Lastly, as I listened to Freya, I realized there was yet another lie to contend with. This was what thought of as “Blackwood’s lie.”

  “How could he convince anyone,” I asked, “that you and I somehow had physical contact? I was aboard the Teklution ship until Borag lifted off.”

  Freya leaned forward. She lowered her voice as if perhaps someone was listening. I didn’t know if they were, so I leaned forward, and I lowered my voice as well.

  “There were a couple of workmen, do you remember?” she asked. “Outside the ship?”

  “Yes, two dogs were there from Borag’s maintenance crew.”

  “Blackwood got hold of the video of those two men when they ran back to Borag. He altered the records—the visuals from the ship’s cameras, even the logs from when they walked aboard through the aft airlocks.”

  “So?” I asked.

  “He changed everything. He made the video show that it was me and you returning to Borag, not two random workmen who had helped cut open the door on the Teklution ship.”

  “How did he do that? With software?”

  “Yeah,” she said, “a deep fake. I saw his false evidence. The workmen looked just like us. Shots of our faces were melded in. Even the automatic ID of the radio transponders in our helmets was recorded in the logs—he thought of everything.”

  I shook my head. “How could he work up something like that so quickly?”

  She shrugged. “I think he’s a master of stuff like that. What is a ship’s accountant, if not a masterful editor of reality?”

  I laughed, and she finally smiled and relaxed some as well. We were able to enjoy ourselves after that until the following day when I was called to an urgent meeting at Red Company headquarters.

  When I walked in, I immediately knew something was up. This was because I knew all the individuals who were present at the meeting. I knew them very well. They were the survivors, those who’d been abandoned on Eris. Even Dr. Sharaf and her surviving sidekick were there.

  “Ah, Private Starn,” Dr. Sharaf said. “Of course, you would be among the latest of the late. And where is your closest companion?”

  I frowned at this and began to protest on Freya’s behalf.

  “No, no—not the yeoman girl. I mean—oh, there he is!”

  Private Ledbetter was slipping through the doorway behind me. He had a smile on his face that rapidly melted away when he saw the crowd, just as mine must have done. Within moments, his face transformed from congeniality to alarm and concern.

  “Come on in, Private,” Sharaf said. “Take a seat. We all have some things to discuss.”

  Here it comes, I thought to myself, the next circle of lies.

  We, in a sense, were Borag’s ultimate secret. We’d all demonstrated signs of infection while we were on Eris. This caused me a pang of worry as I thought about it. I’d been fraternizing quite a bit with Freya lately. What if I had unwittingly infected her? Was she going to need injections someday or be transformed into a hideous monster like Corporal Tench?

  I raised my hand. Looking bored, Dr. Sharaf pointed at me. “Yes, yes. A question. Let’s get it out of your system.”

  “Doctor?” I said. “It seems to me quite irresponsible that we’ve been allowed to have contact with everyone aboard this ship. I mean, aren’t we spreading whatever it is we have?”

  “No,” she said, and she said it firmly. “I’ve looked into it. I’ve had discussions. This isn’t the first time this sort of thing has been dealt with, as you probably suspected.”

  “Right…” Lt. Quinn said. “I knew as soon as I saw you were packed up with doses of an antidote to these mutations that it couldn’t be the first time the Earth has seen phenomenon.”

  “That’s right,” she said. “We’ve encountered it before. We’ve never encountered the aliens in their live and active state, but we have dealt with the infection and the mutations.”

  “What’s the purpose of infecting humans with genetic viruses, anyway?” Quinn asked.

  Sharaf shrugged. “We don’t really know. It’s one of many experiments that they typically performed upon humans. Maybe they were trying to breed us as a form of mutated soldiers. What we do know is that as long as you’re taking this compound, it is not possible for you to transmit the disease. You must be fully mutated in order to spread it. That is how Ledbetter and Corporal Tench got the disease in the first place.”

  I nodded, thinking it over. It did make sense. When I raised my hand again, she pointed me at me with a sigh.

  “So… how did the rest of us get infected?” I asked. “I mean, not all of us were torn up by those cyborgs.”

  “Yes, but we all spent a week living in their complex, drinking their water, eating their strange alien foods. It was a foregone conclusion that we would all contract the disease. Even I have caught a little something.”

  She pulled her glove off then, and she showed us that she was sprouting an additional finger on her hand. It was kind of nasty to look at. She quickly pulled her glove back on again.

  “What’s the upshot of all this?” Quinn demanded. “Do we really have to give ourselves these injections once a month for the rest of our lives?”

  “For now, yes,” she said. “You’ll be provided with a year’s supply of the inhibitor. Don’t lose it. We’re searching for a better solution, mind you, but for right now, this medication is all we have.”

  We all frowned. It was upsetting news. I’d kind of hoped that this was the sort of thing that you would get over eventually, that your body would fight it off. But it wasn’t a disease, not really. It was a genetic transformation. Our very DNA had been altered. Honestly, it gave me a chill just to think about it.

  After that, she swore us all to secrecy, and handed us each a small satchel containing a year’s supply of the drug we needed to maintain our natural states. She left us all with one final warning as well. “None of us shall ever be allowed to return to Earth again, not until we’ve been declared cured.”

  “What?” I exclaimed. She was blowing one of my greatest fantasies right then and there.

  She smirked at me. “Ah, yes, of course, the Earth man protests immediately. But alas, it’s true. We will all be watched. We are all known. Do not even attempt to return to Earth’s farthest orbiting space station. If you aren’t executed out of hand, you’ll be arrested and you’ll vanish into some dungeon, never to be seen again.”

  “Oh, so that’s the deal, is it?” Quinn complained. “All the mutants are left out here on the fringe of the fringe, left to eke out lives among the rocks in the icy cold forever?”

  “Yes, that’s right,” she said. “That is our shared fate. And you should all know that I became a mutant over a decade ago.”

  We stared at her in surprise. We, of course, hadn’t known that, but it made quite a bit of sense. In fact, it was doubly obvious now why she had been forced to go on this lengthy mission and why she had had a secret supply of the very drugs we all needed to prevent transformation on her person.

  Eventually, the meeting broke up. Those of us who were from Red Company were feeling depressed. We were all trapped in a secret circle. We had survived Eris, but we were cursed.

  We moved together as a group to the grungiest, dimmest-lit bar down on the lowest deck. There, we drank until we didn’t care about our status as exiles any longer.

  Chapter 33: Our Triumphant Return

  At long last, the great day came. We arrived at Mars port again, and I can tell you that after a year in space, we wanted to get off that ship pretty damned badly.

  Everyone had long ago signed all of Blackwood’s agreements, of course. Our accounts were full. Borag was not only in the black, but she was also relatively well-off, and everybody was smiling as we arrived at the spaceport and were immediately allowed to disembark. After double-checking to make sure my accounts were indeed brimming with credits, I took Freya to the nicest restaurant in the nicest hotel in Mars City.

  We lived it up for several days there. It was almost like a honeymoon.

  But then, on the fourth day, I got a call from Captain Hansen herself. “Corporal Starn?” she said.

  I blinked a few times. Her words were not quite sinking in. “Uh… yes, Captain?”

  “I’ve talked things over with Commander Kaine. We’ve come to a joint decision. You are to be given the rank of Corporal in Red Company. I see by your account numbers that you are now able to buy out your own contract should you wish to. There will be no ill feelings if you do. At least half of Red Company has chosen that option already.”

  I didn’t know this. I was quite surprised, in fact. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized why so many had bailed out. Those who had survived on Eris had pretty much had the shit scared out of them. And the rest of them, well, they’d just spent a year in space, and they not interested in more of that kind of punishment. Maybe they’d sign on with another ship that wasn’t quite as unlucky and volatile as Borag.

  I sucked in a deep breath and heaved a big sigh. “I didn’t know that, sir. But you said something about me being a Corporal?”

  “That’s right,” she said. “The job is open, after all. Tench did not survive the voyage. Lt. Quinn has recommended you for the job. But, of course, you will have to sign a new contract to officially gain this new rank.”

  My head rolled back on my shoulders. What a decision to be faced with. “Can I at least think about it, sir?”

  “No,” she said. “You can’t, because there’s something else. I would like you to attend me personally. I’m going back to Interplanetary Excavations headquarters today. Will you meet me at the space elevator?”

  I thought about it, and I quickly came to a decision. I figured the very least I could do was one final favor for Captain Hansen. After all, when I’d first met this woman, I’d been a lowly rock-rat with no hope. Now, I was a relatively well-off individual, a self-sufficient worker, a man who could choose among contracts in the future as opposed to being bought and sold on the open labor market.

  “All right, sir. I’ll be there in five.”

  I gathered my kit, gave Freya one last kiss, and hurried to the space elevator. To my surprise, Captain Hansen was alone. Not even Blackwood attended her.

  Together, we walked toward Interplanetary’s company headquarters. I had to wonder who we might meet there. So far, I had never seen a pleasant person inside that building. I probably never would.

  When the receptionist showed us into the big office at the top of the towering structure, I was disappointed to see the controller sitting there at his sumptuous desk. When we appeared in the doorway, he ushered out a group of suits who gave us odd glances on the way by.

  “So,” Captain Hansen said when the door was shut, “the Colonel isn’t here to surprise us today?”

  “That’s right,” he said. “Earth-Gov isn’t involved in this discussion.”

  The controller and the captain exchanged pleasantries for a while, and the controller managed to give her thin praise. “You and your crew did well. Unexpectedly well. It was a difficult assignment, but you pulled through.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said. “In fact, I have plans for my newfound wealth.”

  The controller’s eyebrows shot up. “And what might be those plans?”

  “I’m considering independence, sir.”

  The controller laughed. It was not a pleasant sound. “Independence? Not with my ship, you’re not.”

  “Collectively, my top officers and I have the money to buy Borag. We also have that option in our contract.”

  The controller waved his fingers in the air as if an offensive odor was attacking his face. “Come on, Captain,” he said. “No one ever exercises those options. They aren’t real.”

  Captain Hansen calmly produced her contract and threw it on his desk. It was a plastic slip of computer paper. It rattled and glowed on the flat surface between the two of them.

  “This is a legally binding document, Malkin,” she said.

  The controller rolled his eyes, sat back in his chair, and laced his fingers behind his bald head.

  “Captain…” he said, “let’s not become unpleasant. I’m a businessman. People like you and me, we do business together. We know our places. We perform our jobs. We do them well. Now, your job is to go on missions for Interplanetary Excavations until such time as the company decides you’re no longer useful—which essentially means no longer profitable.”

  I dared to glance at Captain Hansen’s face. Her eyes were narrowed, but she hadn’t twisted a muscle. She wasn’t scowling, not exactly. She was just staring flatly, the way one might stare at a worm on the sidewalk.

  “You seem quite confident, Controller,” Hansen said. “Can you tell me why you think I will not be able to go independent?”

  He smiled and nodded. “Yes, I can tell you easily. For example, did you know there’s a new fee for docking here at Mars Station? It’s quite exorbitant, actually.”

  Hansen looked at him. “I’ve heard of no such fee.”

  “Yes, yes. Look at it—right here.” He produced a document and threw it toward her.

  “This computer paper,” she said, picking it up and staring at it, “it’s blank.”

  “No, no, it’s not blank. You see there at the top? That’s the insignia of the Mars provisional government. The regulators use that same stationery, you see. And at the bottom, you see where it says ‘signed by?’ It’s already been pre-signed. All I have to do is fill it in.”

  “Fill it in with what?”

  “With a description specific enough to catch Borag and maybe a few other ships that I want to.”

  She stared at the document. “Are you showing me evidence of corruption and regulatory mischief?”

  The controller laughed again. “No, I’m showing you how things work around here. Let us understand the Solar System and how it operates. There’s Earth, and then there’s not Earth. That’s the first thing you have to understand. Earth is controlled by a series of stodgy old governments. The colonel belongs to that group.”

  “Controller, I don’t see what—”

  “Bear with me. Everything else in the Solar System is controlled by corporations. Only companies can operate ruthlessly enough to conquer space, to gather all the riches from the asteroids and the moons and the belts of fine dust. Earth-Gov doesn’t like us much, but we bring a lot of wealth back to them. There is a third group, of course. Those saddest of characters we call pirates. You could always join them, but believe me, you’re never going to take one of our ships and be able to operate as an independent. You’re either with the corporations, or you’re against them.”

  Captain Hansen scowled, giving the man her death-stare. He seemed unaffected.

  “Honestly, you should know all this by now, Captain. It’s sort of embarrassing that I should have to give you this little speech at this point in your career.”

  For several long seconds Captain Hansen stood there, as stiff as a rock. Finally, she reached out and snatched her contract back up off the desk. She turned away from the odious man, and I moved with her, accompanying her every step of the way. I now knew why she thought she might need a trusted bodyguard while she faced a snake like this.

  “Hold on there,” the controller said. “We’re not quite done yet. Since you’re not going independent, but you are wealthy, and you can certainly buy yourself out and leave Interplanetary. In fact, you can leave Borag, and Mars itself while you’re at it. Feel free. I’m in no way going to stand against you—but I’m not going to allow Borag out of our hands. She’s too great of an asset.”

  “You were telling me in great detail how my ship was a liability just a few months ago.”

  “That was actually over a year ago,” he said. “But never mind. If you wish to remain at your post as captain of Borag, you are welcome to do so. In fact, we will offer you a signing bonus.”

  “I don’t want credits,” she said. “I want greater freedom.”

  “Credits are freedom,” the controller said gently. “The kind that you can actually possess and enjoy. Do you want to hear about your new mission, or are you resigning your captaincy? Those are your two options at this point.”

  Captain Hansen really was scowling by now. She was angry, and I couldn’t blame her. In fact, I wanted to throttle the fat guy behind the desk, but I figured I probably wouldn’t make it out of the building alive if I did. Still, it might be worth it…

  “I’ll take a third option,” Captain Hansen said at last. “Borag is going back to rock mining until further notice. The ship isn’t in debt, and you can’t stop me from doing that.”

  The controller frowned. He thought that over, tapped a few numbers onto his desk, and then nodded, folding up his lips.

  “All right,” he said. “You’re correct. You’re completely within your rights to do that, and no one in the company would oppose you—including me. So for right now, go with it. Do whatever you want, Captain Hansen. The outer Solar System is yours to explore and exploit.”

  Together, the captain and I walked out of that office, and we didn’t say a word to each other until we reached the street. Even then, I waited until we were twenty paces away from that building before I spoke to her.

  “Captain Hansen,” I said, “I’m really sorry about all that.”

  She stopped, turned, and looked at me. “It’s not your problem, Corporal. By the way, are you still a Corporal in Red Company?”

  I didn’t hesitate for a second. “Yes, ma’am,” I said. “I’ll gladly accept the promotion, and I’ll sign with you for another year.”

  The captain gave me a slight nod, and she almost smiled.

  “That’s good,” she said. “At least there’s one bright spot to this shitty day.”

  After that, I escorted her back to the space elevator. There, Freya met me. After giving the captain an odd glance, she turned to smile up at me. “Hey, I’ve got a surprise for you.”

  “What’s that?” I said. My head was full of distracting thoughts.

  “I’d love for you to meet my parents.”

  Alarmed, I turned slowly to face her. She had such a big, happy smile on her face that I couldn’t bear to disappoint. So I smiled, too.