Dubious Heroes: a novel by Nicholas Blue

Author:Nicholas Blue [Blue, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-23T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

The surface of New London crawled beneath us, its cratered surface, gray and bleak, displayed on the main vidscreen of the Bridge. The last few weeks had been, in a word, tedious, but we’d finally arrived. And now, this.

“What do you mean we can’t dock?” I asked, as I spun my seat to look across the Bridge at Kyra.

“I never said we couldn’t dock”, she said. “Just that, given what we’ve heard, it’s probably not a very good idea.”

“So we don’t dock, based on a rumor.”

“When the rumor is that there’s a security team standing by at the port, waiting to arrest you, then yeah, I’d give it some consideration.”

“They arrested me before”, I said. “Didn’t work out so well for them.”

“As I recall”, she said, “It didn’t work out so well for you, either. And my guess is, they’ll do a better job of it, this time.”

I sighed.

“I’d be a lot more inclined to believe the tip, if we knew who sent it”, I said.

“I don’t disagree”, she said. “The problem is, they sent an unsigned comm link message. You send one anonymously, and it’ll stay that way. Given the nature of the message, I’m thinking it was sent by a friend, rather than a foe. Probably one of your AI buddies.”

“So what?” I asked. “We just sit up here in orbit, stuck in zero gee?”

“I don’t believe the New London Directorate would be quite this subtle, if they didn’t want us on their moon”, Kyra said. “I think they’d just tell us how nice it is to see us again, and by the way, don’t land. I really doubt they’d try to trick us into not landing.”

“Instead”, I said, “We show up, and they clear us to dock. I can’t believe they want us that bad.”

“So, you buy their whole ‘all is forgotten’ spiel, and just land”, she said. “Do you even remember having to shoot your way out of here, last time? I thought you were a little smarter than that.”

“Yeah, fine. Whatever”, I said. “Evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, right? Look, I’m not the only one who’s gonna be pissed off that we’re not landing.”

“Your choice”, she said. “Personally, I prefer being stuck in orbit than stuck in jail.”

“Alright”, I said. “You’ve made me sufficiently paranoid. Angie. Tell Owen we’ll be staying in orbit, at least for the time being. And see if you can get someone from the Directorate on comm, please.”

“Aye, Captain”, she said. “I’ve reached the Director’s AI Victoria. The Director herself will call you back in a few minutes.”

“We’ll be standing by for her call”, I said. “Now, since we’re here, I’m thinking of sending out the video we made. Maybe do a pre-emptive PR strike, as it were. Thoughts?”

“I like it”, Kyra said. “We break the story, we control it. They’re gonna find out soon enough, when we turn our UP prisoners over to them.”

“Angie”, I said. “Can you open a comm link to the local media?”

“Such as it is, yes”, she said.

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