Smuggler's Dispatch E-Book

Tami Veldura

• Herausgeber: Tami Veldura
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Reki and Te Pura are Gemini Operatives, partners in the special ops branch of the Zodiac. They've tracked a smuggler to this space station and it's time to move in.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Smuggler's Dispatch

About The Author

Copyright

Smuggler’s Dispatch

By Tami Veldura

The only reason Reki wasn't shot on sight was thanks to her nanosuit and the squad helmet she stole. To Iris station, she looked like just another security drone hired to police their freemarket. Her nanosuit duplicated the bulky squad armor and she blended seamlessly with the troops.

She knew better than to push her luck, though, and as soon as the squad was discharged from the lift into the freemarket, she split from the group and ditched the helmet. After a brief disappearance into trinket booth, she exited again in more common dress: a flashing pattern digital shirt with tight pants draped in cords and cables. She'd covered her hair in neon stripes and a half-mask decorated in triangle paint obscured her face. It was meant to confuse facial recognition and hopefully serve as a distraction.

The nanosuit could mimic anything--from armor to face paint--and Reki was familiar with all the ways she could manipulate the bots. When Zodiac had implanted them in her arm three years ago, she'd known her work had finally paid off.

A ghostly touch shaped itself inside Reki's visually bare palm. It was a series of pressure spots, lines, and shapes that resolved themselves into a sentence. A sign language. That shirt draws way too much attention.

Reki browsed a clothing shop to cover her reply. She shaped the words against her fingers and palm, the nanobots present there transferring her touch.

It's the style, now. Trust me. No one will notice.

At the other end of the message was Reki's partner, Te Pura. Together they comprised a Gemini team, two Zodiac agents who trained, lived, and worked so closely together they often developed their own shorthand in sign language. Reki's nanobots were only one half of a set. The other half were implanted in Te Pura and their entanglement meant data and conversation were transferred instantly between them no matter the distance.

Today Te Pura wasn't far off. She lounged casually in Iris Station's public library two floors up apparently reading a book, but actually tapping into the station's security and AI systems. Her face wasn't known to Iris station's AI, unlike Reki's.

Housing half the nanobots in two different people meant Reki could see Te Pura's surroundings and vice versa. Like an overlay of another world on top of Reki's own eyes. It took weeks of training after the initial implantation to learn how to walk again, and more weeks of practice not to fall over when Te Pura walked and half of Reki's visual information shifted.

Many soldiers couldn't handle the double input, but thanks to persistence and more than a little stubborn anger, Te Pura and Reki had come out the other side of training able to run, jump, and fight without vertigo or confusing their data. They were one of only six other successful Gemini pairs active in Zodiac, and that meant their skills were in very high demand.

Reki smiled at a vendor as she passed the open booths, playing her part as an Iris Station tourist. The freemarket was packed with people, mostly visitors on their way to or from the nearby cruiseliner. Their vacationing tendencies gave the atmosphere a jovial feel. Reki felt right at home in the middle of the social bustle.

Te Pura signed, Routed the AI, visual processing offline.

Her partner had excellent timing, as usual. Reki toned her shirt down to a less-flashy static logo as she ducked through the hanging beads of a trinket booth. Cameras not-so-subtly hidden in each corner immediately captured her image, but between the half-mask and Te Pura's great work, no alarms sounded.