The Gemini Agent by Rick Barba

Author:Rick Barba [Barba, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781442413429
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Simon Spotlight
Published: 2011-06-28T07:00:00+00:00

CH.9.13

All Hands on Deck

Nverinn knew his agent would be aggressive.

She was designed to be. The AI parameters allowed her great freedom in pursuing objectives. Thus it wasn’t entirely inconceivable that in carrying out a simple decoy operation, Gemini nearly killed a kid.

But Nverinn was furious nonetheless.

“This is precisely the kind of mistake I warned about,” he said into his desk mike. He spoke in flat, unemotional tones—in Nverinn’s case, a sure sign of anger. “It could attract attention.”

“It already has,” said the agent.

“How so?”

“Starfleet Intelligence is very involved.”

Nverinn wanted to pound the desk. But he would never do that.

“Gemini,” he said, “building the database is what’s mission critical. That’s your focus, not this other stuff. The disruption activity is secondary to your primary mission. You must remember that.”

“Understood.”

Nverinn pinched the ridges above his nose.

“Let’s suspend all the other activities for now,” he said. “Focus on the cadet … What’s his name?”

“James Kirk.”

“Yes, this Kirk,” said Nverinn. “Let’s keep mining that source. Keep drilling.”

“The first infection was quite successful,” said the agent. “But it inflicted damage.”

“Debilitating damage?” asked Nverinn.

“I don’t believe so.” Subspace distortion static crackled in the transmission. “He’s quite fit, with remarkable resilience. But I fear a second round could leave him seriously impaired, if not depleted.”

“Let’s avoid that, if possible,” said Nverinn.

“Understood.”

The agent’s voice, scrambled on both ends (at its Earth origin and at its Romulus reception), was reconstructed as a cold, metallic hiss. Despite knowing the technical reasons why it sounded so, Nverinn still got a chill when he heard it.

He glanced at the transmission timer.

“We must be quick,” he said. “Upload packets now.”

The agent’s “voice” turned into a babble of uploading code. The data transmission bounced in rapid microbursts between numerous subspace band frequencies to avoid detection. In theory the microbursts would register only as random, acceptable patterns of “chatter” or spatial anomalies by Federation subspace monitoring stations. The upload also plotted constantly changing transmission routes through the Federation’s web of subspace relay beacons. But all packets ended up flowing into the transceiver array that jutted like a titanic spike from the Center’s roof.

Majal approached behind him.

“Is that Gemini?” she asked.

Nverinn spun to face her. She looked anxious. He gave her a reassuring smile.

“Yes,” he said.

“Is everything well?” she asked.

“Gemini is functioning well,” Nverinn confirmed with a nod. “As planned.”

The girl sighed. She looked at the incoming telemetry on Nverinn’s display.

“When can I scan the data?” she asked.

Nverinn smiled again. “After you’ve finished your exercises,” he said. “And had a snack.”

“I don’t want a snack,” she said. “I will finish my exercises, but there’s no reason for me to have a snack if I am not hungry,” she grumbled.

Nverinn understood. A tidal wave of sadness suddenly rolled over him. In that moment Majal reminded him so much of her sister, back before her sister was fully trained.

“You must be regular with your health and exercises,” he said. “Just like Gemini was.”

“I know,” said the girl. She turned and walked out of the lab.

“Good girl,” called Nverinn as she left.

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