Gaea

Chapter 12

by Baybelletrist

Doc's quarters, BETA Mountain

8/3/2098, 0028

Doc rubbed one hand across his bleary eyes, took a sip from the cup at his elbow, and grimaced.

"Like commissary coffee isn't bad enough," he grumbled, "but now it's cold."

The door hissed open, and reflexively Doc switched jobs so that all that now appeared onscreen was an innocuous debugging session. He glanced at the mirror, carefully placed to afford him a view of anyone who entered, and relaxed.

"How's my favorite redheaded psionic on this fine evening?" he cracked, spinning his chair to face Niko. He noticed with concern that her face seemed shadowed and tired, but he held on to his smile.

"I was just wondering how the audit was going," she said, with a lightness in her voice that fooled neither of them.

He shrugged. "It's going. We've got a lot of people to sift through. I'm leaning in the direction that it's someone you'd naturally expect to be roaming all over the mountain, like cleaning crew or security... but I've been wrong before."

"It would make sense. OPS seems to like keeping a low profile, so it's reasonable that they'd choose someone like that. How about the... other search?"

"Like I said the other day, it's hard to dig up anything on these people."

"Well, what do you have?"

He swiveled back around and toggled his screen back to the search he'd been doing when she entered.

"For this kind of search you have to do an end run—I mean, come at the problem from an angle," he explained. "See, OPS has a budget from the Board of World Leaders, but they don't have to account for it. Amazing what you can get by with if you start sticking 'Planetary Security' tags on everything. So I can't track what they're doing by expenditure reports... exactly."

He touched a few keys and the screen changed. "Okay, here we've got a uniform and linen company that picks up and delivers laundry to a location in Texas I can't pin down exactly because—"

"Someone stuck a 'Planetary Security' label on it?" Niko said, lips curving in an ironic smile.

"Exactly! But... for some reason I'm not going to pretend I'm not grateful for, they didn't hide how much linen was delivered. From the quantity, I worked it out that the base or office they're supplying has about fifty people living there. And this food service company delivers supplies for, I'd calculate, a total of eighty or a hundred people, so they've gotta have day workers too. Mind you, I'm running on a guess that they're probably using space in a government or military installation of some kind because their activities would just sort of blend into the rest of the goings-on there. People probably think they're researchers working on something so boring that only other researchers care about it.

"That said," he continued, "I think it's safe to assume that these deliveries are totally separate from the ones for the actual base or any of the departments that are doing business openly, because otherwise some bored accounts payable clerk might start wondering why he never sees invoices for all that stuff."

He tapped a few more keys and pointed. "Now here, about twelve years back, we have the so-innocently named Office of Materiel Disposal picking up fifty canisters of Supertrooper Juice, everybody's favorite drug of choice—Ow! Geez, touchy! The notation says 'For disposal,' but funny thing—I can't find any correlating record saying that the stuff was ever actually destroyed. And if I trace this office back, looking for the agency Materiel Disposal supports, what do you know—another 'Planetary Security' tag."

Niko frowned. "So we have disappearing Supertrooper Juice and a probably-hidden base. That's not much to go on, Doc."

"Niko, Niko, Niko. Have you so little faith in the Doctor? Observe!" More keystrokes, and now a list of files came up on screen. She scanned the filenames and frowned.

"Doc, that's e-mail! You read someone's e-mail?"

He gave her a pained look.

"Sorry."

He opened one of the files. "This was sent by an administrative worker who's officially assigned to the Planetary Defense Corps. But if you take a look at the expense reports she submits, the mileage doesn't correspond to the distance between her home and any facility that officially belongs to the PDC. Actually, I've got Pathfinder working on correlating the data from these expense reports with the linen company's branch locations and the food service company's warehouses... But I digress." He pointed to a line in the e-mail message.

"If this woman's boss ever saw this message, she'd be joining that guy from Orbital Traffic Control at Pluto Base. Actually, considering where she works she'd be lucky if they gave her a ship to get there with."

Niko peered at the screen. "Honeycakes?" she repeated incredulously.

"Can we get past that, Niko?"

She poked him and kept reading. "'I'm going to be just a teensy-weensy bit late for our date tonight. My boss has me working overtime to get all these stupid requisition forms filled out. What do I care about some special patient? I just want to be with you.'" She snorted. "I can't believe this," she muttered.

"Yeah, I know. Notice the time/date stamp?"

She stared at the line of text. "July 30, 2098, 1926 hours," she read aloud slowly. "Doc..."

"Yeah, I know," he repeated. "That's the day Gaea was taken from BETA. They probably hadn't even grabbed her yet when this dinkhead got started on her requisition forms."

"Excuse me, Niko."

Both of them turned toward the comm terminal, where Elma's icon floated placidly onscreen.

"Goose is—"

"Thank you, Elma," Niko interrupted hastily. "Doc, I have to go." She turned toward the door. Sensing an opening, Doc shot out his hand and grabbed hold of her wrist.

"Goose is what?"

She tugged at his hand, but he refused to let go, frowning at the anxiety in her eyes. "Doc, let me go. I have to go—"

"Niko, tell me what's going on. It's obvious something is bothering both of you."

"I can't tell you! I—if you want to know, you'll have to come along now." She pulled again, harder now, and he let go and stood.

"I'm right with you."

Niko led Doc along the corridor at a brisk walk, almost a trot. He quirked his eyebrows as he confirmed they were heading for Goose's quarters.

"Niko—"

"Not here, Doc. Just wait. Please."

They reached Goose's door, which slid open for them. "Thanks, Elma," Niko murmured.

Doc could hear Goose's voice even from the hallway.

"No... NO!"

Niko strode across the living room and straight into the bedroom.

Doc paused in the bedroom doorway and watched as Niko leaned over Goose's thrashing form, keeping out of arm's reach, and spoke quietly to him.

What the heck is this? Doc thought in bewilderment.

Gradually Goose roused from his nightmare and sat slowly up. "Lights, Elma," he said in a voice hoarsened by fatigue and shouting. Doc winced in the sudden brightness, but the minor discomfort vanished from his mind as Goose's eyes fastened on him. The Supertrooper surged out of bed, heedless of the fact that he wore only trunks, and turned to glare at Niko.

"What's he doing here?" he demanded of her. "You promised—"

"I promised not to say anything," she flared back at him. "I was talking to Doc when Elma found me. I—" she broke off, and Doc realized she didn't want to place the blame on him.

"I wouldn't let her leave until she told me what was going on, my Goose man," Doc said quietly. "She didn't tell me anything. She just said I'd have to come along if I wanted to know. So now I know why you've been looking like death warmed over every day, whenever you finally manage to drag your butt out of bed. How long have you been having nightmares?"

Goose stared at him, jaw clenched, and Niko sighed.

"They're not nightmares, Doc," she said.

"That sure looked like a humdinger of a bad dream to me," he shot back.

"He's not dreaming," Niko answered flatly. "He's—"

"Niko!"

"No, Goose," she told him in a voice that cut off his argument. "This has to stop. How much use are you going to be to the team like this?"

He fell silent, jaw clenched stubbornly, and Niko turned her eyes back to Doc.

"He's linked to Gaea, Doc," she told him. "He's witnessing what's happening to her."

Doc realized his mouth was hanging open, and shut it.

"They're trying to break her," Goose snarled. "No one should be alone with that."

Niko drew breath to argue again, but a sudden, jerky motion from Goose silenced her.

"Niko... I have to do this," he said, and at the sudden pleading in his voice Doc dropped his eyes. "I won't ever be able to look myself in the eye in the mirror again if I abandon her now."

Niko bowed her head in silent understanding, but at the expression on her face Doc looked away.

"Doc?" Goose asked, the question clear in his voice: What are you going to do now?

Doc looked at Goose and then at Niko and held up his hands in surrender. "Hey, I can keep a secret. But I will say this: Zachary's gonna be pissed."

Cafeteria, BETA Mountain

0822

"Would someone mind explaining to me just what the hell is going on here?"

Oops. He's pissed. Doc sighed and set down his fork. The bite of egg he'd been about to eat was still speared on the tines. Guess breakfast is over.

"We've been waiting for you, Captain," Doc said with as much cheer as he could muster. "I've got some data to show you." He pushed forward the bread basket. "Have a muffin. They're pretty good this morning."

Zachary, Doc could see, was not buying it. His blue eyes held about as much warmth at the moment as chunks of quartz.

"I just heard," Zach said deliberately, "a very interesting rumor."

His eyes are gonna bore a hole through the center of Niko's forehead, Doc thought. Niko's eyes flicked to Goose, and inwardly Doc winced. That's it, he thought, resigned. Game's up. She just broke Rule #1: Never let on there's a secret to be kept.

"Didn't think you listened to rumors," Goose put in, nearly making Doc jump. Three pairs of eyes turned to the tall Supertrooper. Goose only scowled.

"Let's just say this one caught my attention," Zach said, brows drawn together in a thunderous frown. He looked at Niko again. "Why were you leaving Ranger Gooseman's quarters shortly after 0600 hours this morning, Niko?"

Niko turned a most amazing shade of crimson.

She must be hating that red hair about now, Doc mused. There was a silence that seemed to redefine the word.

"I can't tell you," said Niko at last.

Doc watched in apprehensive awe as Zach's brows drew low and his face flushed a dull red. A muscle flexed in their captain's jaw, and when he spoke his voice was far too quiet.

"What do you mean, you can't tell me?"

Niko's chin rose a notch. "I can't tell you," she repeated.

Zachary stared down at her, eyes growing colder. "When I heard the rumor that's circulating around here," he bit out, "it didn't even cross my mind to consider believing it, believing that you were capable of behaving in any way but professionally." Doc saw Niko flush again in anger and hurt and shook his head very slightly.

Not cool, mon Capitan.

"She was helping me."

Zach's eyes jerked to Goose. "What do you mean?" he demanded.

Goose was silent for a moment.

"Gooseman..." Zach's patience was visibly wearing thin.

"She came to my quarters at that hour because I was having a bad dream," Goose said.

Zach looked incredulously at him, face slowly reddening again. Doc tensed, waiting for the explosion.

Zach looked around at his team, and the anger in his eyes suddenly subsided. "I'm obviously not getting the whole story here." He yanked a chair over and sat down. "You want to tell me about it from the beginning?"

Niko's quarters, BETA Mountain

1104

The door hissed open in front of him while he was still reaching for the buzzer, and Zach faltered for a moment. Get on with it, he told himself, took a few more steps, and paused in the doorway of her quarters. She was bent over her desk, forms and notes spread neatly about her, a stylus held loosely in her hand.

"Niko?"

Niko straightened from her papers and looked at him as if she were standing by a broken window and holding a baseball with his name on it. He winced inwardly.

"I guess you already know why I'm here, don't you?" he said, stepping forward and letting the door slide shut behind him.

She kept looking at him.

"Uh, I'm sorry about what I said earlier," he said. He felt his ears go hot with shame. "I was out of line."

"Apology accepted, Zach," Niko said gently. "What's really on your mind?"

Startled, he blinked and then laughed. "I guess I should be used to that by now, shouldn't I?"

"Probably," she agreed, a ripple of laughter running through her voice. "What is it?"

Zachary groped for words. "Why is Goose so—Niko, he seems obsessed with this girl, with Gaea. Can you tell me what's going on with him?"

She sat silent for a while, her face thoughtful. "I haven't asked him outright, Zach, but I have the sense that Goose sees Gaea in a somewhat idealized way. He seems to believe very strongly that she shouldn't be a soldier."

He stared at her. "That's it?"

"Zachary..." her voice held a hint of warning.

"I know, you want me to go ask Goose. And you know he won't tell me a damn thing. Niko, I'm his commanding officer. I need to know what's going on."

She sighed. "Sit down, Zachary." Niko watched, eyes dark, as he pulled out a chair, reversed it, and sat down with his arms folded across the back.

"So he thinks she shouldn't be a soldier. There's more to it than that, I assume?"

"Goose never had the chance to be free, Zach, and he may never get the chance. I think he wants that for Gaea. He wants it very badly. And he feels responsible for what's happening to her now because he convinced her to come here."

Zach stared down at his hands, guilt rising inside him, and he muttered, "I can understand that part just fine."

"Can you?" Niko's voice went suddenly cool. He winced again.

"Yes," he said, meeting her eyes squarely. "I can."

Doc's quarters, BETA Mountain

1539

"Yessss." Doc leaned back in his chair, stretched hugely with a cracking of joints, and laced his hands behind his neck. "Lady and gentletweakers, no applause please, just throw money."

Niko raised her head from her folded arms, rested on the table before her. Printouts lay strewn about, some bearing notations in her flowing, tilted handwriting. "What did you find, Doc?" she asked tiredly.

"I've got the location of this facility narrowed down to a radius of ten miles. My best guess is," and he brought up a map that Niko dimly recognized, "it's somewhere on this Space Navy base, probably one of the more remote buildings."

"But I thought we were dealing with OPS," she protested.

"We are. I'm sure ninety-nine percent of the personnel on that base have no idea this facility is there, and the one percent probably think it's research—"

"I know, Doc," she said wearily. "That only other researchers care about. Now what?"

"Now we just have to find it."

"Doc..." Niko rubbed her eyes. "What are we going to do about it once you do find it, anyway? None of this is admissible evidence. We're hardly going to get a warrant to search the place. We can't even prove Gaea exists."

He looked over his shoulder at her, brown eyes gone suddenly dead serious. "I know," he answered. "But sooner or later, something's gotta break. And when it does... we'll be there."

But Niko, seeing the look on Doc's face, knew that the self-assured tone in the hacker's voice was just as much for his own benefit as for hers.

Gaea - Chapter 12

From Betamountain.org

Gaea

Chapter 12

by Baybelletrist