The water turned red with blood from the roof of the meg’s mouth. It released them and swooshed its tail, backing up only enough to rush them again. Enough for Dane to notice one of its eyes was a mess.

This was the meg he’d stabbed, then.

When the other eye narrowed as it looked through the viewscreen of the sub, Dane told himself there was no way it remembered him. He continued to silently repeat this mantra even as he barked orders.

“Fire the harpoon!” he called.

Lev did. The steel harpoon shot from the Dinodestroyer and lodged in the meg’s nose.

“You’re fired,” Dane quipped and pressed the control to make the harpoon explode.

Sparks flew from the seam between the smart screen and the deck.

The harpoon did not explode.

“Damn it!” Dane cursed and tried to reverse them. Apparently, the short circuit was the first of many because the maneuvering controls also sprayed sparks and did nothing.

“Guns still work!” Lev announced as he fired. The fish wasn’t fazed. It was too big, too hungry, and too overwhelmed to care about tiny bullets.

“I beg to differ.” Dane pushed to his feet.

“Sir, what are you doing?” Athanas barked.

“Going for the remote operator control. There’s a backup for the harpoon tip!”

“Sir?”

“A precaution in case the sub was punctured. We only need to activate it. It’s on the harpoon launcher.”

“On it, sir!” Athanas scrambled up through the airlock.

“No, Athanas, that’s my job! Damn it, it’s too dangerous!”

“You need to get this thing working! I’m no pilot!” Then Athanas was gone.

Dane could tell when she emerged on the top of the sub. Not with a camera but by the way the fish shifted its one horrid eye slightly higher.

Athanas was never one to waste a moment. Seconds later, the harpoon exploded, leaving an open wound in the fish’s nose.

The fish shook back and forth, trying to shake the cause of the pain. It created yet another vortex of crashing waves and eddies. Dane could only imagine what it was like for Athanas outside the sub. Inside was bad enough. The waves’ pressure widened some of the holes and dumped more water inside the sub. The water level had already reached Dane’s chest.

This time, when the fish stopped its thrashing, it did not attack. Instead, it turned and swam for the deep, leaving a faint blood trail from its injured snout.

Now they merely had to get a submersible half filled with water, with a dead control engine and too many holes, back to an underwater base.

“That bastard might have disabled two of our subs, but at least we gave it a booboo,” Dane muttered. “Lev, you think you can call some of those robot dogs to tow us back to base?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

It was a lucky thing that two of the subs were damaged, and not all three. The Aquaone reached the Dinodestroyer before it could sink to the seafloor. While their pilot and gunner kept an eye on the perimeter, the other three security people got to work patching the sub. Two Russians and someone from the ADN, Dane noted.

While they did that, Dane and Lev moved Babanin into the Aquaone, then pitched in on the patch job. After it was watertight again, they found the emergency pump. The circuit of this system was waterproof, so it fired up without issues. They emptied the water from the sub, refilled it with compressed air, and it was buoyant once more.

At that point, Dane noticed the robot dogs approaching. Four of them bounced along the seafloor. One carried a long, coiled cable in the arm that rose from its back.

“I was kidding!”

“The sooner we can all get back inside, the better,” Lev proclaimed. “We still need to check the other sub.”

“The dogs can’t really pull this much, can they?” Dane asked.

“Not if the sub was full of water. At zero buoyancy, it should be fine.”

When the dogs arrived, Lev swam down, took the cable, and threaded it through loops built into the body of each dog. Then he returned and attached the other end of the cable to the sub. Soon, the robot dogs were towing the sub back to the garage.

“They’ll need some help getting it inside, of course. I told them to keep clear of the base, so there should be no bumps.”

“Good dogs,” Dane praised. “Come on, let’s go help Aquatwo.”

It turned out Aquatwo was in better shape than the Dinodestroyer. Dane would have liked to consider that good news, but he’d preferred if his bigger sub had fared better. The crew of the Aquatwo had patched the holes in their hull much faster than Dane’s crew had managed, so they had not lost the internal wiring.

After they’d drained the Aquatwo, everything fired back up. Dane was sure Granger would still disassemble and reassemble the sub to find out why it had lost power, but having it turn back on was a good thing. It wouldn’t go because some coral had jammed in its propeller. Once they cleared that, the crew returned their sub under their own power.

Yet it was not the crew of the Aquatwo cheered as heroes when they returned to the garage.

That honor lay on Dane’s and Lev’s shoulders, with a healthy dose for Athanas, though people were shocked she had left the sub when she first recounted her version of what happened out there.

“It was hungry. I could see that in its face,” Athanas reported. “I don’t think I’ve ever been anyone’s favorite food before, but that was how the BDF looked at me. Like I was a gyro with extra olives.”

Dane barely heard her version. The throng of cheering people was intense enough to separate him from Lev, Athanas, and Harris. They only quieted when Adams came in and ordered silence through the amplified comms. That silence lasted long enough for the governor to thank them for saving everyone’s lives and announce that, in celebration, they would be opening their first cask of kelp spirits.

The cheers for that were louder than they’d been for Dane.

“If everyone will head to the cafeteria, we’ll all have a drink in celebration! Our doctors are concerned that the alcohol content may be too high, so we’d like everyone to have a couple of drinks to test this theory!”

The cheers swelled higher than ever, but at least that announcement finally cleared out the room.

“Kelp booze?” Dane commented when he got a chance to speak to the captain. “Gotta say, it doesn't sound great.”

“Good thing you won’t be having any, then.” The governor looked over both shoulders to make sure the room was empty. The last group of cheering Russians was shepherding Lev through the door. Dane caught something about how it was supposed to taste like vodka from the ocean before relative quiet descended. He was alone with Adams and Winters, who held what could not be his first coffee cup today, given how much he was twitching.

“The hero doesn’t get to celebrate?” Dane grinned. “How come Lev and Athanas are allowed to partake?”

“Because Lev and Athanas aren’t the chief of security presiding over an active bomb threat situation,” Winters informed him.

Dane was almost glad he wouldn’t get to try the kelp spirits. Remembering there’d been a bomb blast less than an hour ago sobered him up. He couldn’t imagine any alcohol able to survive that.

“Winters came up with this after I told him about the situation in the power room,” Adams explained.

“We need to search the base as soon as possible. Right, Chief?” Winters asked.

“Yes,” Dane agreed as he tried to wrap his head around the task at hand. “That’s why you suggested everyone go to the cafeteria?”

The governor had the decency to look abashed. “Once the BDF was gone, and you were out there working on the subs, Winters brought the idea to me. We’re hoping it can bring both crews together and find the bomber suspect in one shot.”

“I’m sure we’ll find the bastard who did this,” Winters put in.

“Okay. Okay, we can do this.” Dane didn’t think he’d ever shifted gears this hard before. Well, not since moments before when he’d been inside a megichthyosaur’s mouth. “All right. Before we search the place, what about the camera systems? This entire base is set up for surveillance.”

“Winters already checked that and brought me what he found,” Adams reported.

Winters quickly nodded. “That’s right. I looked at the video as soon as I heard, and it’s been tampered with.”

“Tampered with how?” Dane inquired. It was not easy to think about this when his muscles were still pumped from swimming around and patching holes, but Adams and Winters were right. Time was of the essence.

“There’s a spot where the video repeats for fifteen minutes. Other than that, there’s nothing.” Adams sighed.

“That implies a Russian must have tampered with it using backdoor knowledge,” Winters hastily explained. “We know they came here with access codes for the base. It only makes sense they have codes to access everything.”

“I see where you’re coming from, but I doubt every Russian on the Zhemchug has access to security codes for this base. Even if they weren’t expecting us here, that would be bad business. More likely, only those highly ranked have the codes they would need.”

“They could have ordered someone to carry it out for them,” Winters insisted.

“They could have. They’re not the only ones with the codes, though. A higher-ranking person from the Cosmos could have done it,” Dane theorized.

“Or it could have been a hacker,” Winters suggested, pivoting to a new theory that Dane hadn’t considered.

“I suppose that’s possible.” Dane sighed. “Though that would imply a conspiracy of people instead of one bad actor.”

“We should assume it’s not only one person,” Adams declared. “The doctored video implies as much.”

“Why can’t I ever have an easy day?” Dane muttered. “We’ll get Good and Robinson to help on this one. I think they both have pertinent work experience.”

“I still can’t believe this is happening,” Adams murmured.

“I knew we couldn’t trust these Russians.” Winters kept his tone barely shy of a snarl.

“Even if it is the Russians, why?” Dane wondered. “I know there are tensions, but if they took the power plant offline, it could have forced us all to abandon this base.”

“Maybe whoever did this figured one ship is better than the other,” Adams suggested.

“Considering the Russian ship is decades ahead of ours, I can only see that going one way,” Winters observed.

“We have the platform, though. That’s a huge asset. I’m with you, Governor. I don’t see the endgame here, and these risks are so high. If the bomb was too strong or sent a piece of shrapnel the wrong way, it could have flooded the base. It was a reckless, dangerous thing to do.”

“I want this person, or people, found,” Adams snapped. “As quickly as possible.”

“I’ll head down to the power generator room and get started, ma’am.”

Dane barely had enough time to brief Good and Robinson on the task at hand before his investigation was disrupted.

“I do not care if you call this ‘private investigation.’ If we are not a part of this, my people will not accept the results. Surely you can see this?” Petrov had appeared in the doorway.

“You don’t have the right to interrupt our proceedings!” Winters rushed over and tried to block him from entering.

“Your governor told me of this, Mr. Winters. Now, kindly step aside!”

“I will do no such thing, sir. We need to search the base, and I will not have you alerting your people.”

“I have no intention of that. I only want this person stopped. A bomb is always a serious thing, but underwater, it is another level.”

“It’s fine, Winters. You can let him in.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Dane.”

“I understand, Winters, and your concerns are noted. He’s right, though. We can’t expect the Russians to accept what we say unless some of them are helping us. Did you have someone in mind, Petrov?”

“This is ridiculous. You’re going to let them walk all over us!” Winters growled.

Petrov’s professional demeanor did not slip. “I would like Sophia Novikov to be liaison for the investigation. She has the proper clearance, and more importantly, the crew respects her. If she says to arrest someone, they will listen.”

“That’s fine with me,” Adams agreed, while inwardly, Dane wished for someone a bit less…prickly. “That going to work for you, Winters?”

Dane was ready to point out that Adams had not made the XO a special liaison or anything like it, but to his surprise, Winters quickly agreed.

“Novikov can be the liaison, sure.”

“Oh, thank God,” Dane breathed. “Look, we need to get a move on. They must be done with their first round of kelp spirits already.” Dane had never thought he would long for kelp vodka, yet at that moment, he wished he was sitting down and enjoying a glass. Lev must be having a great time. The hero of the day, returned triumphant. Dane hoped Athanas was cutting loose, too.

Petrov said nothing. Still, a minute later, Sophia Novikov stalked into the power generation room. It was a reminder that others besides Lev had brain implants, and they could do things that were not immediately apparent to Dane. Like communicate, or at the least, ping each other. Dane didn’t know whether communication or location sharing represented a bigger concern. Regardless, it was a matter for another day.

Dane briefed Novikov on what had happened. She did not seem surprised. Dane wondered if she ever seemed surprised. She had probably done nothing more than scowl when the BDF crashed into the base. While he explained his plan, Good and Robinson calibrated their instruments. Good readied a pair of tiny drones to scan each room so they would have a record of what they found. Robinson brandished a handheld sniffer like a magic wand.

“I already calibrated this puppy to the chemical residues we found at the blast site. It’s made to test for leaks, but Granger had someone tweak it for me while you were out there. It’ll pick up a whiff of anything even sort of related. It should work better than Scooby Doo’s nose!”

“Scooby what?” Good asked.

“A cartoon? It has historical significance.”

“Never heard of it, kid. Don’t beat yourself up about it, though,” Dane consoled him. “All right, then. If we’re ready to start the hunt, I’m thinking we begin with the Russians, specifically—”

“I agree,” Novikov said. “You will find it was not a Russian, so it will be quick and effective.”

That surprised Dane in a good way. “Great. We’ll start in the barracks hab. It’s unlikely anyone is hiding anything in there since there’s little privacy. When that’s clear, we can allow people to go back to their chambers.”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to start in the private quarters here in this base? As you said, there is little chance of finding anything in the barracks,” Novikov observed.

“I see what you’re saying, but going room by room will take a long time. I’d like to start with the barracks to help with tensions. I don’t want everyone stuck in that cafeteria any longer than necessary.”

“I disagree. We should not start where there is little threat. We should start—”

“Miss Novikov, look. I understand you’ve been assigned liaison, but that doesn’t mean I take orders from you. Do you have experience investigating something like this?”

“I do not see how that can be relevant. You are trumped-up space pilot, not detective.”

“That’s true. However, these two gentlemen do have relevant experience. Good, Robinson, where do we start?”

“From a public relations perspective, starting with the hab makes sense. It’d be good to have somewhere for everyone to sleep it off. It should be easy for the sniffer, too. If there is anything in there, I’ll pick it up.”

“Sounds good to me,” Good agreed. “I can scan a big room as easily as a small one. I think as long as the sniffer is turned up, that’s the best plan.”

“Ugh. Fine,” Novikov snapped. “We will do it your way.”

“Wonderful.” Dane led them through the tube to the Russian hab.

The habitat was as empty of explosive material as they expected. Robinson covered every centimeter of the place, and Good recorded the entire room twice to be sure, but they found nothing at all.

“As I said,” Novikov gloated.

“Part of starting here was to allow the Russians to come back and sleep.” Dane contacted the captain on his tablet. “The Russian hab is all clear if you need beds.”

“We’re not quite there yet.” Adams reversed her tablet to show the cafeteria. Apparently, the kelp liquor was more than decent. The entire room seethed with energy as obviously drunk Russians and ADN alike cavorted and threw arms around each other’s shoulders. In the center of it all, Lev sat on a chair that was hoisted into the air again and again. He was laughing, delirious with excitement. It wasn’t every day one faced off against a thirty-meter-long predator. Dane wasn’t jealous…but it looked like a good place to build bonds with the Russian crew.

“We’re proceeding to the private quarters in Homebase next. I’ll keep you posted.”

“Thanks, Dane.” Adams closed the connection.

“All right, where to next?” Dane asked his makeshift forensics team.

“The Russian rooms?” Novikov suggested. “This was not done by my people. You might as well let them all return to bed.”

Good raised an eyebrow. “We can start on the second floor from the top, but I don’t think we should pick and choose rooms. Better to go floor by floor and room by room. ADN or Russian. That way, we can eliminate sections at a time.”

“Makes sense to me,” Robinson agreed.

The next two hours passed slowly. In room after room, they found nothing. No trace elements, no strange packages. Dane tried to push away the sounds of the celebration vibrating throughout the base as they continued their fruitless search. He started to consider other alternatives. Maybe the explosive had been constructed outside the base, underwater somehow.

Finally, the sniffer went crazy when Robinson opened a door.

“Who do we have here?” Dane checked the diagram in his schematics.

He was shocked to find the room belonged to Lev Kozlov.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“We have a match, sir,” Robinson babbled. “Whoever built the bomb made it here! No doubt about that.”

“I’m getting a scan, Chief.” Good’s drones zipped around, peeking under the bed and inside the locker Dane opened with his codes.

Novikov remained silent. Finding residue in a Russian’s room had only made her scowl deepen.

“Let me know if you find anything,” Dane called as he poked around. He didn’t see anything immediately suspicious. No unfinished manifesto or cache of weapons. Nothing, really. Lev’s room looked as spartan and boring as his own. Like the room of someone who worked too much, someone who took his job of ensuring the colony’s safety seriously. Dane could hardly believe the man he’d faced down a megichthyosaur with could have done such a thing.

“It could be a false reading,” Dane suggested. “We need to find hard evidence.”

Soon, they found it…or Novikov did. After no luck, she plopped down on the bed and immediately hopped back up. “Too lumpy. Even for Russian.”

Under the mattress, they found pieces of another explosive. Some chemical fertilizer, a blasting cap, and a remote control. It was unassembled, but its purpose was obvious.

“I can’t believe this,” Dane uttered.

“Sorry, boss,” Robinson added.

Dane waved off his words. “It’s part of the job, I guess. Still, let’s get Adams and Petrov in here. Last time I checked, Lev was the literal life of the party. We have to know how the leaders want to handle this.”

Dane called Adams. In less than five minutes, she and Petrov arrived stone cold sober and frowning.

“This makes no sense.” Petrov’s voice was thick with betrayal. “Lev is a good man. A decent man. I have trusted him with my life for many years.”

“I think I understand how you feel,” Dane conceded. “He didn’t seem the type. It’s possible these aren’t his, but…”

“But we need to arrest him.” Adams sounded unsure. “There was a bomb. Now there are pieces of a bomb in his room. We have to act.”

Novikov displayed none of Adams’ uncertainty. “We need to act swiftly and decisively.” She flung the words like daggers. “The evidence is indisputable. It is unfortunate that a Russian is responsible, but there is no choice now. We must set strong example and punish severely so the people of this ship know the rest of Russians can be trusted. It is only way.”

“I have to agree with Sophia.” Each of Petrov’s words seemed more painful for him than the last. “He is like son to me. This will not be easy.”

Dane could not help agreeing with the sentiment. He hadn’t known Lev nearly as long as Petrov, but after a few close calls together, he thought he had a sense of the man. He thought Lev might be the person who finally got him to see beyond his own past and focus on the future.

Now Dane was more bitter than ever. He’d been lied to and betrayed. He never thought he would trust a Russian after everything he’d been through in the war, and now part of him chimed you were right, they’re all the same. He had worked hard to silence thoughts like that for a long time. Now he wasn’t sure they would ever fall quiet again.

“We can call him to come here. Tell him there’s a security concern, and we need to speak in private. Then we can…well, once my team has him in custody, it will be your call, Governor Adams.”

Adams shook her head, resigned to a future none of them wanted. “We’re facing too many crises at once. The power plant needs repairs and a security overhaul. We still don’t know what to do about the megichthyosaurs, but we can’t ignore them. We need to focus on both those issues before we devote time to Mr. Kozlov. He deserves a trial. Until then, we have a way to keep him safe and prevent him from causing any more harm.”

“A hibernation pod, yes. I was worried it would come to this, but it is our best path, I think,” Petrov contended. “We will keep him on our ship, you understand. Newer pods, plus each was calibrated to the individual.”

“I think we can agree to both mind our own prisoners for now,” Adams noted. “At least until we get a court properly set up.”

“We should move on this now,” Novikov insisted.

When no one else added anything, Adams nodded to Petrov. He used his implant to summon Lev. A few minutes later, the still-drunk hero appeared at the door of his own room.

“After party?” he asked with a lopsided grin.

Dane stepped out of the way so he could see what they’d found in his mattress.

Lev’s drunken features were exaggerated and easy for Dane to read. First, confusion as he furrowed his brow, then surprise and recognition, followed by something like panic, and finally pleading that leapt from Petrov to Dane and back.

“You found these here?” Lev queried.

“They match the chemical components used in the explosion that damaged the power station,” Robinson announced. He and Good were near the door to Lev’s room with wrist restraints at the ready.

“It is not what it looks like,” Lev protested.

“Can you explain, then? Because it looks bad.” Adams’ voice was equal parts fire and ice.

“I cannot. I have never seen those components, and I do not know where they came from.”

“Do you know who could have put them there?” Petrov asked.

“Do not let him spin lies,” Novikov snapped.

“I do not,” Lev claimed. “And in my, uh…current state. I do not wish to speculate and set off witch hunt.”

“We thank you for your cooperation,” Adams intoned. “You understand that we have to take you into custody.”

“I can see why the security chief would do that, yes. There cannot be another explosion. It could be dangerous.”

Adams nodded. “You won’t fight? You’ll let us take you to your ship and put you back into a hibernation chamber?”

“I will not make scene. Not now with everyone drunk. It could tear entire base apart.”

Dane tried to read Lev to see whether the man felt guilty, angry, or what, but he struggled for an accurate bead on the Russian. Lev looked like a man mostly upset that he was drunk. Dane saw him trying to form thoughts and come up with the right thing to say, but the kelp vodka got in the way.

“You will come with me,” Novikov barked. “I will summon guards I can trust, and we will meet you at elevator. Very good, Chief Dane?”

“Sure,” Dane mumbled.

Novikov turned and stalked off.

Dane gave her a beat before he turned to the commanding officers. “Oh, my. I just remembered the elevator can’t travel right now because of the damage to the substation. I’ll head to the moon pool with Lev and meet Novikov there. Can you tell her, Petrov, if that’s all right?”

“Of course, yes.”

“Right. Thanks. Good and Robinson, make sure he doesn’t try anything stupid. Come on, Lev.”

They started down the hallway toward the stairs that would take them to the moon pool.

As soon as they entered the stairwell and the doors clicked behind them, Dane whirled on Lev and pushed the drunk man against the wall. “I trusted you!”

The sudden move surprised Lev, but he didn’t seem scared of Dane or wracked with guilt. Instead, desperation gleamed in his eyes.

“I did not do this, Dane! You must believe me!”

Dane shoved him into motion again. If he was going to use the same line every guilty person ever used, they might as well freeze him.

“Bullcrap. You would have hidden the evidence if not for the BDF.”

“No, no. Someone was very lucky with that fish, is all.”

“I’m not falling for any of this.”

“You must, or the bomber may strike again! Please, Dane. I do not know why anyone would threaten the colony, but it is my wish to see this place survive! I will go now because everyone is drunk, and we must work together. Yet you must find who did this!”

“There they are!” Novikov snapped when they entered the moon pool room. “For a moment, I thought maybe you would try to flee.”

“Forgot the elevator was out,” Dane said. “You can take him from here. Good and Robinson will accompany you to the Zhemchug to make sure he’s put into a pod.”

“You can trust me to put this bastard on ice, Security Chief Dane, but I am more than willing to have some American guns along.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Dane didn’t know how long it took for the rumors to spread. By the time he woke up, it seemed everyone knew Lev had planted the bomb in an attempt to kill them all.

On day two, rumors that he had been framed started to pop up. The Russians blamed the ADN and vice versa. Those from the ADN were more than willing to blame another Russian who was not frozen and in orbit.

By day three, you’d need a sharp knife to cut the tension in the base.

Dane felt like every strand of tension pulled him in a different direction. He was in charge of presenting the data and evidence for the upcoming trial. He should be pleased that all the evidence pointed to Lev, yet that only stressed him more.

Some of it could be called superficial. They’d found no DNA or fingerprints on the bomb or the components in Lev’s room. That did not spell innocence as much as it meant whoever handled those explosives knew what they were doing. The chemical fertilizer was from the hydroponics bay, so that proved little. Nothing on the Cosmos or in the logs of the Zhemchug resembled the blasting cap that had been used.

However, there were those discrepancies in mass Dane had been looking into. That would make things tricky. Adams had been clear. She wanted the trial as open and concise as possible. That meant not mentioning that the Zhemchug in orbit above them was not the same one in their records.

Dane didn’t blame the Russians for bringing things and not putting them in the log. God knew he’d brought items into space for personal reasons and that his command had loaded not-strictly-legal items on his star fighter. They had never been used or discovered, so what was the harm?

In this case, they had caused harm. Did that mean Dane should bring up the discrepancies in the trial? He could only imagine Novikov’s reaction if she thought he was being unfair to the Russians. She would rightly point out that the ADN had expressly forbidden the manufacture of weapons on the new world, yet they’d made supercavitating bullets every day.

It was a mess, really.

Though the worst part of the entire mess was his own gut.

Despite all the evidence pointing to Lev, despite him having the access, the knowledge, and apparently the materials, Dane didn’t think he did it. Lev had risked his life for the colony time and time again. He didn’t seem like the type of person to risk everyone with a stunt like this. Rather grimly, Dane suspected that if Lev wanted someone dead, they’d be dead.

He had looked into that angle, trying to find a candidate who might have framed Lev. Winters came to mind with his barely concealed hatred of the Russians, but he found nothing. Winters was clean. He’d been with the captain during the period when the surveillance system had been tampered with. Dane searched for other people who might have personal issues with the Russians but had yet to find anyone with a history who didn’t appear on the cameras.

Someone knocked on his door, and Dane glanced at the clock. He had been at it for hours with no progress. Seemed like a good reason to get up, stretch his legs, and see who’d come to tell him who had “really” done it.

“Lopez, what a pleasure to see you,” Dane greeted.

“Really? Doesn’t look like a pleasure. You look like you’ve been sitting in front of your computer screen so damn long that your face is about to melt off your skull.”

Dane smirked. “You’re not wrong there.”

“Time to get out and stretch your legs. Sitting still all day doesn’t help anyone.”

“I wish I could, Lopez, but I have to figure this out.”

“Of course you do. Maybe a walk to the crystal cave will help dust out the cobwebs.”

“Sounds nice, but I really can’t. Did you want to talk to me about something?”

“Yes. I would. And I would really like to talk to you in the crystal caves. Did you know the Russians never actually found them? They’re completely unwired. No cameras.”

Dane rubbed his face. “Jesus, I hadn’t even thought of that. We’ll have to check the cameras going in and out of the tube to help clear alibis. If anyone was with Agus and Isla, we can verify that somehow, right? Like, there’s records of what goes on in there?”

“There are, yes. But Dane, I would like to go on a walk with you.”

Dane sighed. “I have no time.”

“Okay, then how about a ride in a sub? Maybe we can take one for a spin?”

“I don’t have time to take anything for a spin right now.”

“Well, it’s just that one of them is broken.”

“Why didn’t you say that?”

Dane followed her out the door. They couldn’t afford to be down a sub right now, and if Lopez needed him, then surely it was a weapons issue.

“God, I thought you’d never get it,” Lopez whispered as he followed her toward the moon pool.

“Get what?”

“I guess I should be thankful you didn’t think I was coming on to you, but this is too much. You asked me to look into something about the thing up there, remember?” Lopez nodded toward the ceiling.

“In the command center?”

“No, higher.”

“The platform? Look, Lopez, I can’t be wasting—”

“Higher.”

“The Cosmos? I didn’t ask you to look into anything on the Cosmos. There’s the mass issue on the Zhemchug—”

“Bingo.”

“That’s what you want to talk about?” Dane felt like a ray of sunshine had burned away the fog in his mind. “What did you find?”

Lopez eyed a camera. “Remember how the security system of this entire base is compromised?”

Then it all made sense.

“Let’s get to the moon pool.”

They reached the right level, but before they could make it to the moon pool, they bumped into Winters. “Ah, Dane! Almost ready for prosecution? I think the system of a jury determining guilt and a tribunal of judges determining sentence should be fair.”

“I wish I could give you a date, Winters, but we’re still collecting data.”

“What? Why? The case seems clear to me. That Russian bastard tried to kill us all!”

“It’s looking that way, but my gut says something different.”

“Your gut? You think your gut can overturn valid evidence?”

“I don’t know. I’m still looking into it. Look, I gotta go out in the sub and check something out, all right?”

“Sure, of course. Have a good trip out there.” Winters followed them all the way to the edge of the patched-up Dinodestroyer.

The clanks of Winters slapping the sub like it was a loaded taxi echoed through the room as they suited up to leave.

They barely heard his last words through the hull of the sub. “Be careful out there.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Dane piloted the sub across the valley above the inflated Russian habs. They should have inflated the third this week, but between the bomb threat and the megs, there had been no time. A good thing, too. The last time the BDF came through, it would have smashed one of the habs if the amount of debris on top of their inflated circular footprint was any indication.

Still, even with a looming bomb threat and the recent destruction, it was hard not to see this place as beautiful. The BDF had damaged some of the zingers, but they didn’t seem to mind. Despite being knocked to the seafloor, they still reached the sunlight with a rainbow of colored appendages. Crustaceans crawled from one spot to another, digging burrows in the repositioned debris. A group of nessies swam above as well, calling to each other about a group of murder stars that had emerged from the depths.

It was mind-boggling that those star-shaped creatures had nearly destroyed this entire base twice. Currently, they couldn’t even escape the hungry jaws of the long-necked nessies. They were about as intimidating as chocolate chip cookies.

Dane set the sub cruising in a lazy loop near the perimeter of the valley, then turned to Lopez. “All right, we’re away from prying ears. Spill it!”

Lopez grinned. “Oh, so you did understand what I was trying to say.”

“Eventually, I somehow figured it out, yes.” Dane smirked.

“Okay, then. Wait, is the radio shut down? And the recording devices?”

“Wow. You really are paranoid.”

“Just shut down the comms.”

Dane did so. The crackle of the sub’s radio communicating with the base faded to nothing. The whirs and clicks of the cameras, always recording the outside, fell silent. All that could be heard was the hiss of the life support, the hum of the engines, and the song of the nessies, so crisp and clear it sounded like they were right outside.

“The Zhemchug’s exterior is wrong,” Lopez announced as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“You’re going to need to explain yourself.”

“Okay, so this is Zhemchug.” She pulled out her tablet and showed him a video of the massive interstellar spacecraft. “We’ve done a ton of shuttle trips back and forth, so there’s plenty of video. This is actually a composite of a few feeds.”

The video had been taken from all around the Zhemchug, so it looked like the spacecraft was rotating.

“We know what the Zhemchug looks like. Got it.”

“And this is a 3D rendering of the ship, per its design specs.”

A 3D model of the same ship appeared.

“It was buried deep in the files they shared with us, and I had to translate a buttload of crap to figure it out. Once you asked me to help, well…I got sort of obsessed. I didn’t see it at first, but they don’t match.”

Dane nodded and tried not to betray his confusion. “No ship matches the 3D model they use to design it, though. An engineer always streamlines something, puts an antenna in a different place, or upgrades the weapons. I asked you to look into the manifest. Did you find anything there?”

“I’m not talking about an antenna, Dane, and this does explain the mass differential.”

“I kind of doubt the schematics show the items they secretly brought with them.”

“The schematic doesn’t show a thing. It’s the video that made me realize something was up. Look right there.” Lopez brought up the schematic and pointed to a pair of airlocks.

“Looks like a pair of airlocks,” Dane remarked.

“Airlocks that were never built.” She brought up her 3D render to illustrate her point.

“I can see why you brought me this. Airlocks are a bigger deal than an antenna, but I’ve seen worse. Someone probably realized they didn’t need them.”

“And forgot to update the ship designs? That seems unlikely, given how expensive an airlock is. They need to be vacuum-tight, plus have security components and a ton of failsafes. A pair of them would easily cost millions of dollars.”

“So they’re not there?”

“They don’t appear to be, no.”

“Show me the section of the ship where they should be,” Dane requested.

Lopez adjusted the looping video and highlighted the area. It looked normal. Smooth. Devoid of antennae, airlocks, or anything else. Actually, compared to most of the Zhemchug, which bristled with all sorts of devices, pipes, and ports, it was remarkably bare.

“Maybe there’s a hold on the other side that already has plenty of access?” Dane wondered though it sounded like a stretch.

“There’s no hold on the other side of the airlocks,” Lopez quickly pointed out. “It’s only empty space, at least according to this design, which they then used to travel twelve light years.”

Dane said nothing for a moment, and the nessie song filled the void. The more he looked at it, the odder it seemed.

“You know what? This reminds me of a story I heard in the war. Back before long-range scanners got really good, the ADN hid a couple of star fighters on a supply ship. They covered them in aluminum which made them practically invisible. The only thing was that the pilots needed access. They had to bolt the ships directly over airlocks so the pilots could get to them. No one’s done anything like that in a long time, though. The standard scanners on a star fighter are too good.”

“You mean the star fighters of which we possess exactly zero?”

Dane’s gut twinged. “We could have scanned it with the Cosmos’s array, but—”

“It was damaged during transit to Varuna, I know. The Russians don’t, though. Would you believe the section of hull I’m talking about has never faced the Cosmos?”

“What are the odds of that?” Dane inquired.

“I’d say about as good as the chances of two BDFs attacking us at once!”

Dane grabbed the controls of the sub as not one fearsomely long crocodilian nose but two emerged from the depths. One of them had a definite chunk missing, and when it finally crested the edge of the rock and swung its huge jaws toward them, Dane noticed it was missing an eye.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Through either luck or spite, the first BDF didn’t eat them.

It pivoted toward them and was about to snap its jaws closed when the one-eyed BDF bit one of its fins. The two massive creatures tussled, and the sub tumbled through the water in their wake.

“We need to alert the base!” Dane shouted as he regained control and tried to put the BDFs behind them.

“Already on it. Activating radio and cameras. Sending an alert… Okay, thank God, they already know.”

“Kind of hard to miss, I guess,” Dane remarked as he led the BDF away.

“Where are you going?”

“We can’t let them stay near the volcano base. One of them nearly destroyed it. Two almost certainly will.”

“But there’s no backup for us out there.” Lopez gulped.

“It’s all right. I have an idea. I want sonar at full power, directed at the seafloor.”

“Hoping to annoy them to death?”

“We don’t have time for that!” Dane checked one of the cameras. The pair of BDFs had gotten over their differences and were now united in their purpose of devouring the sub.

“Where the hell are the nessies? Shouldn’t they want to eat one of them?” Dane shouted.

“The nessies weren’t distracted by ship schematics,” Lopez pointed out as the pinging from the sonar grew louder.

Dane scanned the images the computer generated. The BDFs were getting closer. He could lead them into the open sea, but then what? They’d get eaten, and the BDFs would learn that submersibles had a yummy filling. That was not going to protect the base.

He finally found what he was looking for on the sonar screen. He plunged toward the seafloor, directly toward a large formation of coral. They had left the human-settled areas behind and were in another nearby valley.

“Dane. Dane! That’s the ground!”

“Sonar doesn’t seem to think so!”

The sub’s nose punched through the zingers. Rather than crashing into the ground, they entered a large, subterranean cavern. With no zingers in the way, the sonar could get a better grasp of the area. It was not a cave but a long trench running between two parts of the volcanic mountain range. The coral-like zingers had almost completely obscured it.

“There must be currents that make for richer feeding,” Lopez gushed, obviously in awe of their living canopy.

Not that Dane blamed her for being impressed. One-Eye and his buddy did not follow them inside the trench, although there was plenty of room for them in the first, larger chamber. The skeletal zingers, and likely the poisonous barbs for which they’d been named, were not welcoming to the wound on One-Eye’s nose.

“We’ll follow this as long as we can and try to lead them away. Can you tell if they’re following?” he asked.

“Oh, they’re following, all right. I can see them through the coral.”

“Maybe they’ve locked in on the sonar,” Dane postulated. “Shut it off.”

“Is that wise? The light’s not great down here, and I’m assuming you don’t want to flash your high beams. Won’t you crash?” Lopez still shut it off.

“Get suited up, just in case, but I’d rather crash than be eaten. How about you?”

“Suiting up, sir!” Lopez replied.

“I’m going to kill the engines, too. Lev and I did that, and the BDFs got bored and left.”

“Great. You suit up, and I’ll shut everything down.”

Lopez switched off systems while Dane put on a wetsuit. He was nearly finished when the BDF smashed through the zingers above them. Chunks of their calcium-rich skeletons rained down on the sub.

“Engines back on! Engines back on!” Dane shouted as he frantically tried to get them out of there.

The zingers had no doubt saved their lives by making it hard for the long-nosed fish to reach them.

As soon as they started moving, the BDFs followed.

“How are they tracking us? We had everything silent! That worked last time.”

“I’m trying to shut off what I can! Maybe we’ll lose them the next time around,” Lopez suggested. A minute later, they heard only the sound of the engines, the hiss of life support, and…nessie song?

“How are we still hearing that? The nessies have to be long gone!”

“We’ve been hearing it this entire time,” Lopez divulged. “You don’t think…”

“Check the cameras on the outside of the sub!”

Lopez’s fingers flew over the controls. Dane saw everything she did in part of his view screen. He tried not to pay much attention to it since he was attempting not to wreck their sub and avoid being eaten using minimal instruments.

“That! What in the hell is that?” Lopez blurted. Dane glanced up and saw a black box mounted near the rear of the sub.

“That’s got to be our problem.” Dane pushed out of his seat.

“Where are you going?”

“To get rid of that device. It must be what’s making them follow us. You need to hold us steady and keep moving forward, all right?”

“I’m not sure that’s—”

“You dove out of the sky onto a new planet. You can handle this.”

Dane squeezed her shoulder, then went to the airlock.

In the water, at the top of the sub, it was immediately apparent how big the fish were. Damned big, he supposed. He couldn’t even see them, only their silhouettes as they swam back and forth above the narrow opening to the trench. They made Dane wonder what lived in the depths of this world. How could any ecosystem support a predator like this? He had heard of whales on Earth. Once, there had been many species of all sizes. The largest had fed on tiny krill, of which there was still plenty.

Yet these things were predators. What richness did the seas of Varuna possess to fuel such monsters?

The nessies were a part of the puzzle, Dane thought as he pulled the little box from the sub’s hull. It had been attached with a magnet, and he felt it vibrate in his hands with the sounds of the nessies.

“Hold on, Dane!” Lopez shouted, and the sub lurched out from under him.

Dane momentarily panicked as the BDF’s jaws tried to snatch him and the sub tried to flee, but he grabbed one of the handholds and was pulled clear.

Thankfully, the BDF had to pull its huge jaws out of the ravine. The pair of them gave chase from above.

“Uh, Dane?” Lopez called.

“Kind of busy trying to hang on and get rid of this thing. If I only drop it in here, they won’t leave us alone.”

“Oh, I don’t think you should drop it, either. I want to stay in here, but that’s looking tricky.”

“What are you—oh.”

The ravine was coming to an end. In front of them, the fissure led into the open sea. If they shot out there, they’d be eaten. Period.

“Stop the sub. I have an idea!”

Lopez took that literally, and the sub lurched to a stop. Dane let the momentum carry him forward and grabbed a harpoon to stop himself. He affixed the nessie song box to the metal spear.

“Fire the harpoon!”

“But there’s no fish there!”

“Just fire the damn thing!”

Lopez did, and the six-foot-long shaft hissed away into the sea. It traveled around a hundred meters before it started to arc down toward the depths. The two BDFs followed it, shooting out from above the zingers to chase the nessie song. One of them almost got it, but a third BDF emerged from the deep and snapped at the first, causing it to miss. The harpoon soared on into ever deeper water.

Dane and Lopez sat in complete silence.

“Well, I guess that explains why the BDFs showed up,” Lopez finally whispered.

“They were hungry, and they like the taste of nessies. I guess we have that in common,” Dane professed.

“That…music box. It wasn’t there by accident.”

“No. I would say that Winters tried to kill us.”

“Great. Yeah. I was thinking the same thing. Glad we’re on the same page there.” Lopez sounded stunned. Dane found that he was not. Surprised, sure. Pissed off, definitely. Yet Winters had been acting strangely since the moment the Russians arrived. Dane had not doubted his loyalty. The opposite, in fact. Still, he knew that desperate, stressed people made desperate decisions.

He climbed back in and took the controls of the sub.

“Should I turn the radio back on?”

“Nah. Let’s not give Winters any more warning that we’re alive than we need to.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

As soon as they got back inside Homebase, Dane called Good and Stark to the sub room. He told them to come armed.

“Hey, Chief. Nothing ominous at all,” Stark announced when he arrived.

“I brought recording drones, in case we need them. Is everything all right?” Good asked.

“Winters tried to kill us,” Lopez fumed. In the scant few minutes it had taken them to return to base, her shock had shifted to dismay, then raw fury.

Stark said nothing. He only shifted to look at Dane.

“Set us up to be snack food for the BDFs,” Dane expounded.

“Wow, sir. This is…this is real, then?” Stark entreated.

“I wish it wasn’t, but it is.”

“You got proof of that, Chief?” Good asked.

“I will by the time we get to Adams. While we walk, can you get the video of this room from right before we left? You’ll see Winters attach something to the exterior of the sub. That’s what I need.”

“You got it,” Good agreed and fell into step behind Dane.

Dane and Lopez changed back into uniforms. Dane checked the handgun at his side, and they made for the command center.

“You know where he is?” Stark asked.

“I know why he tried to kill me.”

“Us. He tried to kill us!” Lopez hissed.

“He did, but I’d still guess it has something to do with me being security chief. If he’s plotting to take control of the base or planning a full-on coup, he’ll need to be in the command center.”

They reached the command center without passing many crew people. One was enough to spread the word. Dane assumed Winters would be there, but he wasn’t. Only Adams was.

“Dane. You look…serious.” Her gaze flicked from the gun at his hip to the one slung around Stark’s shoulders. “Is everything all right?”

“Oh, I’m too late!” Winters shouted as he came in behind them and pushed past.

“What is going on here?” Adams asked.

“Dane, drop the weapons and order your people to stand down,” Winters demanded.

“You’re under arrest,” Dane said to Winters.

“You can’t arrest leadership while your man is pointing a gun at us. Call this what this is, Dane. You’re here to take power for yourself.”

“He’s lying, Governor. He’s the one making a play for power,” Dane insisted.

Adams looked from Dane to Winters, then to Dane’s gun.

“The tension has clearly gotten to both of you. Let’s all sit down and talk, all right? Now, Dane, you were here first. What is this about?”

“You can’t listen to this man while he’s got a gun!” Winters cried.

“He has a point,” Adams commented.

“Fine.” Dane pulled out his weapon.

Winters nearly jumped through the roof. Instead, he stumbled backward and crashed over a chair.

Dane watched him impassively, then handed his gun to Adams.

“Stark, Good. I would like to remind you that Governor Adams’ rank supersedes my own. You are required to follow any order she gives you.”

“Yes, sir!” both men said in perfect unison. Dane would have to remember to give them a bonus.

“A bit melodramatic, perhaps, but you have my attention,” Adams stated. “Dane, Winters, please sit down. Miss Lopez, why don’t you join us as well? Stark and Good, why do I get the feeling that I’m going to be asking for wrist restraints, one way or another?”

“We came prepared, ma’am.” Good removed a pair from his belt.

“Very well, then. Dane, you said Winters is under arrest. Is that true? If so, I would like to know why, as well as who else you plan to arrest.”

“Winters is under arrest on suspicion of attempted murder.”

“Ah.” Adams took all this in stride, and Dane was impressed. It was likely because she wasn’t jacked up on Winters’ coffee like she normally was. “Who did he try to murder?”

“Dane and me!” Lopez erupted. “The jerk attached a sonic device to our sub before we went out. It had recordings of nessies on it to draw the attention of the megs!”

“That’s drivel. I tried to stop you both from an unsanctioned, unscheduled, clandestine meeting on the sub!”

“You got pissed that I’m not going to toss Lev into space without a fair trial, you mean.”

“Reckless speculation,” Winters insisted.

“What about this sonic device?” Adams asked. “Do you have it?”

“We do not,” Lopez growled.

“Convenient! A lack of evidence for a flimsy theory.”

“We don’t have the device because we had to toss it into the depths to lead the BDFs away from us. If we hadn’t, we’d be dead, and the Dinodestroyer would be no more.”

“So you had to destroy the evidence. Extremely convenient,” Winters drawled.

“I thought you might say that,” Dane replied. “Good, you find that clip?”

“On the big screen, Chief.”

They all turned to see a wide-angle lens showing the moon pool room. Winters entered with Lopez and Dane. As they climbed onto the deck and entered the submersible, the XO patted the vehicle farewell. Dane remembered all that, but now he saw the black box that Winters had attached.

“Winters, can you explain that?” Adams asked, her voice still calm.

“Of course I can,” Winters assured her.

Then he bolted for the door.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Dane lurched to his feet and sprinted after Winters, but he was too slow. Winters had the seat closest to the door and was wired on God knew how much caffeine. He would’ve made it to the hallway if Good hadn’t piloted a drone directly under one of his feet. Winters stepped on the tiny flying drone. It crunched, and Winters’ weight forced it out from under him as he crashed to the ground.

He tried to get his hands under him and push to his feet, but Dane was on him. He dropped a knee on Winters’ back and pinned the man to the floor.

“You don’t understand what’s at stake here!” Winters blubbered. When he fell, he’d bloodied his nose, so a spray of blood and spit accompanied his words.

“We understand fine. You lost your grip on what’s important. You tried to blow up the entire colony,” Dane spat, disgusted. “Stark, I’ll take those wrist restraints.”

Stark put them in Dane’s hand. He bound Winters’ wrists and hauled him upright.

“Wait a minute,” Adams protested. “Winters couldn’t have set the bomb. He was with me.”

“She’s got a point, Winters. You want to tell us who the mastermind was? Or should we go ahead and put you in cryogenic sleep while we work up the case?” Dane asked.

“I didn’t try to blow up the base.” Winters attempted to pull away from Dane and only succeeded in stumbling. Dane caught him so he wouldn’t crash to the ground with his hands bound. It was more than he deserved, but Dane didn’t see the point in unnecessarily roughing up the XO.

“You did try to kill us, you bastard. You used the nessie calls.”

“I didn’t know that would work. I swear.”

“Yet you tried it?” Adams looked almost heartbroken at the revelation that Winters had been working against the good of the colony.

“Winters, there was a bomb. It blew up. Could have been worse, sure, but there was still a bomb in here. If you don’t want us to charge you for that on top of trying to kill me and Lopez, you need to talk.”

Winters’ eyes darted around the room.

“I tried to tell you, Governor. I tried so many times.”

“You said the Russians couldn’t be trusted. I know. You told me we couldn’t live with them, but it was you who tried to blow us up.”

“That wasn’t me!”

“Then who?” Adams demanded, her heartbreak fading. “Who did this?”

“Winters, we need to know who you were working with. Once they realize they’ve been found out, they’re going to make more aggressive moves. I know it wasn’t Lev. So who was it? We need to make sure the next bomb doesn’t blow up the base.”

“The plan was never to blow up the base,” Winters moaned. “If it was, the bomb could have been planted on any exterior wall. You don’t think I told her that? The base had to stay intact. That was always my priority.”

“Who?” Dane asked. “Who did you talk out of blowing up the base?”

Winters looked around at his captors once more, then sagged in Dane’s grip. Stark slid a chair over, and Dane lowered him into it.

“I guess you’re all Americans, so I might as well trust you,” Winters confessed. “I was working with Sophia Novikov.”

“Sophia? I thought you hated the Russians!” Good sputtered. “He’s lying, Chief. I’ve heard him talk mess on them every minute since the Russians arrived. Her more than almost anyone.”

“No…no, I think he’s telling the truth.” Dane thought about the meal Winters and Novikov had shared. That uneaten meal. “Why Sophia? What did she offer?”

“Half a planet,” Winters groaned.

“She doesn’t have half a planet to give,” Adams rebuked.

“That’s what she said you would say.” Tears mixed with the blood and snot coming from Winters’ nose. “She said you and Petrov were too soft. You both kept acting like this would work, like we didn’t have a history going back centuries. We can’t mix. Don’t you see that? We’re too different.”

“So you tried to blow up the base?”

“I didn’t do that, goddamn it!” Winters shouted. “Are all of you security idiots this dense, or did you lose brain cells in the war? I’ve read about how they’d limit oxygen when you slept, so you could stay out there longer. The Russians did it to their soldiers, so we had to do it to ours. Is that what happened to you, Dane? Did they thin your damn oxygen too much, and now you don’t have a full set?”

“Chief Dane is a war hero, and you’d best not disrespect him again.” Stark took a heavy step toward Winters.

Winters only spat at Stark. “Sycophant.”

“You need to explain yourself.” Dane spoke in the calmest voice he could manage. “How would placing a bomb let you split up Varuna?”

“We knew leadership would never go for it. Adams and Petrov were close, then you and Lev started to drift together. I thought I could trust you, Dane. I really did. I never thought you’d side with one of them. Not like her. Not like Alvarez or Granger.”

Then it clicked for Dane.

“That bomb wasn’t meant to damage the power generator, was it? It was meant for Granger.”

Winters regarded Dane with malice in his eyes and nodded. “Sophia said she was too obsessed with her work. That when it came time for us to separate the colonies, she’d argue against it. We had to take her out or risk people rallying around her.”

“Around Granger?” Good smirked. “She couldn’t persuade a wet paper bag to fall apart.”

“Maybe not from your angle, but she has sway over the engineering team,” Winters professed.

“You mentioned Alvarez,” Dane prodded.

“I convinced Sophia to let him be, that all he wanted to do was study the planet. She believed me, but only after I got the recordings of the nessies from him. I told him they were for security reasons, and he agreed. Sophia’s right. He is too trusting.”

“So she put you up to killing us?” Lopez demanded.

“That’s what she wanted me to do, but I didn’t want to go through with it. I knew that George Dane, of all people, would be more than willing to let the Russians leave. That he’d be happiest with them on the other side of the planet.”

“You thought the Russians would abandon this base?” Dane asked, incredulous.

“Sophia assured me they would. I had no reason to doubt her like I had no reason to doubt you until you started…cavorting with Lev. When you said your ‘gut’ thought he was innocent.” Winters’ features wrinkled into a cruel rictus, then he spat again.

“I think we’ve heard enough,” Adams decided. “Stark, Good, lock this man up and keep him under guard until we can get him back in a sleeping pod to await trial. Dane, let’s take Novikov into custody.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Dane said.

When he reached Novikov’s quarters, she wasn’t there.

“Governor, we’ve got a problem. Novikov might have flown the coop,” Dane explained over the comms.

“Roger that, Dane. I’m reaching out to Petrov. He should be able to locate her.”

Dane didn’t wait around. He checked in with Stark and Good, then ordered them to meet him at the elevator once they had Winters secured and under guard. Next, he called Athanas for good measure.

“Where do you think she is?” Lopez piped up. She had doggedly stuck by his side and didn’t seem to have any interest in leaving now.

“I have an idea where I’d go, but let’s see what Petrov says before we pull that trigger.”

Petrov could locate her. It turned out that part of having a military implant meant your superior officer could always locate you. That was not the same as being able to place her in custody, though.

“Novikov is aboard the Zhemchug,” Petrov told Dane. “She sent me a request to head up not long ago. I thought it was for tomorrow, but she has already left for supplies.”

“I understand, sir. Did she go up in the last ninety minutes?” Dane asked.

“Er…yes, I believe so.”

“Damn it.” Dane quickened his pace. “Damn it, damn it, damn it!”

“I’m more of a whiz engineer-explorer. Why is Novikov running away bad? We know where she is,” Lopez panted as they raced toward the elevator.

“She only went up after Winters sabotaged the sub,” Dane told her. “She must have thought I was out of the picture, which would have let her move into her endgame.”

“Her endgame to fairly split the planet,” Lopez grumbled with sardonic disdain.

“Which probably involved whatever the hell is hidden on the outside of the Zhemchug,” Dane pointed out.

“Oh Jesus, Dane. If it’s star fighters, it’ll completely change the balance of power. She could have promised Winters anything if she has one of those hidden where those airlocks should be.”

“I don’t think that’s an if.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Dane, Lopez, Good, Stark, and Athanas all crammed into the elevator. The ride up felt different than before. Previously, the transparent tube was a display of power, a way to show this world they were humans and could do as they wished. Now it seemed like a target, an unnecessarily exposed form of transportation.

If there were railguns or space-to-surface missiles on that star fighter…hell, if Novikov had access to a couple of heavy rocks, she could completely obliterate the elevator shaft, the floating platform, and the underwater base without ever entering the atmosphere.

“Her plan can’t be to kill everybody, right?” Stark put forward as they ascended to the gentle hum of the elevator. “I mean, Winters said they wanted to split the planet. Surely, she’d want the base?”

“People make bad choices when they feel like they don’t have any,” Dane proclaimed. “She was always clear about maintaining autonomy over the Zhemchug. There’s no telling what she’s capable of.”

“People did horrible things in the war,” Athanas commented. “Compared to some of the cities that were destroyed, a few hundred people might seem like nothing to her.”

“Our priority is to take her in. So far, she hasn’t killed anyone yet,” Dane reminded them.

“Not for lack of trying!” Lopez snapped.

“I know we’re all upset, but we need to keep our heads on our shoulders. If she makes a mistake, we need to be ready. We can’t give her an opportunity. The Cosmos is up there, too, remember? If she turns a starfighter on that, we’ll lose the crew, our strongest computer, and our ability to watch the skies.

“Right now, I need everyone to stay calm. Our best bet is to make this look routine and get aboard the Zhemchug. Petrov shut down the external defenses when we began unloading to prevent accidents. There are likely star fighters aboard, but she won’t use those unless it’s necessary.”

“You don’t think that crazy bitch will deem them necessary?” Lopez burbled.

Dane didn’t have an answer, but they’d reached the floating station, so he didn’t have to come up with one.

“I heard you needed a ride up.” Anderson’s shuttle engines were already on. Adams had called ahead while they took the elevator. Dane also had a message on his tablet that she’d informed Petrov of the situation and that he would do whatever he could to stop Sophia.

Dane waited until they’d launched to tell everyone to put on space suits.

“I thought you said our best bet was to land on the Zhemchug?” Lopez complained as she pulled on a space suit. “There’s a crew up there. It's not like she’s going to space her own people.”

“The chief only said that so no one got cold feet before we boarded the shuttle,” Athanas revealed. “We have to assume she’s willing to shoot us out of the sky. It’s only a question of if she’s able.”

“Oh.” The color drained from Lopez’s face.

“You’ll be all right,” Stark told her. “You handled yourself well when that nessie bit me. This is like that, except with guns. And maybe robots. And potentially a star fighter.”

“I’m sure she appreciates the effort, Stark, but maybe not the time.”

“We’re being hailed, sir,” Anderson reported. “It’s the Zhemchug.”

“Put it on.” Dane squared his shoulders in the copilot’s seat.

“Cosmos shuttle, you are not cleared for docking with the Zhemchug.” Sophia Novikov sneered with disdain.

“We are here under orders from Governor Adams and Commander Petrov. We are to retrieve Lev Kozlov and take him out of cryogenic sleep,” Dane said.

“You mean the man who planted a bomb on the base? I can’t let you do that. He’s a terrorist.” Sophia sounded as if the entire situation amused her.

“Anderson, send her the orders from Petrov and Adams.”

Anderson did.

“Lev didn’t plant that bomb, and you know it.” Dane addressed Novikov directly once more.

“These orders are irrelevant. I have the right to take command if Petrov suffers from mental disability, which obviously he has.”

“Because he actually wants to work together?” Lopez shouted as she crashed into the camera’s view. She looked like she would have throttled Sophia through the video if only she had the power.

“Working with an enemy is treason,” Novikov insisted. “There is no higher crime than that.”

“What about endangering an entire base twice?” Lopez shot back.

“The bomb was no threat.”

“So you felt justified planting it?” Dane demanded.

“History will show that what I did was courageous. It was the first blow against the invaders who stole our base.”

“History will show that Sophia Novikov spent the rest of her days in prison,” Dane countered.

“So we come to threats?” Sophia laughed. “Very well. Threats, I like. Threats, I understand. No more of this ‘let us eat kelp burgers together’ nonsense. Now it is time to be clear. Change your course away from the Zhemchug or be annihilated.” Her accent made the last word particularly frightening.

Anderson did not change course, but his hands twitched to a different position on the controls. “Sir?” he asked with as much weight behind that single word as Dane had ever heard.

“She shouldn’t be able to activate the ship’s defenses without Petrov’s go-ahead.”

“There shouldn’t be star fighters there, either,” Lopez commented. “Yet...”

“You do know that this shuttle is basically a moving van, right?” Anderson said. “If she launches star fighters, it’s going to be like a tiger versus a dairy cow.”

“But you’re our cow, Anderson. We believe in you,” Stark called from the back of the shuttle.

“We need to stay the course,” Dane contended. “She has to be stopped, and it has to be now.”

“You sure about that, sir?” Anderson appealed.

“About the course of action? Yes. Keep flying, Anderson. Novikov has made it clear that she wants to take out leadership. That would be bad enough, but we know she won’t stop with them. Not if she’s already risked a bomb and lured those BDFs to kill us. Keep going. Make for an airlock.”

“Yes, sir.” Anderson’s voice shook, but his hands remained steady at the controls.

Novikov cursed and killed the connection.

“I knew she was bluffing.” A smug look crossed Athanas’ face.

“How do you know that?” Stark asked.

“We’d be dead already if she wasn’t.”

Dane grinned. He knew it had been a good idea to bring Athanas along!

Two minutes later, the display for an incoming message blinked again. “Put it on,” Dane ordered, and Anderson did.

“I am curious. How did you escape the megichthyosaur?” Novikov asked. “Was it fun?”

“Not as fun as it sounds,” Dane remarked.

Novikov threw her head back and laughed. “I didn’t think it would be. At least you could move around, correct? What did you do? Find somewhere it could not fit? I looked at the specs of your submersible. You could not have outrun it.”

“How about we go back down to the surface together, and I’ll show you exactly what we did?”

“Tempting, but I must decline,” Novikov replied. “Those song cubes were easy to make, you understand. Easier than the bomb since your base already had the device itself, so you could all listen to your American music. I fear if we reenter the water together now, the megichthyosaurs will attack us. They seemed to grow irate at the sounds of the nessies. I wonder what they will think when they hear multiple voices singing at once.”

“You wouldn’t,” Dane gasped.

Novikov smiled. “I already did.”

“You’re crazy! Everyone down there will die! Those Big Damned Fish can crack that base open like a shell, you idiot! Russians will die!” Lopez screamed into the camera.

“We have plenty in reserve up here. I prioritized the Russians we woke, saving those most loyal to the motherland for last. Petrov thought it made sense, the fool. We will suffer a setback, but we will not—”

Dane killed the connection and called down to Adams.

“Dane, do you have her yet?”

“Negative, Governor. We haven’t docked yet, but I have bad news.”

“She launched the star fighters?”

“We’ll deal with that if it happens. Right now, you’re in danger. Novikov claims to have planted more of the speakers with nessie song recordings around the base.”

“She wouldn’t…” Adams was aghast.

“Ma’am, I think she would. She sees cooperation as treason and thinks she can restart everything with the Russians still in cryo-sleep.”

“Understood, Dane. We’ll get right on it.” Adams didn’t bother closing the connection before she called for Granger to find the devices and told Petrov to start moving people to the center of the base.

Dane tried to push the BDFs out of his mind as they prepared to dock with a hostile ship.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

It was too much to ask for the Zhemchug to stay still while they tried to dock. Anderson launched the docking tube, but before it could connect, the Zhemchug’s rotation accelerated slightly. Enough for the tube to clank against the hull of the ship rather than connecting.

“Looks like we do this the old-fashioned way.” Dane stood at the shuttle door. He clipped an anchored cable to his suit, then he kicked off into the blackness of space.

They were far closer than was considered safe, so Dane didn’t have to float long before he clunked into the hull of the interstellar vessel. His magnetic boots and gloves gripped the surface, and he scuttled toward the airlock. There, he removed the end of the cable from his suit and connected it to a ring near the door.

The thing about spacecraft was that they were inherently fraught with risk. One did not design them without clips and safety features like manual overrides for airlocks. The risks were simply too great.

Dane opened the airlock door with the codes Petrov had given him.

“All right, we have access. Let’s start coming across,” Dane said.

“On our way, sir,” Athanas affirmed, though Good started the migration. They’d cross one by one, careful not to put any extra tension on the cable connecting the shuttle to the Zhemchug.

At least, that was the plan for about twenty seconds.

“Sir, something broke from the rear bottom of the ship,” Anderson called over the comms. “I wouldn’t have noticed if the rotation of the Zhemchug hadn’t shifted slightly.”

“Goddamn it,” Dane hissed. There was no doubt in his mind about what had to be coming for them.

“Everyone, get to the Zhemchug immediately! You’ll be sitting ducks out there. I want everyone on shortwave. If you have long-range transceivers, she’ll be able to pick you out from kilometers away.”

Stark didn’t need to be told to jump twice. The man crouched, braced himself, then leapt across the void of space. Athanas waited for Lopez, who needed a few seconds to psyche herself up. When she did jump, her trajectory was better than Stark’s.

Good touched down next to Dane. “Get Stark,” Dane ordered on their shortwave communications as he positioned himself to help catch Lopez. He glanced up to see that Athanas had already jumped. Her trajectory looked good.

“Yes, sir.” Good tromped across the hull to intercept Stark, who looked like he’d land fifteen meters or so up the bulkhead.

“Sir, I’ve got eyes on this thing now. It’s slippery as a fish on my radar, but it’s definitely moving under its own power.”

“It’s a Russian star fighter, Anderson. You need to get off that shuttle immediately.”

“I don’t want to leave my ship, sir!”

“You mean your van? If she comes for you, you’re dead! Now, move! We need good pilots.”

Anderson groaned over the radio, but he appeared in the open hatch of his shuttle a few seconds later. He kicked off and immediately flailed around, but Dane judged that his line looked good. The flailing wouldn’t matter.

“Sir, I’ve got Stark,” Good reported.

“Good. Get through the airlock and inside.”

Good and Stark tromped across the ship and entered the airlock while Dane waited to catch Lopez. He snagged her easily and helped her plant her magnetic boots on the hull. Athanas landed a moment later with two feet and a fist touching down, like a freaking superhero.

“Get inside, sir. I’ll grab Anderson.”

Dane nodded. He entered the airlock and shuffled into the hallway.

Then he saw it. Like a slice of the night sky carved by the world’s sharpest knife. Its weapons bristled like supernovas, and its thrusters glowed like suns.

“Get inside, now!” Dane shouted to Athanas and Anderson.

They plunged through the airlock and into the pressurized hall.

Novikov found a firing solution on the shuttle. Dane couldn’t be sure, but it looked like a single railgun pellet fired from the nose of her craft. He saw only a single flash, yet the destruction was immense. The pellet shredded the shuttle like aluminum foil. One moment, the craft nearly every single colonist had taken at one point or another was there. The next second, only pieces of metal drifting apart, followed by a small explosion as the fuel tank went up.

And something, perhaps a piece of landing gear, was rocketing toward them.

“Hold on!” Dane shouted over their radios.

The piece of metal slammed into the airlock and punched through both the inner and outer doors. What had once been a pressurized hall was now a tunnel of wind sucking them into space.

“No, no, no!” Anderson shouted as something thunked into him and knocked his magnetic boots and gloves from the wall. He tumbled down the passageway, but he was already past Dane. There was nothing he could do.

But Athanas could. With her feet connected to the walls, she reached out and arched her back as she stretched for Anderson. She grabbed his belt, and he slammed into the wall, where he had the wherewithal to connect his hands and feet.

A few seconds later, the wind had stopped. Like every other modern spacecraft, the Zhemchug could seal off decompressed parts of itself.

“What is the American expression?” Novikov asked, their helmets picking up her distorted voice. “Oh, yes, that is right. Whoops.”

Lopez scowled and reached for her radio, but Dane caught her hand and shook his head. He signaled for his security staff to remain silent. Athanas rested her helmet against Anderson’s to tell him the order. Dane did the same, touching his helmet against Lopez’s so the vibrations of his voice carried from one to the other.

“Don’t let her goad you into talking. No radio signals.”

“I thought you said to switch to shortwave so she couldn’t hear us?”

“I did, but I forgot our radios are a hundred years behind theirs. I don’t know what she’s capable of.”

“Hello? Are there any little Americans floating around out there? I am sorry your pathetic shuttle inexplicably exploded. I am here to help. Say where you are, and I am there to lend assistance.”

Dane motioned for everyone to follow him. They reached the end of the hallway and found another airlock. Dane opened it, and they moved inside the ship. They removed their helmets so they could speak freely.

“Whatever she says, don’t respond,” Dane ordered. “I don’t think she’d attack the Zhemchug, but I bet she’d scuttle the other fighter if she knew we were still alive.”

“If there’s another fighter,” Lopez put in.

“There were two airlocks missing. We have to assume there are two fighters.” Dane made sure he sounded more confident than he felt.

“How are you supposed to power up the other fighter without her noticing?” Anderson asked. “She’ll notice the second you start warming up the engines.”

“You need a distraction,” Athanas declared.

“We can make one from the engine room,” Lopez suggested.

“We need to be careful with Russians, though,” Good mentioned.

Dane nodded. “We’ll split into three parties, then. Good and Stark, you work your way to the bridge. Go slowly. I’d rather you not find anyone, but if you do, take them out as quietly as you can.”

“I have a drone for that,” Good disconnected one that had been strapped to his thigh.

“Good man. Lopez and Athanas, get to the engine room and try for a distraction. If you’re sure you can distract her, you can use radios. If not, stay quiet. Whatever you do, I need to see it from the bay.”

“No worries there. I got a plan,” Lopez growled.

“Where do you want me, sir?” Anderson asked.

“You’re with me, Anderson. I think warming this star fighter up might be tricky, considering it's been in cold storage for like eighty years.”

They parted ways. Dane told himself this was the best plan, the only plan, but he could not help thinking this might be the last time he saw most of these people.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

“I do not know whether to call you thieves or traitors in the history of this planet. Do you have an opinion on that?”

Novikov had not stopped taunting them. Dane wondered what she suspected. Did she think they were somewhere on the exterior of the ship? Did she know they were inside? Or was she simply completing a victory lap and wanting the crew of this vessel to know she’d succeeded?

Dane wished he knew how the other two teams were doing. He and Anderson were making progress, but it was slow. They had to pause more than once to let a Russian guard walk past. They had not come across any of the robot dogs, which was a small relief. They must have all been taken down to the surface, where their utility against the BDFs would be tested. Surely, Novikov’s power would not extend to those machines.

Part of him still hoped she was bluffing about attracting the BDFs, but he didn’t think so. She didn’t seem the type to bluff about what she actually had. Even her promise to destroy the shuttle had come true.

“I think things will go better for your colony if you simply confess to conspiring against the Russians,” Novikov went on. “Then I can blame all this on you, and we can work together going forward. That is what you wish, correct? For all of us to hold hands and sing and pretend that we are one?” Her laughter was long, cruel, and loud enough to make the speakers in Dane’s suit buzz and distort.

Dane ignored her, as he had the entire time. They had reached the airlock. “Helmets on,” he noted.

“Gladly.” Anderson put his on.

They stepped into the airlock and out to the hull of the Zhemchug once more. The first thing Dane noticed was the retracted panel of aluminum. Obviously, the underside had not been camouflaged as well as the top. It glinted and gleamed where it had been folded.

“I don’t see any sign of her.” Anderson bumped against Dane so his voice would carry.

“Let’s move.” Dane gestured toward the star fighter in front of them.

It didn’t look real. It was all black, its shape almost impossible to make out because it had no hard edges. Spaceships didn’t require any of the aerodynamics of vehicles that flew in atmosphere, yet this one was all sinuous curves and streamlined perfection. Surely it was capable of atmospheric flight as well as space flight, which meant Novikov’s could do the same. Dane had to end this. Otherwise, she really could attack the base.

Fortunately, the star fighter looked up to the task. It had a railgun mounted on the nose, missiles on the wings, and seemed capable of vanishing into the depths of space. Dane wondered how much time the Russians had spent on making their own craft able to identify each other. It was useful to know where one’s allies were in battle, but it also risked having a ship fall into enemy hands and be reverse-engineered.

Dane wanted to climb in and fire it up, but he knew they couldn’t. He had to assume Novikov would spot them the moment they came online. Right now, they needed to wait for Lopez. They crept across the short span between the airlock and the ship, then slid underneath it to hide and wait.

“My biggest question is what to do with those disgusting long-necked creatures. Slaughtering them is a good option, but I do wonder what they are capable of if trained properly. You have seen bears dance in Russian circus?”

“The only one who’s gonna dance is you, bitch,” Lopez spat.

“Ah! You are alive! Here I was, starting to enjoy the sound of my own voice.”

“You may have killed my friends, but you missed me. Pretty stupid, I got to say.”

“This is the engineer, Lopez, yes? I think having the one non-security person survive is good luck. Do you even know how to fire gun? Ah, yes, you are American. You had gun from cradle.”

“You’re in trouble, Novikov. No doubt about that.”

“How am I in trouble? I am scrambling communications. You cannot reach the surface with your pathetic words. No one but you and those loyal to me on Zhemchug have heard any of this.”

“You’re in trouble because you should never have let an engineer reach your ship’s engine room.”

The Zhemchug came to life.

Maybe it would have been better to say it erupted.

Dane and Anderson slammed against the bulkhead. It seemed a miracle the ship did not collapse and crush them. Dane was dimly aware that the Zhemchug had nuclear engines, which meant it could move. Judging by his heart pounding in his eyeballs, Dane estimated they were at five gravities. It was a decent distraction, though he couldn’t peel himself off the bulkhead to take advantage of it.

“What are you doing? You are steering ship the wrong way!” Sophia shouted over the radio.

“You killed my friends. I’ve got nothing left. Might as well take your sleeping Russians with me!”

Novikov snorted in disgust. Dane saw a glimmer from his hiding place and realized it was only luck Novikov had not seen him and Anderson. She had been near the ship, almost perfectly camouflaged with the space around her.

A moment later, the Zhemchug rattled, and the acceleration ceased.

“You will not crash my ship,” Novikov snapped. “You will not do anything anymore.”

“You idiot.” Lopez seemed to relish her role. “You took out the main thruster as well as the stabilizing ones. This thing’s going to crash!”

“Show me where?” Novikov snarled.

“Oh, is the leaking radiation from the damage you caused making your sensors act weird?” Lopez teased.

Dane couldn’t imagine a clearer sign than that. He tapped Anderson, and the two of them got to work activating the Russian star fighter.

The Zhemchug was spinning faster than it should have, which made Dane’s stomach hurt. He pushed the thought away as he and Anderson darted about, checking every component.

The missiles looked good.

The railgun was loaded.

For a ship that had essentially been on ice for eighty years, it was in remarkably good shape. Though, if Novikov was serious about staffing the crew of the Zhemchug with people loyal to her, they could have been getting the fighters ready to go for weeks.

Finally, Anderson tapped his shoulder and gave him the thumbs-up. Dane clambered into the cockpit and settled in the seat. It fit him like a glove. He leaned back and felt the seat conform to his body. Armrests on either side of the chair sported various controls at the tips. An accelerator was on the left, and in the center of the seat was a control stick.

Though Dane had yet to activate the ship, he could tell what the controls did by touch. Most of them, anyway. There was a reason cars always had steering wheels. While flying craft varied more, there was a certain logic to the control stick, accelerator, and built-in controls.

Dane turned the star fighter on and launched into his first space battle in over a hundred and fifty years.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Dane barely cleared the Zhemchug before Novikov’s ship appeared on his fighter. It was green on the display, but Dane knew that was only because the two star fighters were part of the same force. He had no illusions about the other shuttle coming from the Cosmos to help.

As he pushed the accelerator and shot off, the Russian vessel warned him of a proximity alert.

“I should have assumed the famously bloodthirsty George Dane could not resist a Russian star fighter,” Novikov sneered.

“I don’t want anyone hurt,” Dane snarled back into the comms.

“Yet you shot the Zhemchug’s thrusters, essentially dooming it.”

“You did that!”

The harsh buzz of static erupted from his comms, followed by Novikov’s voice. “Oh, no! The Zhemchug is under attack! A group of insurgents from the ADN have taken control of one of our shuttles!”

More static. Then laughter. Obviously, she had switched back to a private channel.

“There we go. That could even pave the way for Petrov to finally see things my way.”

Dane went into a barrel roll as another proximity alert sounded. Though this ship was designed for battle, there was little chance it could survive a direct shot from the railgun.

Dane didn’t try to fire back. Not yet. He entered a series of evasive maneuvers instead, trying to get a handle on the ship’s controls. It was super responsive, and the cockpit rotated to protect him from the most extreme of g-forces. He sensed a depth to the controls but didn’t have time to explore them. Not with Novikov on his tail.

“This is George Dane. Novikov is threatening the base! She has a star fighter!” Dane shouted into the radio as he tried to keep his fighter moving toward open space. He reasoned that Novikov was more experienced, which gave her an advantage with tighter moves. If they went into the open, though, he might be able to take her out. If he failed, he needed the base to know what she had.

Novikov only laughed. “Can’t get through my jamming signal, it seems. It can be frustrating how those sorts of features are buried deep inside a menu written in Russian. Would you like a few minutes to sort that out?” The flash of her railgun underscored the generosity of her offer.

Dane twisted the controls, earning another proximity alert but staying clear of the super high-powered metal slugs.

Dane’s hands flew over the controls, growing more familiar with every move he took. The control stick and accelerator were standard, but auxiliary jets on either side of the star fighter could be operated independently of the main accelerator. Those would have been suicide if the star fighter was in atmosphere, where wind resistance could be a harsh mistress. Out here, the ship’s movements were only limited by the structural integrity of its hull.

Which meant Dane could scoot to the right or left to dodge blasts. The first time he did, he banged his head on the inside of the cockpit. Considering the ship was still intact, he counted that as a win.

Now that he was out in open space, he increased his speed and pushed the ship to its limits, forcing Novikov to test her own. He might not have experience with this fighter, but he was no stranger to the stakes of a battle like this. He’d have to trust he could do better than Novikov.

He rolled clockwise, then back the other way. Banked a ninety-degree turn, then went into a backflip as Novikov tried to catch up.

And he had her.

She was directly in his sights, within the red ring the missiles used to target. He pressed the stud to fire.

Nothing happened.

He pressed it again.

The missile refused to launch.

He looked over the screen for a heads-up display to tell him what the hell was wrong, but he didn’t see one. Why would there be? Lev mentioned he had a brain implant primarily used for this exact purpose. Dane cursed, realizing there was a wealth of knowledge about this ship he could not access.

“Why didn’t you hit me with that missile, Dane?” Novikov teased. “Did you forget that firing on a friendly target isn’t authorized?”

“Damn it!” Dane squeezed the trigger to fire the railgun, but Novikov saw that coming lightyears away. She was long gone from his line of fire. He looked around, trying and failing to find the black ship against the darkness of space.

There was a simplified tracking display directly below the screen, but Dane was suddenly aware of how much must be missing. Novikov’s ship was not present. He didn’t know if that meant she’d dropped off his sensors or was simply outside the range the display normally showed.

He released the accelerator to fiddle with it and managed to change the display scale to something even less useful. Now it showed that she was right on top of him.

“It’s not that hard to turn off,” Novikov taunted. She had appeared on his port side out of nowhere, then vanished again. She seemed to understand how the ship looked better than Dane. By facing a certain angle toward him, she could severely limit her visibility. Dane did not know if he could do that to her. Her brain implant might be highlighting him in her vision like a goddamn video game.

Though she’d vanished again, the missile she had launched was more than happy to show itself. The engine burned brightly behind it, making it appear as a sort of lethal eclipse rocketing toward him.

Thankfully, Dane had experience with dodging missiles. This star fighter was equipped with the same technology he had used back in the war. Flares.

He launched a dozen of them. They snaked off from the sides and rear of the ship, temporarily burning hotter and brighter than his engines.

The missile was unable to resist. It veered off to chase the flares as Dane cut the output from his own engines and rolled out of the way.

The shockwave of the missile rattled the star fighter, but being shaken around in the cockpit of a fighter only made Dane nostalgic, not frightened.

He had to change tactics! His opponent had missiles, while he did not. It was a less-than-ideal situation. If the same programming constrained the railgun, the fight was as good as over.

He turned back to look for Novikov, aware that she must already know precisely where he was. He had been in worse plights than this, but not many. He hoped the situation on the planet was going better than this one.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Novikov shot into view and launched another missile. The second he saw her, he squeezed the railgun trigger. The missile exploded in front of him, temporarily blinding him. He still considered it a success. The gun had not refused to fire. He could win this, though it would not be easy.

He shot up, trying to find her against the inky darkness. He saw something move and fired.

“Bastard!” Novikov shouted over his radio.

Dane counted that as encouragement, but another missile was heading for him. He fired and missed. He rolled clear, then loosed more flares. The missile exploded when it encountered the flares, but this time the shockwave was too close. Dane slammed against the side of his cockpit as his fighter tumbled.

He wrestled with the controls, trying to bring the star fighter back online. Apparently, the missile had interfered with the electronics. Probably had a built-in EMP.

The designer of this star fighter knew what they would face, though. The entire system rebooted, and Dane had control of the vessel once more. However, he now knew he could not win this dogfight. Not without missiles, not without the same level of tracking Novikov had. He had to change the terms of engagement.

He flew back toward the Zhemchug. His reasons were multitudinous. Novikov’s ship would not camouflage as well against the massive ship. More importantly, she would be forced not to use her missiles. The most loyal Russians were still aboard the ship. She would not risk them, especially if the missiles had a built-in EMP. That could kill anyone in the hibernation pods.

Before Dane collided with the Zhemchug, he pulled up and cruised scant meters above its surface. He fiddled with his tracking display and found a magnification he liked. Between that and having the Zhemchug beneath him, he felt confident knowing where he was. This was the kind of space fighting he was most accustomed to. He had spent most of his time defending rock droppers and weaving in and out of the asteroids they kept for dropping. Even without Novikov’s tracking abilities, he could do better here.

The biggest difference was that Novikov immediately became less aggressive. The missiles stopped coming. Instead, she tried to drop in behind him and line up her railgun. Dane had plenty of experience losing a tail, though. He banked left, then right, then flew up and around in a tight backflip. That forced Novikov to take a more defensive stance. She dodged back and forth, not daring to give him a clear shot with his railgun.

“Dane, this is Lopez!”

“Kinda busy, Lopez. What’s the deal?”

Dane fired his railgun, but Novikov was gone. He followed, not letting her get behind him.

“Zhemchug is losing its orbit. I repeat, this ship is going down!”

“Can’t you stabilize it?”

“That was my plan once we got you launched, but Novikov damaged a fuel line. We can’t do a thing until that’s repaired.”

“Then repair it!”

“We’re missing a part. We’ve got hours, and I’m sure there are spares up here somewhere, but the Russians are not cooperating. They’ve barricaded themselves in the control room. Anderson has taken control of one of the Russian shuttles. He could go down and get a piece or take us all down with him.”

“That’s a negative, Lopez! If you leave the Zhemchug, Novikov will shoot you down!”

Dane banked. His stomach leapt into his chest as he dodged another railgun slug.

“We’re not abandoning these people or this ship. The best solution is to link the Cosmos up with the Zhemchug. The damage is extensive. The fuel line could be only the tip of the iceberg.”

Dane took a potshot at Novikov but missed. Whatever she was, she was definitely a skilled pilot.

“Appreciate the update, but I kind of need to get back to not being destroyed.”

“Wait, there’s more. I managed to reach the folks on the ground for a minute before the radios went down again. Three of the BDFs are attacking. They’re smashing into the base, apparently trying to find nessies that aren’t there. They’re asking for help, but I don’t know what the hell we’re supposed to do there.”

“I have an idea.” Dane twisted and turned to get a bead on Novikov. He drew one, but rather than shooting, he pulled up and leveled out.

“Trying to play nice, Dane?” Novikov snarled as she dodged out of the way, only to realize her foe was now flying smooth and even across the hull of the Zhemchug.

“The colony is in trouble, Sophia. Three BDFs are attacking. They can’t push them back without our help. We can make a difference, though. These railguns can take out a fish. We can go into the atmosphere, right? Together we can save everyone!”

“I will save them, once you’re dead.”

She tried to get a bead on him again, firing a railgun shot that went wide and hit the surface of the Zhemchug. Bits of the hull and wiring floated away, torn to shreds.

“That’s not how this works! We do this together, or we die!”

“No more threats, Dane. I will save the colony from you, from the whole ADN, and from these stupid fish. I’ll save us from Petrov’s shortsighted vision, and I’ll save us from you hypocritical American fools. Yet you need not die, Dane. You only need to surrender. Eject yourself from your cockpit, and I swear I will not shoot you.”

Dane had never heard an offer made in worse faith. He might have taken it if he believed for a second that she would honor her words, but he knew better.

He had to stop her. Now.

So he threw caution to the wind. He dove toward the Zhemchug and pulled up seconds before he punched a hole in its hull. He cruised little more than a meter above the surface. If he came across an antenna, there would be no time to dodge, but that didn’t matter.

Novikov had to come in just as close. If she flew any higher than him and fired her railgun, the angle could puncture the Zhemchug. She had already damaged her ship multiple times. Dane did not think she would risk doing it again.

He was right. She came in low behind him and didn’t risk a shot until she went even lower.

Dane twitched up enough to make her shot miss and came right back down. Novikov did the same and tried to speed up. Dane let her think her plan was working. He slowed down slightly as they neared a corner of the ship. She would think he was slowing down to make the turn…

Dane shot over the edge and rotated his fighter’s nose up instead of down. Rather than continuing to follow the line of the Zhemchug’s hull, his nose pointed back the way he came. He would only get one shot at this. His momentum was all wrong, while Novikov would still be moving the right way.

Still, he knew what was coming, and she didn’t. Would that anticipation be enough? It would only work if the chip in her brain didn’t show her the orientation of the ship. All she had to do was keep flying over the edge of the ship. She’d be able to come back down and shred him from the side before he could face the right way.

If she didn’t, if she tried to follow him around the corner, he’d get a shot.

The moment arrived. Novikov’s ship turned the corner.

She did not shoot out into space to make a pass.

She dropped the nose of her star fighter.

Dane made micro-adjustments.

Novikov lined up her weapon.

They both fired!

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Dane’s railgun pellet struck the nose of Novikov’s star fighter and split it in half. Maybe the ship could have survived a glancing blow, but when it was struck head-on while flying at full speed, no amount of bolts or welds could keep it from shattering to pieces.

Dane waited for his own ship to do the same. Thankfully, it stayed intact.

To be honest, he didn’t know why. Part of it was that he’d spent most of his adult life flying star fighters. He had lived, sweated, and bled star fighter oil for years. He had trained cadets, tested professionals, and fought too many people to the death. He had slept in a starfighter for more hours than most people would sleep in a vacation destination. He was one of the most skilled people to ever pilot a star fighter, certainly the most experienced on this planet.

That experience also told him that Sophia Novikov’s death and his continuing life were only luck. Half a degree one way or the other, and he might have missed. A tiny bit more or less rotation, and she could have hit. Experience and talent made up for much of what happened in life and death, but there was and always would be an element of chance.

Dane had rolled the dice more times than most. Every time he did, he knew he was doing it. He might have the odds a little in his favor, but in moments like this, luck was luck.

“Lopez, I’m headed down to the surface to turn those BDFs into sushi. Evacuate the Zhemchug.”

“We’ll handle it!”

“No, Lopez, that’s an order. Evacuate. Tell the Russians, offer to take them down if you want, but get the hell off that thing before it crashes.”

“I am hearing you but also not technically part of your chain of command. Lopez, over and out!”

Dane tried to hail her, but Russian jazz music blocked the channel.

He shook as he imagined the battle of wills aboard that ship between Athanas and Lopez.

They could save those Russians before the ship’s orbit deteriorated, but he needed to make sure they would have a base to go to.

As he headed for the planet below, testing some of the finer points of the controls as he went, he considered how much of Sophia Novikov’s fate really was luck.

He didn’t see an obvious reason she’d gone the way she did. She had been in the war. Not for as long as he had, but what difference were a hundred horrors of war compared to a thousand? She must have lost people like he had. She must have failed to protect people she’d loved like he had. She must have been a different person after the war like he was.

Was there some key difference in who they were as people? Was there a reason he’d been able to forgive, even if it was belated, while she had not? Had she been raised in a harder home? Had she known hunger in a way he hadn’t? Had she attended a school that cared only about what she could do instead of who she was?

Was all that luck? Was one’s past anything more than luck on the grandest scale? Could anyone escape the world they came from and leave their past behind?

For a long time, Dane thought that was what he needed to do. He thought the only way to go into the future was without the past. That wasn’t true, though. Not quite. One could not let the past burden them, but one could not forget it either.

Dane had moved forward because he and Lev shared a past. Yes, they were on different sides of the war, but that tenuous, fraught link also bound them together. Why had they been able to leave their past even as they honored it, while Sophia could not?

Was it luck, or something else?

Whatever it was, Dane didn’t think it was fair. That human beings could be exposed to things so horrible they were unable to bounce back. That someone’s past could leave them so blind and bitter, they would consider killing hundreds of people merely to build the future they thought they wanted.

It was probably too much to hope they could leave such injustices of humanity behind them on Earth. Yet if they could…well, maybe everything they’d been working for on Varuna would be worth it. Maybe they could create a world where the bitterness of the past did not throttle the present.

He could see worse places to start than a base salvaged by a foreign crew who then invited the latest newcomers inside. Maybe their past on this planet was already more complicated than he’d like, but that could give them strength, too. Maybe the Russians wouldn’t forgive them for taking their base. Maybe they would not tell the story of how they vanquished the murder stars to their children.

Surely, the story of today would be. The story of how a Russian star fighter saved them all from monsters from the deep. That an American was flying said fighter would hopefully add the spice that made history’s best stories worth retelling.

Dane hit the atmosphere, not that he could tell from how little the star fighter shook. It was shaped like a knife and sliced the air almost as effortlessly as it had space itself. Something on the display flashed, asking him about speed and automated adjustments, and he agreed. Flanges and flaps that had been perfectly hidden emerged to wick speed from the star fighter as it plunged closer to the watery surface of Varuna.

Dane had flown anti-submarine missions before. In the early days of the war, before the full power of dropping rocks from space had been realized, there had been much chest-beating and saber-rattling over nuclear subs. Dane had taken out more than one with a railgun. He knew this one would penetrate plenty of water.

He spotted the floating platform and further cut his speed. At his current rate, he’d have to make multiple sweeps to clear out each fish. He wanted to hit the first one with his first shots. A little luck and the damned things would know terror when one of their own met its end with a railgun.

“Homebase, come in. Homebase, this is Security Chief Dane on Zhemchug fighter one. I need access to the sonar system to target lock. I repeat, this is Security Chief Dane!”

“We read you, Chief!” Robinson crowed over the comms. “Giving you access now, though it looks like your fighter might have chewed through our security protocols on its own.”

Indeed, the star fighter’s targeting display showed a more robust interface than it had in space. Up there, Novikov had locked him out of the Zhemchug’s system, and there were no satellites focused on the battleground. Down here, the ship was hungry for information, and Homebase wasn’t concealing what it knew.

Again, Dane longed for one of those brain implants that would give him full access to the tech embedded in the Russian star fighter. The display showed three moving targets, presumably the fish. He could only wonder what level of detail he’d have if the ship displayed more than the basics.

Still, these were not enemy fighters. They were only big damned fish.

Dane took aim at one and fired the railgun.

The pellet hit the water, creating a massive crater that filled almost instantly, resulting in a huge vertical splash.

The BDF swam on, faster and more agitated than it had been. Either it had sensed the shot and dodged it, the sonar had a delay, or the water itself refracted the light and made aiming trickier than Dane expected.

He shot past the battleground and looped back for another strike. Now the BDFs all moved faster. Dane had missed his first shot. Nothing had changed since then, except that the megs were pissed off. He couldn’t assume he’d make the next shot. Not when he’d missed.

He needed to get closer.

He needed to be where they were.

He needed to go underwater.

The streamlined form of this fighter should be okay underwater. Should, Dane silently repeated as he further slowed his pace. It wouldn’t be perfect, but the ship should last for a few minutes. As long as he didn’t go too fast. Or turn too sharply. Or assume the missiles wouldn’t explode the second they were launched into a body of water. Or a thousand other things he might overlook.

There was no time for any of that, though. It was a miracle the BDFs had not yet cracked open the volcano base. Everyone’s life was at risk. Dane was proud to risk his own.

He dove into the sea of Varuna at the shallowest angle he could manage. The ship resisted. Its hull collided with the surface, and it skipped back up. Like a rock across a pond, it lost a bit of its momentum. Dane pushed the nose back down and touched the surface again. This time he felt more drag and more speed wick away.

“Third time’s the charm!” He forced the ship’s nose underwater and dove beneath the surface.

The increased resistance from the water was intense. It threw Dane against the seat restraints. Still, he was moving forward. The star fighter’s engines created plumes of boiling steam behind him as he descended deeper.

Something about the shape, sound, or heat signature of the ship called to the BDFs. His display showed them approaching before he saw them through the blue sea. He adjusted his course slightly to meet one of the approaching fish.

He fired his railgun, and the fish was torn asunder. Dane didn’t even have to steer out of the way. The railgun split the creature into the world’s messiest filet. He drove through the carnage and turned to find another of the BDFs.

His turn was wide out of necessity. In space, he could literally turn on a dime by stopping his acceleration, rotating the vessel, and blasting off in a new direction. Down here, such a maneuver would likely destroy the ship. By the time he turned the fighter around, the fish were no longer where he needed them to be.

One of them was in range, though. Dane made some adjustments and took aim.

Then the one-eyed BDF slammed into the side of the star fighter.

Alarms blared, and water sprayed into the cabin where a bolt had been knocked loose. The engines were too hot. The ship was under too much pressure. There was damage to the starboard side. One of the missiles had jammed. Basically, One-Eye had done a real number on the fighter.

While Dane struggled to silence the alarms and start the engine, One-Eye opened his huge jaws. Dane fired the flares at him.

The fish was no more immune to flashing lights than the prey it lured into its mouth. It snapped at the flares while Dane got the ship moving once more. Most of the alarms continued, but the engine temp, the one that concerned him most, went silent once he moved from the boiling water the engines generated.

The other fish came for him. Dane judged his speed was low enough that he could do a one-eighty.

He was wrong.

He flipped the ship around as more alarms blared and cracks formed in the panel keeping the ocean out. This ship was not made for underwater operation. Yet Dane didn’t slow his rotation. Not even when the ship’s nose pointed into the BDF’s open jaws.

“Chew your food,” Dane snarked, then blasted the railgun down its throat.

Dane braced himself for One-Eye to strike again, but the fish was too smart for that. He checked his tracker and saw the last BDF standing headed for open water.

“Oh, so now you want to dine and dash?”

Dane gave chase. Maybe he could have let one of the other fish go, but not One-Eye. Not the fish that seemed to recognize him even inside a sub.

Dane fired the railgun. His first shot grazed the fish’s back.

“Damn it.”

The fish reached open water and aimed for the depths.

Dane fired again.

Even with the amount of water between him and One-Eye, the projectile was fast enough to punch through the BDF. A hole opened up in its belly, then a great gush of blood exploded outward from its back.

Dane exhaled in relief. The danger to the base had passed. Now, he only had to keep his star fighter from following the BDF to a watery grave.

“They never prepare you for this stuff in flight school,” he muttered.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Dane was not able to save the Russian star fighter. Not alone, anyway.

Fortunately, he wasn’t alone on this planet.

Before the starfighter settled to the bottom, a Russian sub and a smaller ADN vessel arrived with cables and crews ready to work. They pulled him to the surface, where he opened the hatch and started bailing out the cabin. It was a surreal moment, pitching water from the open cockpit of a star fighter. Though the people of this planet, along with their descendants, if things ever calmed down enough to start making progress on that front, would likely consider it normal.

Dane liked to think future generations of this planet would work together the way everyone did this day.

The two subs towed the star fighter between them to the floating platform.

Dane expected Anderson to arrive and pull the fighter out with the heavy Russian shuttle, but apparently, Lopez had not followed his orders and was still in space, managing the Zhemchug’s decaying orbit.

That was fine with everyone at the base, though. There was a crane on the platform that had been used to build the elevator. It hauled the star fighter from the water and onto the platform, which was what counted for dry land here on Varuna.

For a time, Dane simply waited. He showered. Got dry clothes. Ate. Told Adams and Petrov what had happened. Then, Lopez unsurprisingly called over the comms to report they had successfully linked the Cosmos and the Zhemchug and that the two vessels were on their way toward resuming a stable orbit.

Dane would have liked to stick around and wait for Lopez to return. He felt a congratulatory hug, and perhaps dinner would be in order, but he wouldn’t feel right celebrating. Not yet. Not while a man accused of a crime he did not commit was stuck in time, unable to formulate a defense or explain what really happened.

So while Dane would have preferred to stay on the surface, he once more took a shuttle, the only one left from the Cosmos, back into space to free Lev Kozlov.

“Hero Chief Dane does it again,” were Lev’s first words when his hibernation pod opened.

“How do you figure?” Dane asked.

“I don’t think you would be taking me out into world if you had not caught the real bomber. It was Winters, no? He was very rude to all my staff. Always with full pot of coffee, never with cups.”

Dane was impressed.

“It was Winters, but he didn’t work alone. He and Sophia Novikov teamed up. I don’t know how they got involved in the first place, but their work together intensified in the end.”

“Worse than bomb threat?”

“Oh yes. Turns out the bomb was only supposed to kill Granger, not the entire base.”

“Ah. Baby bomb, then. Nothing to you Americans.”

“Not compared to three BDFs, no. Not really.”

“Three of them?”

“Novikov used nessie recordings to lure them to the surface so they’d attack the base. It turned out all right, though. I used flares from one of your secret Russian star fighters to blind it. Got the idea when we went down there and found out they used lures to hunt. Figured they were susceptible to light.”

As Dane rambled on about the BDFs, Lev grew progressively paler. Dane knew why. He’d told his rival security chief that he knew about their secret fighters. He paused and gave Lev a chance to ‘fess up to the smuggling.

“I should have told you about the fighters,” Lev was quick to say.

Dane shrugged. “You really should have. If you had, there might still be two of them.”

“What did you do with a fighter? It is not spare keys! You cannot lose it under plush couch cushions!”

“I followed Novikov to the Zhemchug. She attacked us with one. Completely shredded our shuttle with a railgun. It would have been awesome if we hadn’t nearly died. So, I had to take control of the other one. We fought. She lost. Wasn’t able to save the ship.”

Lev nodded. “It was always hard to capture you Americans as well.”

“We did save this one, though.” Dane patted the hull of the Zhemchug.

“It was in danger? How long was I out?”

“We turned it on to give me cover. Novikov couldn’t have that, so she fired on it, took out the engines. Orbit was decaying until we linked the Cosmos up to it.”

“The Cosmos and Zhemchug are connected? Right now?”

Dane nodded.

Lev grinned, then threw back his head and laughed.

“I admit that I fail to see the humor here.”

“It is only that this was ‘worst-case scenario’ from leadership back home. We were to keep distance from Cosmos or risk not being able to take defensive maneuvers. Neither ship was built for battle, of course. We were to avoid yours so we could take you out with star fighters if necessary.”

“I guess that’s not going to happen.”

“No. Leadership did not foresee your out-of-date ship saving ours.”

“Yet they anticipated the need for star fighters?”

“Pah. I should have been more trusting. I had good instincts about you, Dane, especially after we faced those fish together. If only my vision was as good as hindsight.”

“We say hindsight is always twenty-twenty in America,” Dane quoted.

“Yes, that is what I was going for. I should have trusted you then, but I do trust you now.”

“So, no more major military secrets?”

Lev snorted. “You may find this hard to believe, but we were not able to smuggle more than star fighters on our ship.”

“Don’t forget the robot dogs.”

“Those were surprise? I thought you met them as soon as you broke into our ship!”

Dane laughed. “I guess that’s true. It was only that Dmitry never mentioned them.”

Lev laughed at the mention of the crewman’s name. “Dmitry. That is another thing. No more getting my people drunk to take advantage, yes? First you encourage Dmitry to ferment his own alcohol, then use kelp spirits to cover up my arrest?”

“Fair. Totally fair. Next time you get a drink, I’m having one too.”

“It is deal.”

Lev held out a hand, and Dane took it. The two old military men proceeded to attempt to crush each other’s bones to powder. When both were satisfied the other could, in fact, open walnuts with his bare hands, they released.

Dane helped Lev from the pod and to the bridge. If it was awkward giving the other man his uniform, neither of them let on.

They made their way through the micro-gravity of the Zhemchug to the docking bay, where the remaining Cosmos shuttle waited for them.

“How’s she treating you, Anderson?” Dane asked.

“Honestly, sir, it’s not the same as my old girl. I’ve got half a mind to learn how to pilot that Russian star fighter in order to deal with the heartbreak.”

“You are not qualified to fly that vessel,” Lev stated.

“Sir, I’ve spent hundreds of hours flying simulations of every Russian star fighter ever built. I bet I can handle it.”

“Ah, the arrogance of youth. You forget that ship is from your future. There are things in no simulations you have used. But you misread me. I only mean that if you wish to fly, I will have to teach you.”

“I’d be honored, sir!” Anderson replied before Dane could cut in to say how good an idea he thought that was.

They slowly departed from the Zhemchug. The big ships were conjoined for the time being, and the Zhemchug crawled with repair crews. Dane found it reassuring to see space suits from both groups of colonists out there working together.

They landed on the floating platform and disembarked from the shuttle.

“Wow. I haven’t seen one of these in the daylight for a long time,” Lev commented as he admired the Russian star fighter. “They look better in space because you cannot see them, but they do not look bad here. That is how you do double negative in English, yes? Do not look bad?”

Dane laughed. “Your English is so much better than my Russian. And yes, that’s right. It’s one hell of a ship, I gotta admit.”

“The railgun’s not too shabby, either,” Granger observed as she crawled out from beneath the nose of the craft.

“You wish to steal technology? Why am I not surprised?” Lev joked.

“Petrov already gave me the go-ahead. We’re going to extend the area we’re monitoring, so we can call up the star fighter if a BDF comes around the base again.”

“You cannot keep them away?” Lev asked.

Granger shrugged. “That’s a question for a biologist or ecologist. I only know that as long as the nessies sing near the base, where we want them to protect us from the murder stars, the BDFs might hear them.”

“Is scrambling our star fighter every time one of those things gets close really our best option?” Dane asked.

“I notice how quickly it has become ‘our’ star fighter.”

“Should’ve told us about it sooner,” Dane retorted.

“Short-term, scrambling the fighter is without a doubt our best bet. Longer term, I am totally stealing your railgun tech and will make a mounted one, so we always have something handy down here.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Dane declared. “The governor approves?”

“She does, but you should talk to her yourself. They’re waiting for you both.”

They took the elevator down, then walked up the stairs to the control room.

Adams and Petrov waited for them at the round table beneath the windows, a bottle of kelp liquor and four glasses at hand.

“Last time I drank this, I was thrown in cryo-sleep,” Lev remarked.

“I never got to try any,” Dane added.

“We figured you two need rest,” Adams said.

“And we figured we could all use drink!” Petrov poured a shot for each of them.

Dane sank into a chair next to Lev and raised a glass.

“To no more secrets,” Lev intoned.

“To a new community,” Adams suggested.

“To better cooperation,” Petrov cheered.

“To no more surprises,” Dane quipped.

Everyone laughed at Dane’s least realistic toast, but they drank all the same.

“So, what happens now?” Dane asked once he’d downed the strong, slightly green alcohol. It tasted like vodka kissed by the sea.

“We keep working,” Adams put forth.

“We continue to grow this colony,” Petrov agreed. “Maybe hold some mixers. If we are to be colony, we will need babies. Some of my crew would like to be with fresh faces.”

Adams laughed. “I think a few mixers are in good order.”

“Gonna be tricky for anyone to make babies when the Russians all sleep in bunks in one of the habs,” Dane pointed out.

Petrov nodded as he poured another round. “The dangers of this planet have become clear. It does not make sense for my people to live and sleep in the hab while there is still room in Homebase. I will order them to take rooms in the base, and we will use the habs for research and workspaces. Though we will keep Russian kitchen running out there. That is all right with you?”

“It better be all right with our chief of security. That’s your first order from my new lieutenant governor,” Adams announced.

Dane nearly spat his drink out but managed to keep the briny fire liquid inside.

“Lieutenant governor?”

“I didn’t think it made sense to assign Petrov as my XO. We’re not on a ship anymore. We need to start converting to civilian life. I figured appointing him number two would make that clear.”

“Make sense to me, ma’am. And yes, I’d be more than happy to help move people.”

“You sure, Dane? People can get feisty about picking a room. Some have better views than others.”

“Oh, believe me. I’ll gladly help figure out the neighborhood. That’s what I signed up for in the first place. Uh, if you don’t mind my asking, what happened to Winters?”

Adams sighed. “For now, he’s in a cell. I still can’t believe he conspired against the colony like that. I should have seen it coming.”

“We all should have,” Dane agreed.

“If you don’t mind my asking, why is he not in cryo-sleep like I was?” Lev inquired.

“Actually, Mr. Kozlov, I wanted your opinion on that before we confined anyone else to a pod.”

“I say freeze the bastard.”

That drew a hearty laugh, and Petrov used the moment to pour out more drinks.

“Seriously, Lev, if Petrov is to be lieutenant governor, we’ll need to combine security forces. That means you and Dane will be on a team. The first thing I want is for you to write up how it felt to be in there. I want to know if you dreamed, if you experienced a passage of time, everything. You’re in a unique position to decide if what we did to you was just and whether we should do it to more people.”

Lev bowed. “I will take this homework extremely seriously.”

“Good, because I’ll use your recommendations going forward, and the colony will operate under what you think is fair. At least until the first election.”

“You think I will not overturn your laws simply because my team made them?” Petrov teased.

“I wasn’t aware you were thinking of running,” Adams mentioned.

“You Americans believe in democracy, no? That means someone must run against you. if only to have a friendly exchange of ideas. Though, maybe we wait until rest of Russians are out of sleep pods?”

“Definitely. When I beat you, I don’t want you complaining. I’ll win their vote like I’ll win the rest of your crew over.”

“They believe in second kitchen platform. Do not tell them I told you.” Petrov winked, and Adams smiled.

Dane didn’t know if it was the friendly conversation or the liquor finally settling in, but he felt good. It seemed they finally had their feet under them and could start moving forward for the first time since they’d spotted the Russian ship almost a year ago.

He was about to say something to this effect, since the booze made his tongue more wobbly than he remembered, when an alarm rang out.

“Lieutenant Governor Petrov? Is the governor with you?”

“She is. What is it?”

“She’ll want to see this too…”

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

“Ninety-two seconds ago, there was a massive flare of gravity about one AU from us,” the technician reported.

“A massive flare of gravity? Like, you detected an asteroid?” Petrov asked.

“We do not think so, sir. I am sending you the data now. Do you have it?”

One of the command center screens lit up with a graph that made no sense at all to Dane. A nearly flat line with slight variation ran across the bottom and inexplicably jumped up tenfold before dropping back to where it had been.

“An asteroid wouldn’t do that. It would increase the reading at a much slower rate,” Adams pointed out.

“Then what, a rogue planet?” Petrov asked.

“Are your instruments working?” Adams wondered. “Gravity can’t jump like that. Something might be damaged.”

“We have checked three times. There is nothing damaged.”

“What’s out there, then?” Dane queried.

“Wait, wait, we found something!” the technician shouted.

“Well? This is not soap opera. What did you find?” Petrov demanded.

The technician did not answer. Instead, the graph changed to a view of space. At first, Dane didn’t know what he was looking for. Then he saw it.

“That’s a ship.”

“B-but that’s impossible,” Lev stammered. “A ship can’t simply appear.”

“Could the gravity flare be involved?” Dane asked.

“I have seen theories for a device that can do something like this,” Petrov declared. “Alcubierre drive, it is called. It bends space in front of and behind it, so while it does not travel faster than light, it reaches its destination before light.”

“Would that explain the jump in gravity?” Dane asked.

Petrov shrugged. “The Zhemchug has no such technology. It was all theoretical when we left.”

“Have they hailed you?” Adams asked.

“No, ma’am.”

“Send them a message. Tell them they have entered the sovereign space of Varuna, to please identify themselves, and ask if they need aid.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the technician confirmed and sent the message.

They waited for a long minute before Lev broke the silence. “Well? What did they say?”

“They haven’t got the message yet.” Dane elbowed Lev in the ribs. “One AU is the distance from Earth to Sol. It takes light eight minutes to travel that far.”

“They are turning toward us,” the technician announced after another few minutes.

“They couldn’t have received our message yet,” Adams pointed out.

“No, but we have not made attempts to stay radio silent, especially since the two ships have been linked. They might have heard us,” Petrov suggested.

“We need to get that star fighter back up in space,” Dane insisted.

“I agree,” Lev echoed.

“Granger, I want the star fighter ready to launch in less than ten minutes. You understand me?” Adams ordered over the comms.

“Ten minutes? That’s impossible, ma’am!”

“It’s all right,” Petrov assured them. “If they’re eight light minutes away, it’ll take them days to get here. We have time.”

“Unless they can do that gravity flare trick again and skip over the empty space,” Dane mentioned.

“Granger, get that star fighter ready to go as soon as possible.”

“I’m working on it!”

Four minutes later, an audio message came through.

“This is the Prometheus! We have come from Earth and are seeking sanctuary. Please don’t fire! I repeat, we are seeking sanctuary and come in peace. Please don’t hurt us!”

“They have not yet received our message, or if they have, they did not send a response,” the technician explained. “They sent that as soon as they realized we were here.”

“Give them a flight path that keeps them clear of Varuna’s orbit. Tell them we’ll send a ship to intercept. Ask them what supplies they need.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

By the time they got the reply sixteen minutes later, they were already mobilizing a plan. The Zhemchug was still undergoing repairs, so they would take the Cosmos out to meet them. They would stash the star fighter aboard and hope they didn’t need it, though Dane and Lev would spend the next day running drills to make sure both men knew every in and out of the ship.

Dane wondered how necessary that would be when the message came back. It was only audio, yet he practically heard tears in the speaker’s voice. “We thank you, Varuna Colony, and look forward to seeing you. If you could bring something to eat, we’d be really grateful.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Over the next few days, the Prometheus grew closer to the colony that lived on and above Varuna. Finally, the fated hour for the rendezvous arrived. In those few days, the time delay in their communication shortened. Although they had yet to meet in person, they had exchanged some information. Or tried to, anyway. The captain of the Prometheus, an American by the name of Grant Richmond, was paranoid to the extreme. He would discuss next to nothing over the comms, even if they promised to encrypt everything.

Still, despite their relative lack of information, Dane did not think that they were being deceived. The hollowed cheeks of Richmond and his crew were too apparent, their clothes too threadbare, and their interest in kelp burgers too intense for a ploy.

Did that convince Dane to tell Lev not to get in the star fighter?

Absolutely not.

Their time practicing had proven that while Dane had better instincts, Lev was the more experienced pilot with this particular craft. The honor of patrol duty was his.

They might have been able to eschew the security detail, but the closer the Prometheus came, the more armaments they saw. For such a small craft, it positively bristled with weapons. Dane didn’t want it anywhere near the Cosmos, and Richmond and his two crewmen did not argue with Dane’s stipulations of their first meeting. The Cosmos would send its shuttle, and the trio would board it and come to the Cosmos to meet Adams and Dane.

Richmond readily agreed. If the crew of the Prometheus understood anything, it was paranoia.

Even with their reassurances of peace and requests for aid, Dane was still wary of the number of weapons on the Prometheus. He ordered the majority of the Cosmos’ scanners to stay fixed on the bristling array and monitor them for any change in temperature, polarity, electromagnetism, or anything else.

Actually, he had ordered every scanner to stay fixed on the weapons, but Adams declined his request. She kept one of their comms firmly pointed toward the Zhemchug’s location in orbit, so she could keep Petrov abreast of the situation. She did not want something to happen out here and have the new leader of the colony lack the necessary information to make decisions.

The security officer in Dane was glad the base had redundancies like this. The American in him wished Adams had stayed behind.

“You ready, sir?” Anderson asked.

“Signal that we’re ready for them.”

Anderson did, and they sent over a docking tube. Ninety-four seconds later, Dane stood before three of the newest arrivals to the Teegarden’s star system.

“Welcome to Varuna space, Captain Richmond.”

The captain was bigger than he looked on video, with massive shoulders and dark skin that once held proud muscles but now appeared sunken from lack of food.

“Dane. It is nice to see another human. I…you will not mind if I…” He held up a device with a sort of glass sphere on one side. It didn’t look like a weapon, but then, Dane didn’t recognize a third of the attachments on the Prometheus, either.

“What is that thing?” he asked.

“Merely a scanner. It is perfectly safe, I swear to you. If it harms you in any way, you may send us away. I’ll use it on my own crew, see?”

He scanned the woman to his left, and the device flashed green.

Dane nodded. “You can scan me, but you’ll need the governor’s permission before you start pointing that thing at anyone else.”

“You’ll feel differently soon enough,” the woman mumbled, or something to that effect. She looked filthy and unkempt. Her hair was a snarl.

Richmond raised the device at Dane and sighed in relief when it flashed green. “We’re not too late,” he gushed, and the third crewman reassuringly patted his back.

“We did all right, Captain.”

“You three will buckle yourselves in while we shuttle you over to the Cosmos. The governor is awaiting you there with refreshments. I want to be clear that any change in the status of your ship will be seen as a sign of aggression, and we will be forced to fire upon it. Are there any automated systems we can expect to activate between now and then?”

“There’s a biometric lock keyed to the three of us. If anyone tries to enter without our permission, boom,” the male crew member explained.

“As long as you keep your distance, the Prometheus will stay dark, I assure you. We can’t lose that ship, Dane. It’s all we have left.”

“All you have left of what? Where did you come from, anyway?”

The female crew member looked as if she wanted to answer, but the captain silenced her with a look.

“I promise we will answer every one of your questions and more. I can only imagine how odd it must be for you all to see a ship appear like this. We’ll explain. We only need to make sure our intel won’t be compromised.”

Dane nodded. If they didn’t want to talk yet, he wouldn’t force them. They looked like they’d spill their guts for some dry toast and apple juice. He could wait.

While they flew toward the Cosmos, Dane appraised the three passengers. Perhaps most telling was that they were not wearing spacesuits. Instead, they had what appeared to be regular clothes, though of a cut and fashion Dane had never seen. The captain wore a sort of uniform, more of a jumpsuit, that Dane didn’t recognize. Though a wash could change that. He couldn’t even tell if the arms were supposed to be that color or if they were grimy with grease.

They reached the Cosmos and came aboard. While they headed toward a common area, the ship rotated to give them the sensation of gravity.

Dane realized why Adams wanted gravity when they reached their destination. She had laid out a marvelous spread. It was the best meal anyone had ever been presented with aboard this ship.

There were all the usual rations. Crackers, breads, dried fruits, and nuts. Plenty of food culled from the oceans of Varuna. Fish filets, shrimp cocktails, and other delicious fare with no Earth analog. There were fruits and vegetables from the hydroponics as well.

“We took your request for snacks seriously.” Adams stepped past the tables with a hand out and a warm expression. “My name is Kelly Adams. I’m the governor of this colony.”

“I’m Grant Richmond, ma’am. It’s an honor to meet you.” His stomach growled so loudly that all eyes turned toward him. “Pardon me. We’ve been without food for days.”

“Then please, join us. I hope you don’t mind, but we’re all hungry as well.”

“I’d love to, but if it’s all right, I’d like to scan you first.”

“Scan us?” Adams wasn’t offended, but she wasn’t at ease either. “I hoped we could wait on all that. We took the liberty of scanning you for infectious diseases when you came aboard. We didn’t detect anything, though we’ll want a full physical and biometric workup before you join our colony.”

“Which we’ll submit to, of course. But first, I really must insist.”

“We want to trust you. That’s going to require you to trust us,” Adams pointed out.

“I completely agree, and I know how this looks. I have to do this, ma’am.” Richmond was adamant.

Adams looked at Dane, who could only shrug. “They did it to me, and I’m fine. I’m starting to want some answers, though.”

“We only need to make sure you’re human,” the female crew member said.

“Human?” Dane repeated. A million questions flooded his mind.

“Molly, that’s enough,” the other crewman rebuked.

Molly’s eyes widened, and she slapped a hand over her mouth.

“I can assure you we’re all human, but please. Go ahead and scan us,” Adams invited.

“Thank you, ma’am. I do apologize, really, and I swear I’ll make it all clear soon enough.”

He held up the device to Adams. It blinked green.

The trio from the Prometheus slumped in relief. Molly clasped her hands and thanked God.

“Thank you, Governor Adams. Truly. I can explain.”

“I’m sure you can, and you will. For now, though, if everything is in order, please have a seat and dig in.”

“I won’t make you be polite twice, ma’am.” Richmond gestured for his crew to eat, and they began to fill plates with gusto.

Dane filled a plate, too.

“You sure that’s all you needed?” Dane teased, unable to help himself as he settled at a table with the trio. Despite the presence of multiple tables, they all sat close together. “I thought you’d want to check every person on this ship.” Dane gestured at one of the crew working as a server for the feast. “You’re not concerned the rest of them are aliens?”

Richmond swallowed a huge mouthful of fish, then pulled out the scanner. “It’s possible, but in our experience, the Augments never skip leadership.”

“Augments?” Dane asked, focusing on not only the word but the way Richmond said it.

“This device scans for them. Simple as point-and-click. Red means Augment. Green means fully human.” He placed the device in Dane’s hand as he explained the controls.

Dane pointed it at the servers. Each time, the device blinked green.

“I know you’re trying to answer my questions, but I keep having more.”

“Why don’t you start with how you got here?” Adams requested. “We run regular scans of the Teegarden’s solar system. Did you have some sort of cloaking device?”

“No, ma’am. We wanted to be found,” Richmond replied. “You were the first colony, so this might come as a shock. A few years ago, the Augments discovered a way to travel faster than light.”

“That’s impossible,” Adams insisted.

Richmond shrugged. “Our scientists thought so too, but the Augments are able to compute things we can’t. They found a way to bend space around a ship.”

“Petrov was right, then.” Adams was obviously shocked.

“Third time you’ve mentioned the Augments. Who are they?” Dane asked.

“He means the augmented,” Molly commented around a bite of food.

“That’s who built this ship?” Dane asked.

“Yes, sir. We, uh…well, we stole it. We had to. There was no other way to escape. They control the entire solar system at this point.”

“The Augments do? The Augments, who are not human?” Dane pressed.

“Not only human.” Molly gestured with a piece of fruit to emphasize her point.

“They possess a sort of gestalt intelligence,” Richmond explained. “Together, they’re capable of more than regular people. They communicate in ways we can’t, do things collectively, make sacrifices we won’t.”

“I’m sorry, but who does? Who are they?”

“This is George Dane from the Cosmos, hero of the last human war,” the other crewman put in. “These people left before we even had implants.”

Richmond’s brow furrowed. “Oh, God, of course. Sorry. I guess from your perspective, I’m jumping ahead.”

Dane’s mind fixated on one word. Implant. Like the Russians had. Like Lev had.

Lev, who was outside the Cosmos right now in their only warship.

“The Augmented are people with implants?” Adams said cautiously. The same thought must have occurred to her.

“That’s right,” Richmond agreed. “After injectable nanite tech was mastered, doctors started using it for everything. At first, it seemed like a new golden age. No more infectious disease, not when the nanites in your blood only needed Wi-Fi to update. No more broken bones. Nanites could rebuild the calcium in a few hours.”

“Sounds nice,” Adams mused.

“It was, until someone found a way to make them interface with your brain.”

“Tell them about the Event,” Molly suggested.

Richmond nodded. “We don’t know how or why, but at some point, the implanted people started behaving differently. We call it the Event. Our scientists could never fully explain it, but really, it doesn’t matter if it was a glitch or programming or whatever. The results were the same. They turned on us.”

“How many?” Dane asked.

“By the time they attacked, there were more than two billion Augments.”

“He means augmented people,” Molly clarified.

“Two billion?” Adams blurted.

Richmond nodded again. “Most of us agree the Event happened before that, but there were about two billion when they began trying to forcibly implant everyone. We fought back…”

“He means we lost,” Molly helpfully supplied.

Richmond did not have to agree. Dane saw on his face that it was true.

“They coordinate in a way we can’t. One of them sees you, and you’re made. We’ve never fought anything like them before.”

“There wasn’t anything like them before,” the third crewman said. “The nanites make the original implants look like sawing off a foot to save a leg.”

“You made it here, though,” Dane remarked. “Somehow, you got a ship from them.”

Richmond tilted his head. “It cost too much, nearly everything, but we got a ship. It was common knowledge they were building a fleet to go to the colonies. That’s one thing about the Augments. They don’t do secrets.”

“Wait, colonies?” Adams asked.

“Oh, wow. You guys really are living in the past. Yes, colonies. When the Russians sent the Zhizn out, and it started sending information back, it inspired a whole new wave of emigration. There are a half-dozen or so colonies now, spread out around the nearer stars to Sol. That’s what the Augments were after when they started to pursue FTL travel.”

“You mean they’re coming?”

“Oh, yes. The Augments won’t stop until every human being is contributing to their mind. It’s not a question of if. Only a matter of when.”

Molly looked Dane directly in the eye. Straight into his soul.

“He means you better buckle up and prepare for the worst.”

THE STORY CONTINUES

The story continues with Free Worlds book three, Augmented Fatality, available at Amazon.

Claim your copy today!

KEVIN’S AUTHOR NOTES

WRITTEN JANUARY 23, 2023

Thank you for taking the time to read our book! I hope you enjoyed the journey. It's certainly been a delight to write this series. Getting back to science fiction after a bunch of fantasy novels is a ton of fun. Don't worry; there's plenty more story where this came from! Book five is already well underway as I write this, and soon I'll be working on the sixth and final work in this series..

If you've been following my author notes, you know I had been living in Iceland for a year and hadn't wanted to leave. I had grown to love the small, peaceful country and the people who inhabit it. I had made so many friends and had grown to love the language, the culture, and the vibrant city of Reykjavik. But, things got a bit mucked up, and it was time for me to move back to the US. I tried to approach the move with excitement, in the spirit of adventure, to see what life had in store for me. That wasn't always easy! It's not as much fun as it sounds, reducing one's worldly possessions down to three suitcases to travel across an ocean...again.

But we managed to land on our feet, as usual. My wife and I are now living in Somerville, Massachusetts. It has been a huge adjustment but I’m really enjoying the new place. I’ve settled into a great apartment and I’m back to exploring Boston and all it has to offer. I’ve also been able to reconnect with friends that I hadn’t seen in years.

One new bit for me: dogs! The apartment we settled on is pet friendly and there's a ton of dogs living here. I haven't had a dog since I was a kid; Liz (my partner) grew up with them but also hasn't had a dog herself for many years. Since arriving here, we've been dog-sitting a lot lately and it’s been great. We’ve been able to take care of some really sweet pups, but our favorite is Nokee - a young golden retriever. He is the cutest and we’re thinking about getting a dog of our own soon.

What kind? I dunno yet. Probably not a golden retriever though. Our apartment is a little small for a bigger dog! Maybe a Bernadoodle? Liz grew up with cockapoos and I grew up with border collies. We're still in discussions about what sort of dog might make sense.

OK, so if I’m already working on the penultimate book in this series, what’s coming next? Michael and I spent a few days last month going over ideas together, and we’ve found one that’s going to be awesome. The next series we’re doing together is another LitRPG series; we feel like we’ve learned a lot from the ones we did together last year, and can bring all that experience to crafting an even stronger story.

But if you’re more into science fiction than fantasy, I’ve been working on a side project as well: Titan Online. This story is set in a near future where automation has replaced most human workers, leaving people with far too much time on their hand. Enter VR games, an easy way to while away time while living on universal basic income. UBI isn’t enough for some people, though, and the hero of our story wants more out of life than that. A disabled veteran, he makes a startling discovery which sends him off on a series of wild adventures which span both the real world and the virtual. Fun stuff! Look for it later this year.

Thank you again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the book!

Kevin McLaughlin

MICHAEL’S AUTHOR NOTES

WRITTEN JANUARY 26, 2023

Thank you for not only reading this book but these author notes as well!

Ok, who screwed up the genetically modified alien pooch?

As a science fiction writer, I often find myself daydreaming about the possibilities of other worlds and the creatures that might inhabit them. One creature that I find particularly fascinating to explore in my stories is alien pets, often dogs, to be precise.

Don't bust me for that inclusion in Brownstone, Lynne. It moved the story along nicely, and it worked for John Wick.

(Editor's note: Bwahahaha. Always, Anderle! Ad Aeternitatum.)

These new creatures are not only an interesting way to explore the idea of extraterrestrial life, but they also provide a unique lens through which to explore the relationship between humans and animals.

When it comes to crafting a fun alien dog for a science fiction story, there are endless possibilities. Today, I want to explore two different types.

First, let's consider the "Human-Dog Hybrid." This creature would be a mix of one part human and one part dog, creating a being that is both intelligent and loyal. Imagine a dog that can understand and even speak human language and a human that has the heightened senses and physical capabilities of a canine. This creature would be a fascinating exploration of the blurred lines between humans and animals and could offer a unique perspective on the concept of humanity.

I did something like this in my first series The Kurtherian Gambit, with Ashur and his mate and pups.

Next, let's consider the "Organic-Non-Organic Hybrid." This creature would be a mix of one part organic dog and one part non-organic material, such as machinery or extraterrestrial matter. Imagine a dog with robotic enhancements or one made of a strange alien substance. This creature would be a commentary on the relationship between technology and nature and could offer a unique perspective on the concept of what it means to be alive.

Who wouldn't want a freakishly strong and dangerous backup who wags his tail when you come home?

In the end, the possibilities for dogs or any pet in science fiction are endless. Next time you sit down to write a science fiction story, consider incorporating an alien dog into the mix. Who knows? It might be your next best seller.

Why? Because readers freaking LOVE animals in their stories!

Chat with you in the next book.

Ad Aeternitatem,

Michael Anderle

MORE STORIES with Michael newsletter HERE: https://michael.beehiiv.com/

BOOKS BY KEVIN MCLAUGHLIN

Realms of Power and Fury

Discovering Power (Book 1)

Finding Honor (Book 2)

Field of Valor (Book 3)

Undead Reckoning (Book 4)

Undead Center (Book 5)

Undead with Honor (Book 6)

Tomb of Malevolent Evil

Roll For Initiative (Book 1)

Cast of the Die (Book 2)

Natural Twenty (Book 3)

Steel Dragon Series

(with Michael Anderle)

Steel Dragon 1

Steel Dragon 2

Steel Dragon 3

Steel Dragon 4

Steel Dragon 5

Dragon’s Daughter

(with Michael Anderle)

Never A Dragon (Book 1)

Dead Dragon New tricks (Book 2)

Thicker Than Blood (Book 3)

Dragon Fire and Pixie Dust (Book 4)

The Cult of Tiamat (Book 5)

The Sum of All Magic (Book 6)

The Dragonclaw Sword

(with Michael Anderle)

Clawing for Survival

Clawing for Escape

Clawing for Honor

Clawing for Vengeance

Clawing for Battle

Clawing for Victory

Adventures of the Starship Satori (Space Opera blended with military SF)

Finding Satori - prequel short story, available only to email list fans!

Book 1 - Ad Astra: Book 2 - Stellar Legacy

Book 3 - Deep Waters

Book 4 - No Plan Survives Contact

Book 5 - Liberty

Book 6 - Satori’s Destiny

Book 7 - Ashes of War

Book 8 - Embers of War

Book 9 - Dust and Iron

Book 10 - Clad in Steel

Book 11 - Brave New Worlds (2019)

Book 12 - Warrior’s Marque (2020)

The Ragnarok Saga (Military SF)

Accord of Fire - Free prequel short story, available only to email list fans!

Book 1 - Accord of Honor

Book 2 - Accord of Mars

Book 3 - Accord of Valor

Book 4 - Ghost Wing

Book 5 - Ghost Squadron

Book 6 - Ghost Fleet (2019)

Valhalla Online Series (A Ragnarok Saga Story)

Book 1 - Valhalla Online

Book 2 - Raiding Jotunheim

Book 3 - Vengeance Over Vanaheim

Book 4 - Hel Hath No Fury

Blackwell Magic Series (Urban Fantasy)

Book 1 - By Darkness Revealed

Book 2 - Ashes Ascendant

Book 3 - Dead In Winter

Book 4 - Claws That Catch

Book 5 - Darkness Awakes

Book 6 - Spellbinding Entanglements

By A Whisker (short story)

The Raven and the Rose - Free novelette for email list fans!

Dead Brittania Series:

Dead Brittania (short prequel story)

Book 1 - King of the Dead

Book 2 - Queen of Demons

Raven’s Heart Series (Urban Fantasy)

Book 1 - Stolen Light

Book 2 - Webs in the Dark

Book 3 - Shades of Moonlight

Other Titles:

Over the Moon (SF romance)

Midnight Visitors (Steampunk Cat short story)

Demon Ex Machina (Steampunk Cat short story)

The Coffee Break Novelist (help for writers!)

You Must Write (Heinlein’s rules for writers)

BOOKS BY MICHAEL ANDERLE

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