Gabriel thrummed his fingers on the arm of his chair, his pose deceptively relaxed under the Admiral’s commanding eye.
She was sharp – and interested in Elder tech.
Gabriel didn’t blame her. Who wasn’t? Whether you loved or hated the idea, everyone had an opinion about whether extra-species technology had a place in human society.
The Admiral hadn’t said as much yet, but he imagined their amiable welcome preluded some kind of proposition. Gabriel was distinguished in his field, yes – but he and Ilana were the sole survivors of the most significant violent civilian event in his lifetime. They had the right to medical treatment, but the fact that he and Ilana hadn’t been detained and questioned separately over their involvement spoke to their position.
Or maybe to something the Admiral knew that they did not.
Gabriel straightened when Ilana entered the room. The numbing agent from his therapy must’ve left his system because her presence was like a jolt of electricity.
“Mx. Travers, excellent.” Admiral Nguyen stood from behind her desk. “Please, have a seat. I know you and Dr. Fontaine have had a trying day but I’d like to make sense of what’s happened. Out of 118 scanned passengers, only you two came out alive.”
Ilana sat straight in her seat as if she were used to giving these types of reports. “Certainly, Xir. I’d be happy to help however I can.”
“I appreciate that,” said the Admiral.
“Excuse me,” Gabriel interrupted. “Should we have counsel for this conversation?”
The Admiral smiled at him as if she expected no less. “You’re welcome to counsel if you’d like. However, neither of you is under suspicion for any uncivil actions.”
“Why is that?” Gabriel could see from his periphery that he had Ilana’s attention too.
The Admiral bowed her head. “You have questions and you’re entitled to answers. I ask that you humor me with your account first so that mine doesn’t color yours.”
Gabriel and Ilana glanced at each other. Ilana nodded, turned to the Admiral, and volunteered her version of the events – from the S.O.S. in the bathroom until they made radio contact with the rescue team. She wasted no words and shorthanded jargon with ease. Her back remained straight as she spoke, her hands folded neatly in her lap.
Gabriel took the time to soak her in. She was unadorned and compelled with a singular purpose. He wasn’t sure what it was that ultimately pushed her, but he recognized the same drive that had gotten him to where he was with his research.
Was she always this deferential to authority, he wondered.
“You said the attendant sprayed you in the face?” asked the Admiral.
“Yes, Xir. He was as confused as I was when it didn’t work.”
“You’re lucky you had your visor on.”
Something about that flustered Ilana. “I just bought this suit for my new contract so I hadn’t gotten around to messing with all of the settings. I’d activated the search and rescue features and the face screen must’ve been included by default.”
The Admiral nodded and turned to Gabriel. “And you went to find Mx. Travers.”
“I did,” he said.
“Why?”
“I was concerned. The bathroom corridor was in my field of vision and I hadn’t seen her return, despite the emergency alarm.” Not that he had been watching out for her, of course. “Since she hadn’t been feeling well,” he added just in case.
“And you wanted to make sure she got out.”
“Indeed.”
For what it was worth, Gabriel admired the Admiral for wasting no time getting to the point. “And you just happened to have the marble on you.”
“The crisis pocket.” Gabriel threw a furtive glance at Ilana, whose eyes had lit up with humor despite managing to keep a straight face. He coughed to hide his own urge to laugh. His research partner Maisha had always hated that name.
Not that Maisha had come up with any better names herself. They were scientists, not… branding professionals.
Come to think of it, maybe they should hire someone for that.
In any case, if the Admiral had any reaction to the name, she did not show it.
“Yes. Ever since we refined this prototype, the team has all made an effort to carry the pocket with us. It was something of a beta testing period, outside of the lab.”
“You must be excited about your success.”
“Not necessarily the word I’d use at this point. More like relieved.”
Satisfied with him for now, the Admiral directed her next question toward them both. “Would you be willing to submit your clothes to forensics? They’ll be cleaned and returned within twenty-four hours. In the interim, I implore you to take a rest and enjoy the accommodations our flagship has to offer.”
Ah, so she hoped to keep them on board for at least a short while. Before Gabriel could respond, Ilana spoke. “I’m sorry Xir, but my contract starts tomorrow morning.”
“Certainly, I understand wanting to make a good first impression. We can send your clothes to you if you cannot stay, or incinerate them and reimburse you. However, I’ve looked into your contract. My office has the authority to push back the start date if necessary.”
“Oh.” Ilana bit her lip. She glanced at Gabriel with a look that sent a rush of desire through him, escalating with her answer. “I guess pushing back the date will work.”
Gabriel’s heart jumped as if he’d just won a prize. He kept his tone neutral. “I can stay.”
Staying made sense, of course. He didn’t know the Admiral’s intentions but it never hurt to make more connections in the upper ranks of the Alliance. Elder tech was gaining more of a foothold in human society every year. He wasn’t opposed to hearing what the Admiral had to say.
“Xir, may I ask what happened to the children on the ship?” Ilana said.
Deferential but no doormat, Gabriel noted.
“You may.” The Admiral stood from her hoverchair. She raised her hand over the table between them and activated a holograph of the Sol system. She pinched her fingers and spread her hands to zoom in on several dotted trajectory lines coming out of Earth. The lines continued past the Asteroid Belt, sometimes with several stops along the way.
“These are the known movements of a trafficking operation the Bureau of Human Rights has been following for the past two decades. Their operation is small and sophisticated, clearly well funded, and has appeared to ramp up in the last few years.”
The Admiral zoomed onto Earth next, focusing first on Central Asia, Europe, Africa, Antarctica, South America, and finally North America. Every continent had at least a couple dozen pins. As their perspective closed in on the Central Plains, most of the pins revealed a name and photograph of a child. Some had only a first name, no photo at all.
“Until now, we only had a trail of missing children to connect the dots.” She leveled a look of importance at them both. “Your actions today managed to recover the first of them.”
The Admiral rounded the table to their side. “Our team has identified a few of the children from your shuttle as missing cases from the America Wetlands. But several aren’t registered as Alliance citizens, with no names or records. We imagine this targeting is deliberate.”
Ilana’s posture had stiffened, her mouth in a hard line.
The Admiral stopped in front of her, leaned back against the desk, and interlaced her fingers. “But this is not news to you.”
It wasn’t a question but Ilana answered. “No. We’ve known families beyond the frontier… the farther out they are in the wilds, the more isolated they are.”
“The easier they can disappear,” Gabriel finished when she trailed off.
“Now, I’ve read each of your citizenship records,” the Admiral continued. “Dr. Fontaine, you travel in some of the same circles as the type of person who has the resources necessary to carry out an operation like this. And Mx. Travers, you have access to the victim profile.”
Ilana blinked and Gabriel narrowed his eyes. The Admiral allowed her statement to linger, like the ghost of the last note in a concerto.
“However.” The Admiral stood and looked down at the holograph on the table. Her unfocused gaze was that of someone who’d studied it for so long she could recite it from memory. “Neither of you matches the profile. More importantly, neither of your finances match the profile.” She turned to them. “Most importantly, you saved the evidence while the real culprits killed dozens in their attempt to destroy it.”
“No one else got out?” Gabriel asked. “Was it a suicide mission?”
The Admiral shook her head. “No other ships that our sensors picked up, but they could have used the explosion to distract from their escape. The communications grid is having a hell of a time recovering from an incident this significant this close to Earth’s orbit.”
The Admiral walked back around the table. “To answer your question, Mx. Travers, the children are physically well.”
Her choice of words seemed off to Gabriel. “Why do I feel like there’s a catch?”
She spread out her hands over the desk and pulled up comparison photos on the holo. “Some of these children have been missing for years and they don’t appear to have aged.”
“That means they’ve been in hibernation the whole time?” Ilana asked. “Like they were in the shuttle.”
“That’s what we thought on a cursory inspection.” The Admiral steepled her fingers. “But they were only under a light freeze in the shuttle. In fact, none of the children display any of the molecular effects you normally see with cryo-preservation.”
The Admiral deactivated all the holos with a sweep of her hand. “No, Mx. Travers, Dr. Fontaine. When I say they haven’t aged, I mean exactly that. If the effects are permanent, these children may live a full human lifespan and never age into adults.”
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