Megalodon City Penitentiary, Tundra, Standard Year 403 after founding

  “I should start dinner. Can’t have a proper date without dinner.” James stirred but didn’t quite get up. Alanna curled up tighter against his side. “I’m so glad you came.” He said formally. “Tell me about yourself, Alanna Summers.”

  “We’re continuing the date?”

  “Of course.”

  “I kind of thought it would be over. Since you already… well you know.”

  “The date is not over.” James said firmly.

  “Are we at the top of the mountain yet?” Alanna asked sleepily.

  “Definitely.”

  “And you carried the equipment all this way.” She murmured.

  “Yes. I’m a hero.” She laughed again, and James relaxed slightly.

  “I’m lost.” She said, staring up towards the ceiling. “I am lost and I have no idea what I’m doing. I used to be a soldier. And now I’m a terrible date.”

  “I don’t think you’re a terrible date.” James said with a slight smile. “What would you like to do?”

  As if that had ever been relevant. “What do you think I should do, James?” She asked instead.

  “The obvious?”

  “You mean join up and kill Sarayans?”

  James shrugged. “I would have said join up and defend your home.” He said mildly. “Because if you don’t, you may not have one. If you want a place on my ship, you have it. It is the obvious choice, even if you don’t want to hear it.”

  “No.” Alanna said flatly.

  “You never make things easy. It’ll take me years to live down going from no negotiating to letting you avoid disclosing classified military information. I barely justified it by explaining we needed to take the station intact to see how the morse code transmission was made.”

  “I didn’t realize… you did say you wouldn’t negotiate.” She swallowed. She remembered that moment with perfect clarity, the countdown as the Black Hawk was coming for them, her heart beating in her ears as she switched to the cherry pie channel. She had already given up by the time his voice came through, accepting her terms. It had been that close. “Thank you for negotiating.” She said quietly.

  “It wasn’t worth your life.” James said.

  “Can you live with it if I don’t enlist?” She asked.

  “I can.” James sighed, turning her to face her in the dim light. “Alanna, I can’t force you to do things my way. If I’m honest, I’d probably like to. But I know my limitations. It is your choice. But every time you choose not to take my advice, you’re putting yourself in greater danger. The limitation on classified military information – it’s the reason you have to worry about being questioned now. If you agreed to my terms, as you should have, you would be bound by your word to answer the questions asked but you would not be hurt. If you join now, voluntarily, you can choose your ship. We both know it would be easier with my people. I can live with it if you want to try a different path. But it is a more dangerous path. We are at war. You don’t have to enlist but you may yet be conscripted. You cannot remain neutral. Even I cannot protect you on that path.”

  “I don’t want to complicate your life. But I can only do what I can live with. Even in return for my life, to ask for more is too much to ask.” She paused. “I shouldn’t be alive.”

  “But you are.”

  Alanna nodded. Maybe she was best off in prison. At least this way, she didn’t have to choose. “What would you do if you didn’t get the gold?” She asked suddenly.

  “What?”

  “No buckets of gold. Requisition denied. What then?”

  James considered, reaching out with the palm of his hand to cradle the back of her head and winding his fingers through her hair. “Still need to draw the crew away from Avalon Station. The station is nuclear powered. Reactor leak? Distress call? Would have to fake someone important enough to draw out the crew...” His eyes lit up. “An alien artifact? I bet we could create a terrific alien artifact.”

  “There aren’t any aliens artifacts here. Old earth history is riddled with alien sightings and mysterious events. We got nothing.”

  “Clearly, our aliens are better hidden.” James said without missing a beat.

  “What if you lost your crew?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “How did I lose my crew?”

  “Asteroid strike.”

  “On my ship?”

  “Yes, on your ship.”

  “Hell of a coincidence.” James said mildly.

  “You have terrible luck.”

  “But I’m not dead?”

  “No, you got out in a shuttle. Only survivor. So, it’s just you and the shuttle. And your mission objective, I believe, is to take Avalon Station.”

  “Ah. I think I see. Destruction of Avalon Station was an acceptable outcome if it could not be taken. I would go with a nuclear reactor leak.”

  “Do you know how to trigger a nuclear reactor leak?”

  James smiled. “I’ve had an excellent education.”

  “Without getting radiation poisoning?”

  “My shuttle is equipped with drones and vacuum gear, with excellent radiation shielding.”

  “How did the drones get on your shuttle?”

  “Salvaged from the asteroid strike.”

  “Fine.” Alanna threw up her hands. “You triggered a reactor leak and blew up the station. Everyone is dead. You’re stuck on your shuttle, running out of fuel and oxygen. What then?”

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  “Blow? Sarayan nuclear reactors don’t have enough juice to blow. They melt, slowly.” James stretched under the blanket with some satisfaction, pulling her closer to his side. “What I would do is this. Bring the camouflaged shuttle in dead, can’t use the fuel or the trace signature will be detected. They’re expecting a ship, not one guy in a space suit. So, I would walk in quietly with my little drone friends, get to the reactor and destroy all cooling elements beyond repair. Once the reactor starts melting, which it will do very slowly, take as much fuel and oxygen as will fit inside the shuttle. Wait no, the shuttle can tow more, no need to fit it all inside. Then I’m going to head out and leave them to melt down or freeze to death once the power goes out, whichever happens first. Again, the reactors melt very slowly. Sarayans have no transport on station. They’re grounded unless someone mounts a rescue. Then I’ll send a distress signal until someone picks me up. And then,” he reached out and traced the fading bruise along the side of her face “I will tell them about the rotten luck I had with the asteroid striking my ship.”

  “That… that’s ridiculous!”

  James raised an eyebrow. “Is it? Tell me the critical flaw in my plan.”

  “The critical flaw is that you didn’t turn around and go home! You can’t take Avalon Station alone with one shuttle.”

  “But I just told you how I would.”

  “You don’t know how to give up!”

  “Many consider it one of my charms. Do you want to give up?”

  “For some time now.” Alanna admitted.

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “No.” James said firmly. “Do better.”

  “I…” she paused. “I’m not sure I know how.”

  “But you want to?”

  “Yes all right, maybe I want to.”

  “Why did you join?”

  “The navy, you mean?”

  “That is what I mean. You weren’t a conscript, you joined before conscription went into effect. Why?”

  Alanna laughed. “I’ll tell you but you’ll be disappointed.”

  “Try me.”

  “College tuition. The navy pays for four years of college in return for two years of service. My funds were limited.”

  “It’s not free?”

  “College? No, it’s not free. It is very far from free. I couldn’t afford it without two full time jobs, and that wouldn’t leave me much time for classes.”

  “So you, Alanna Summers, joined the navy for… college money?” He started laughing, the sound echoing in the tiny space. “College money.” He repeated, and the laughter started all over again.

  “Ha ha.” Alanna said flatly.

  “You are…” he paused, trying to get his laughter under control. “You are, hands down, the best Sarayan officer I have ever gone up against. College money…”

  “You never actually went up against me.”

  “I did. In negotiations, I did. I read your battle plans, talked to your people, the civilians you trained. I know what you did on Titan. College money…” He was laughing again.

  “I’m also a pretty decent geologist.” Alanna said, somewhat defensively.

  “Fine, yes all right. Tell me about the rocks.” James said, making a heroic effort to stifle his laughter.

  “Rocks are the reason Tundra has uranium and Saraya doesn’t have weapons grade nuclear materials.” Alanna said. Rocks were interesting.

  James raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised. Alanna was going to make rocks interesting. “All right then, tell me about the plutonium.”

  “Planetary evolution is tricky. Different planets evolve at different rates. Saraya is smaller, and stable. Three large continents, minimal tectonic movement, no earthquakes to date. Uranium and plutonium are some of the heaviest known metals in the universe. When a planet forms, gravity will pull the heaviest elements down into the core. Over time, with minimal tectonic movement, they remain deep within the planet’s core, out of reach. Of course, Saraya has plutonium and uranium, every terrestrial planet does. But only trace amounts can be found near the surface. To turn it into weapons grade material is prohibitively costly. Short of drilling down to the planet’s core and looking around, we’re not likely to find much more than the trace amounts. Tundra, on the other hand, is a giant ball of tectonic movement. I could see it from the first moment I glimpsed the planet. Island chains, all likely formed by volcanic activity. Not a single continent, although perhaps one of the poles has one? Hard to tell with all the ice and snow.”

  “There are no large landmasses on Tundra, only islands and ice.” James said.

  “Right. So you have earthquakes, massive tectonic activity, and mostly water. If you need to find something closer to the planet’s core, you don’t need to drill, you just need to dive. That’s easier. Everything is still getting stirred up and coming to the surface. That’s why you have weapons grade plutonium. And tsunamis. You do have tsunamis, don’t you?”

  “Yes, we have tsunamis.”

  “We don’t have any. I only know the word because I watch old earth movies. But then…” Alanna frowned, puzzled. “I don’t understand why you built your cities the way you did. Coastal cities filled with tall buildings, all clustered together. That’s a terrible idea in tsunami land. Unless…” she paused.

  “Unless what?”

  “Unless nothing.” Alanna said, suddenly self-conscious. Her analysis had led her to a conclusion that was slightly beyond geology 101.

  “Is it unless classified Sarayan military information?” James asked.

  “Well probably not Sarayan, no.”

  “Do you believe you just deduced classified Tundran military information?”

  Alanna sighed. “That might have happened.”

  “Because rocks?”

  “Rocks are very interesting.”

  “You weren’t talking about rocks, you were talking about plutonium.”

  “But the way you find the plutonium is by knowing where it is among all the rocks!”

  James shook his head. “Unless what, Alanna?”

  “Unless you shielded the city.” She admitted, with some reluctance. The presence of shields on Tundra, if indeed her conjecture had been correct, was unknown to Saraya. Or at the very least, it was unknown to anyone on her level. But to build the city she saw, a coastal city where many of the buildings had an unobstructed view of the ocean, in a land of massive tectonic movement and tsunamis, would be madness. Unless they had shields.

  “You could be using excellent construction materials.” She added, trying to mask the doubt in her voice.

  “I see.”

  “Sorry.” She added uncertainly. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was apologizing for, but the situation seemed to call for it.

  “Maybe.” James considered. “Maybe you have skills other than military command. Would you want to help Tundra, if it didn’t mean killing Sarayans?”

  “Yes.” Alanna said without hesitation. “Very much.”

  “I don’t really know what geologists do.” James admitted. “Based on what you’re saying, on Tundra they’re probably the guys looking for all the plutonium. Is that something you want to do?”

  “James, the thing I, Alanna Summers will be most known for, forever, is being a traitor. They wouldn’t even trust me to look for plutonium. Every time I don’t find it people will suspect I’m hiding mountains of plutonium to support the Sarayan invasion of Tundra.”

  Privately, James thought it would be an easy enough theory to disprove, if she performed her job well. But he let it be, thinking back to the record Saraya provided. “You could be a doctor, I suppose.” He said without much enthusiasm. “In time, even if you were conscripted it would be to provide medical aid rather than kill people.”

  Alanna laughed. “Could I? That tends to be a competitive field. But sure, why not?”

  James narrowed his eyes, staring up at the shadowed ceiling. It was important for Alanna to have a plan. There were things she would need to say and do that would not be especially palatable. Without an achievable goal before her, the risk of missteps increased and the optics were not ideal. He did not want Alanna to misstep. “If you dedicated yourself to becoming a doctor, it would be achievable.” He said carefully. “And when, in the course of your asylum hearing, you are asked what you want to do, it would be an acceptable answer.”

  “How does one pay for this medical school?”

  “It’s free.”

  “And yet, there must be some way they choose who gets this amazing free education. And being a Sarayan traitor probably isn’t a top qualification.”

  “It might be, on Tundra. The optics of this are… not terrible. And your test scores were high. If you studied, I believe you could qualify.”

  “I…Is that what you think I should do?”

  James considered. “I don’t see a better path at the moment.” He admitted.

  “Ok.”

  James shifted, his hand tracing the line of her hip as she lay against his side. “And you can stay with me while you study.” He murmured. “Years and years of studying.” She was, after all, rather bright. It was quite likely she could become a doctor if she dedicated herself to it. She could also deduce the existence of shields by looking at the planet’s surface from an approaching shuttle. A tragic waste of talent. His hand paused, tracing the sharpness of her hip bone under stretched flesh. “But I’m getting distracted. I brought food. And we have more champagne. That is the lady’s favorite, is it not?”

  Alanna smiled, and decided to go with it. Because she was suddenly and wildly unexpectedly… happy. Life was short, and she wanted to have dinner and champagne in bed with James. The plan was, of course, utterly preposterous. They were at war and no one was going to allow her to quietly study for years in preparation for becoming a doctor. But James was like a force of nature, and she was tired of fighting him. It was much easier to happily go along with things until it all fell apart, or until James got bored with the entire project, whichever came first. “It is my favorite.” She said with a smile, green eyes meeting his in the darkened cell.