Gaea

Chapter 7

by Baybelletrist

The Blue Moon Café, Mars City

7/30/2098, 0357

"Zach, this is Goose. Please hit your scrambler." Goose suited action to words, pressing the tiny key on his wrist comm that secured his signal from snoopers. The image on his screen broke down into garbage, then resolved as Zachary activated the decoding capability on his own comm unit. Goose braced himself at the look on Zach's face.

"Gooseman, where the hell are you? We're at the PD, they've got an officer down, Nicole Galloway is missing and so is the man they found in her apartment, and where the hell are you?"

Goose winced. He'd expected Zach to be annoyed, but the volume, even over the minispeakers in his comm, was still dismaying. "The situation's under control, Captain," he said, gritting his teeth and waiting for the explosion. Gaea, perched across from him, shifted uneasily in her seat and fidgeted with her fork. The worn upholstery squeaked faintly under her weight. Across the café, a seedy-looking couple hastily paid their bill and scurried out the door.

Fastest job I've ever done of clearing out a restaurant, Goose thought, amused. So what's so scary about one Galaxy Ranger and one cute girl in a prison jumpsuit, anyway?

Instead of exploding Zachary paused for a moment that stretched out a little too long for Goose's liking. He watched his Captain's eyebrows lower and sighed inwardly.

"Gooseman," Zach said in a too-careful tone, "you will report your whereabouts and those of Nicole Galloway if known to you. You will account for your activities since 0328 this morning. Now, mister!"

"Captain, I'm willing and able to give my report, but it needs to be done in person," Goose said quietly. "I'm at the Blue Moon Café on Parker Street."

Zach paused again, staring at Goose.

"Can you come here, Captain? Please?" Goose asked, tone respectful but eyes boring into Zach's, willing him to understand. "I think everything will be much clearer if you do."

Zachary began to speak, but on his comm screen Goose saw a slender hand laid on his shoulder, and Zach stopped.

"Zachary," Goose heard Niko say, "I think we ought to go."

Goose closed his eyes momentarily. How did I rate her as a teammate?

Zach blew out his breath in frustration. "All right," he said curtly. "Don't go anywhere." The screen went blank as he signed off.

Goose looked across the booth at Gaea and shrugged.

"Hungry?"

Goose was watching Gaea stare into the amber depths of a cup of tea when the door swung open to admit his three teammates. A waitress popped her head out of the kitchen and then pulled back again at Niko's smile and headshake. The lone remaining customer took one look at the new arrivals and rose hastily, tossing money onto the table next to his half-finished meal and scooting quickly out the door. Goose saw Gaea's body stiffen and lightly touched his fingertips to the table before her.

"Remember," he said gently, "I want to help you."

The skin of her throat jumped as she swallowed, watching Zachary approach as though her doom were overtaking her.

Zach strode toward them, Niko and Doc trailing behind him, and checked his stride involuntarily for a moment when he caught sight of Gaea sitting opposite Goose.

Goose caught Niko's eyes and quirked one corner of his lips in the hint of a smile. She returned it uncertainly.

Zach parked himself in front of the table and stared forbiddingly down at Goose. "Report, Gooseman," he ordered, eyebrows lowered in a fierce frown. Niko bent a mild blue-green gaze on Gaea, who steadfastly kept her attention on her cup, while Doc leaned with exaggerated nonchalance against the end of the booth next to Goose and let his attention wander over the timeworn furniture and moth-eaten carpet.

"Nice place, my Goose man," Doc put in.

Niko snagged a chair from a nearby table and settled herself at the table near Zach. Goose noted with a flash of gratitude that she left Gaea's side of the booth completely unblocked.

Goose looked up at his captain and gestured to the seat at his right. Zach sat, face still grim and eyes never leaving his youngest team member.

"Captain, I'd like to introduce Gaea. Gaea, this is Zachary Foxx. He's been in the Rangers a long time. Has two kids and isn't nearly as much of a hardass as he'd like you to think."

Zachary turned beet red. From the corner of his eye Goose watched Niko, with obvious effort, not laugh.

Doc lost it.

"Gooseman!" barked Zach. "Report!"

Goose straightened involuntarily, took a breath, and ordered his thoughts.

"Captain, at approximately 0328 this morning I stepped into the break room for a cup of coffee, leaving Private Warren on watch at the guard station..."

"And he knew you by name?" Zach asked for the third time.

"Yes."

Both men turned in surprise to Gaea. She finally raised her eyes from their study of her cup to meet Zachary's gaze squarely for the first time.

Goose, next to him on the seat, felt Zach stiffen in shock at the intensity of that leaf-green stare.

"I don't know who those men are, Captain Foxx," she said. "But I know who they work for." Her voice trembled perceptibly. "At least I—I know who he is. What he is. I don't know his real name." Her attention dropped to the cup again. "I always had to call him sir."

Goose sat stock-still. Niko darted a sidelong glance at him, eyes narrowing, and then spoke in a gentle voice. "Could you identify him if you saw a picture?"

Gaea looked up at her, face tired, and whispered, "Yes." She seemed very small suddenly, all her defenses lowered. Goose was struck anew by how young she looked. He caught the flash of Niko's eyes as she glanced obliquely at him once more.

Doc poked Zachary. "Hey, Captain, can I sit down here? I think the doctor needs to operate."

"Here?!" Zach said in disbelief.

"Hey, it's not like we could miss anyone spying on us," Doc pointed out, "and we already chased out their only customer."

"And they got to Gaea in Holding at the police station," Goose cut in. "You still willing to bet that the building's secure? At least we chose this place at random."

"Here, if it'll make you feel better, Captain," Doc said, rummaging in his pockets. "I picked up this little gizmo at a trade show. Primitive privacy screen. It'll keep casual eavesdroppers from overhearing us." He set the little square unit on the table and pressed three buttons. A faint buzz tickled up and down Goose's earbones and faded.

Zach threw up his hands in surrender and let Doc take his place at the table. Doc took his CDU off his belt and hit his badge. "Okay, guys," Doc said, "time to do our stuff. Open a connection to BETA via the MCPD's local net. Standard encryption setup."

Goose saw Gaea's eyes widen as the two programs flickered and danced in their holographic field. On the CDU's miniscreen data flowed: prompts, challenges, status messages. Zach's fingers drummed on the seat back, and Doc gave the captain a wry look from under his eyebrows. Gaea fidgeted with her fork again and then dropped it as Zach glanced at her. Goose sighed inwardly.

Many seconds later, Pathfinder's voice emerged from the CDU. "Okay, Doc, we're in."

"Okay," Doc said, looking at Gaea and at Goose in turn. "What are we looking for?"

Gaea sat as if frozen, obviously torn, and Goose winced in sympathy.

"Geneticists," he said quietly. "Right, Gaea?"

The girl seemed to shrink in on herself, as if in a vain attempt to hide. To his vast discomfort, Goose found himself suddenly the center of attention. He raised his hands defensively. "Hey, it's not that wild a guess."

"But, Shane," Niko protested. "How do we know Gaea isn't a natural telepath? We do exist, you know," she added dryly. Doc choked back a snort.

"How many natural telepaths also have telekinesis and can manipulate energy?" Goose countered. "Gaea did something to that vidcam, which has no mind that a telepath could affect."

"Such people do exist," Niko argued. "I've seen some of the Adepts on my homeworld do such things. Those abilities can occur naturally."

"What about the men chasing her?" Goose demanded.

Zachary spoke for the first time. "There are some ugly chapters in Earth's history where telepaths are concerned," he said quietly. "I don't like to think that there are still people like that out there, but you have to admit it's possible."

Doc fidgeted. "Um, Zach... I know you hate it when I tell you this stuff, but—"

Zachary groaned and put his head in his hands.

"I think our Goose man is on the right track, I'm just having trouble putting my finger on why." Doc tapped idly at his CDU, staring into the holographic field. "I'm sure I saw something about a project that sounds like this..."

"That's what happens when you break into too many databases, Doc," Niko teased him. "You start forgetting where you saw things."

Zach sat still, mumbling under his breath. Goose's enhanced hearing clearly caught the phrase "More gray hairs than my kids give me," and he found himself hard pressed to keep a straight face.

"What's the harm in looking, Zach?" Goose asked. "If I'm wrong, we've done a search on the wrong thing. No saying we can't just change tactics and move on, right? Just as long as Doc here makes sure nobody's paying attention to the stuff we search on, no one ever even needs to know that we looked."

Zach finally raised his head again, a resigned look on his face. "Fine, Gooseman," he said wearily. "If this is what it takes to disprove this wild idea of yours."

Doc flexed his fingers with a cracking of knuckles. "Okay, " he said. "Geneticists. Pathfinder, Tripwire, let's go tiptoe through BETA's tulips."

"Hacking again, Doc?" Pathfinder squeaked. "Naughty, naughty."

Doc moved to press a key on the CDU and then stopped, eyes suddenly intent on Goose's. "Uh... are we including geneticists from the Supertrooper project?" he asked, his voice exactly as offhand as it should be.

Doc, I owe you one.

"Sure," Goose answered, praying his voice sounded as cool as he thought it did. "We know they're qualified to design someone like Gaea here."

Doc turned back to his work. Goose watched Gaea watching in fascination as Doc's programs sent data flickering across the CDU's screen faster than the eye could follow. She glanced warily over at Goose.

"We're an unusual bunch," he said dryly. Her lips twitched.

An image appeared on the screen; Goose winced as he recognized Max's face. He glanced at Gaea, who shook her head.

"I don't know him."

Goose realized he was holding his breath and let it out. Niko gave him a sympathetic look.

"Next!" Doc said. Another face appeared, and again Gaea answered in the negative. Goose counted to himself: three faces, some familiar, some not; then five, and then he saw Gaea flinch as the image of a dark-haired woman he didn't know resolved on the screen. They all watched as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Mira Halleran," Doc read. "Level-two geneticist, biologist. Left the Supertrooper Project in 2079—"

"That's the year I was decanted," Goose said. "No wonder I don't recognize her. Where'd she go?"

Doc scanned the file. "Took a job at New Horizons Labs designing custom livestock, a step down if ever I heard of one. Went on—" His eyes jerked to Gaea and back to the screen. "Er, maternity leave late 2080, submitted her resignation in 2081, about six months later. Not much about the child here. K—" Doc broke off and looked at Gaea as she reached pale fingers to touch the face on the screen.

"Killed August 3, 2086, in a car wreck, when the main bolt on her seat restraint failed and she went headfirst through the windshield," Gaea finished in a muted voice. "The child, a five-year-old daughter, died a few days later of complications from internal injuries. Except as you can see," she scrubbed at her eyes, "I'm quite healthy."

The table was silent a moment.

"She raised you?" Niko asked gently. Gaea nodded, still staring at the CDU screen. The auburn-haired telepath touched the younger woman's hand lightly. "I'm sorry," Niko said. Gaea blinked at her.

"It was a long time ago," Gaea said dully. She stared a while longer at the screen before her eyes went to Goose's.

"It wasn't an accident," she said. He stared at her.

"He arranged it," Gaea said, nearly spitting out the words. "Ma— Mira was in his way, so he got rid of her."

"How do you know?" Zachary cut in, only to find himself pinned by that unnerving stare.

"I found out by chance," she answered. "He made me practice all the time. He never told me why. I just had to. It was one of his rules. He had rules for everything. Never leave a trace of your presence. Never tell anyone your real name. Never reveal that you're different." For a moment Goose thought he heard the ghost of a deep, harsh voice behind hers.

Goose flinched. Way too close to home...

"So I was practicing and I accidentally touched his mind. I wasn't ever allowed to. And he was reviewing my progress, he was angry because Mira hadn't done what she was supposed to and I was behind in developing and he was thinking about changing my meds and in my mind I saw—" her voice choked. "I saw him standing over her body and I knew..." She heaved a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut. "I got... angry. I was only seven. I thought he was dead and I ran."

Rage ran like acid through Goose's blood. His hands where they lay on the table clenched slowly into fists.

Doc stared at his screen, but Goose saw the clenched muscles of his jaw standing out like cords, and his brown eyes were cold. "Pathfinder, run a check on anyone known to associate with Mira Halleran," Doc said. "Don't know if it'll turn anything up, but..." He shrugged.

Another face appeared on the screen, and Gaea shook her head.

"This is interesting," Doc said slowly, scanning over the file. "Stuart Chapman, Level-two geneticist. Left the project about a year before Mira Halleran did, went on to a part-time teaching gig. Died February 22, 2083 of a drug overdose after losing his job. Pathfinder, figure out if any of the other Supertrooper scientists have died, excluding verified illnesses with known causes. You—" he gave Goose an apologetic glance. "You can exclude Max Sawyer."

In just under a minute, the program's piping voice sounded again from the CDU. "Nope, Doc, those two are it." Doc lifted his head from his perusal of the file to exchange a look with Niko. "Seems kinda coincidental, doesn't it?" he asked rhetorically. She frowned.

"Hey, Doc, do disappearances count?" Pathfinder squeaked.

Doc stared down at the screen, where a man's face was taking shape. "Gr—" he began. A sound from Gaea—half gasp, half cry—interrupted him.

"That's him," she whispered, eyes dilated and full of fear. "But he's dead. I killed him. He's dead—" Her voice roughened, and she broke off.

Doc tore his attention from the girl's face and returned to scanning though the file.

"Greer Latham," he read. "Level-one geneticist, neurophysiologist, psychologist. A major player on the Supertrooper Project. Left the project June 20, 2085, and took an extended vacation before just dropping off the face of the earth. There's a note here: Whereabouts classified. Looks like our man here was into some pretty high-level stuff. And this is an old picture, taken nearly twenty years ago."

Goose held perfectly still, fighting to keep his emotions in check. It fits. That damn report was his. Gaea was his idea. And someone took him up on it, someone who could keep the whole thing so secret that BETA doesn't even know about it.

Niko, he could see, was following a similar train of thought. "But Doc, the World Federation abandoned and outlawed that line of experimentation after the Wolf Den riot. And all of the Supertrooper records were consolidated under BETA's management."

"Unless—" Goose said, choosing his words very carefully, "unless Gaea didn't come from the Supertrooper Project at all. We've only found three people who fall into this weird pattern of deaths and disappearances. Maybe they're it, a sort of splinter group."

"You can't design somebody as complex as Gaea with just three people," Doc protested. Niko began nodding slowly.

"But if those three people had access to all of the data and research done for the Supertrooper Project..." she guessed. "They all left fairly late in the project, after the design phase must have been done or nearly done. Is that right, Shane?"

Goose fought the impulse to squirm in his seat. "I can't be sure, Niko," he answered. "I wasn't exactly in on that stuff."

Doc hunched over his CDU and began muttering unintelligibly. Pathfinder and Searchlight obliged by filling the screen with data. "Report," he mumbled to himself. "Proposal. Hmmm... Yeah! Success!" With a flourish he pointed to the screen.

"About five years before our Goose man here was decanted, Greer Latham proposed an alternate line of research into building soldiers with psionic abilities for—" Doc twitched his mouth in disgust "—'data gathering and covert operations,' meaning of course all the stuff nobody's government wants to admit it even thinks about."

"You can't possibly suggest that Commander Walsh would have anything to do—" Zachary began in an outraged tone.

Doc made placating motions. "No way, Captain, of course not—actually, there's a notation here the commander turned it down. But it sure looks like somebody went through with it, somebody with the power and resources to keep their work totally secret. And it looks like they found you here on Mars," he said to Gaea, "and they want to bring you back under their control."

"He does," she whispered. "I saw his face in that man's memories. He's still alive, and he wants me back."

Goose slammed his fists down on the table, setting Gaea's cup jouncing in its saucer and nearly upsetting his soda glass. "No. No way," he said flatly. Damn science geeks, playing God. If she doesn't have the heart to be a soldier, she sure as hell doesn't have it in her to be an assassin!

"Gooseman," Zach said sharply, "Our job is to enforce the law. We were sent to—"

"We were sent," Niko interrupted in a mild but firm voice, "to investigate the cause of the fire at the Widner Building."

"But people died in that fire!" Zachary protested.

"Was that Gaea's fault?" Niko returned. "She—"

"Yes."

They all stared at Gaea.

"It was my fault," she said quietly. "I know it was an accident, but I'm still the one who caused the fire. I grabbed the network trunk because it was close by. I didn't even look to see what I was grabbing. I'm the reason the fire control AI couldn't do its job. But I'm telling you all—" and her glance swept over the four Rangers, "that if you try to take me back to Earth where he, where Latham can just come and get me whenever he feels like it, I'll fight you. I won't go back. I won't."

That might have sounded more convincing, Goose thought, if her voice weren't shaking.

The group around the table erupted in argument.

"Captain, we can't!" protested Goose. "It's no better than slaverunning—"

"We could—" started Doc.

"No!" Zachary barked, his brows drawn down fiercely. "Absolutely not. We're taking her in."

"Captain," Goose said urgently as Gaea went tense.

"No. You're not arguing with me, Gooseman. Gaea, we can protect you—"

"No, you can't," she answered flatly, her gaze still fixed intently on his face and her body poised for flight.

"She's got no ID, Captain," Doc wheedled. "She doesn't officially exist. We could just—"

"That's exactly why we have to take her in. These people are operating in secrecy. If we let you go, Gaea, we're only helping them. I don't like taking you anywhere against your will—but I don't like where this investigation is taking us, either, and it's time to take it to the commander."

Zach fixed his eyes on Goose. "You know I'm right, Goose," Zach continued in a gentler voice. "No one from BETA is going to give Gaea up without a fight."

Goose looked away, emotions warring in his mind. Is he right? They found her once. Could we hide her well enough? How do I know they wouldn't just grab her the minute she left my sight? But if she went with us... she herself is the only evidence we've got.

Will anyone else besides the four of us remember she's not just evidence?

"No," Gaea repeated. "I won't go to Earth." Goose heard the edge of panic creeping into her voice and flinched.

He stood. "Gaea, will you come for a walk around the block with me? Please?"

"Gooseman—"

"No, Zach," Niko cut in softly. "Let them go."

Gaea wavered, uncertain.

"I'd like to talk. Please?"

She stood slowly. As she stepped away from the table, Doc grinned and winked up at her. "Just remember, Gaea, you can kick our butts all over town anytime, if you really want to."

Gaea smiled—a forced, frightened smile. Goose touched her shoulder gently, and together they turned and walked toward the door.

They strolled down the sidewalk in silence briefly before Goose spoke.

"Look, I won't lie. I'm worried. Hell, I'm damn nervous. But the captain's talking sense. Maybe the answer is to blow it all wide open. But—"

"You knew his name."

He checked his stride and turned to face her, for she had stopped to look accusingly at him. He sighed.

"I suspected. Look, I—"

"I know. You snooped."

He blinked at her. She shrugged awkwardly and looked away for a moment.

"You're kind of noisy... and I guess my manners aren't very good. I spent too much time using it to stay alive to care about listening to people. Why were you snooping?"

This time it was Goose who looked away. "I was just tired of secrets."

"Was it worth it?"

He turned his gaze back to hers. "Yeah. Yeah, it was. Even though the things I've learned make me sick sometimes. And angry."

She started walking again. "So if you know something about... Latham then you know I won't be safe on Earth."

"We'll protect you."

"You can't. When I was little he used to talk to men sometimes. I wasn't ever allowed to see them, but once I heard one of them talking, I listened to his thoughts as he talked, and that one called another one 'General.' I told you my manners aren't very good. I was snooping. I was only five or six. The others shut that one up, but—can your commander protect me from a general?"

Goose winced. "I don't know," he admitted. "But I—I can promise you this: I will protect you." He stopped once more and very gently laid his right hand on her shoulder. "I swear it. I'm not free, and I don't know if I'll ever be free. But maybe you can be. I want to help you. When this is all behind us I... want to know you're out there somewhere living the life you want to live. So I promise, I'll protect you with everything I've got. Will you trust me?"

Her eyes, looking nearly black in the early-morning darkness, sparked a startling green-gold in the halo of a streetlight as she raised them to study his.

"I trust you... Shane," she said softly.

It sounded like a prayer.

Gaea - Chapter 07

From Betamountain.org

Gaea

Chapter 7

by Baybelletrist