Rescuing Steffon

[Picking up on my early note, I roll for my vow now]

I sit down to try and work out how I’m going to even go about finding Steffon. I’ve got a picture and some bare details from Medwyn, but it’s not really much. Although I’ve traded here on Boreas it’s been 100% legit trade, no spooky stuff, to establish a rock solid cover. I’ve looked at stuff on the fringes of the law, that’s expected, but nothing over the edge, nothing too dangerous.

A couple of avenues present themselves, I can either break out my professional skills and start data mining the Weave, try to find images of Steffon, first in publicly available data hubs, then in more private ones. Or I can do what my cover would probably do, go to the local cops, whatever they’re called here, and see if they know anything. Or, first of all, just look him up in the local directories and see if he’s there.

I decided I’m going to take those approaches in reverse order. Look him up, approach the Heddlu, then break out the spy craft.

It’s a little worrying when searching by name and image in the local contact directories don’t show any signs of Steffon. Either Medwyn lied about him being here or someone has erased him. But I have reasons for my search that are above board. I’m not going to search to see if I’ve set off alarms because if I have, poking now will only alert those already looking at me.

To the Heddlu it is. I report what I’ve done and why, and that I can’t find any trace of Steffon. They repeat my actions and then hit up the tax records. Steffon Price, husband of Medwyn Price, arrived five years ago. Paid his taxes last year. Still paying his utilities bills three weeks ago. No record in the public directories for the last six weeks though. As the detective is taking me through to open a formal missing person’s case, someone walks up to the desk and talks to the officer on duty. He, or maybe they, announce in a too loud voice that they’re here to report Steffon Price missing. Fortunately the desk officer is elderly and just starts making notes, the detective is clearly suspicious and I was half through the door and act like I didn’t hear. I’d caught enough of this new person as I was waiting to be buzzed through and in the accent to realise something though. This person is very good, but they’re a native of Honshu space, not AWJ space. It could all be a coincidence, but I’ve been taught not to believe in coincidences. How are Honshu and Steffon mixed up? Does this relate to Orange Watchtower at all?

Detective Jones is very good, I’ll give her that. She takes down all my details, all the case pertinent details and, on the way out, casually slips in a question about the Honshu person who came in. My mind races, I know how to answer it as a spy, but have to stop that instinctive answer answer and respond in line with my cover. I think she takes my thinking time as shock and believes that I really hadn’t heard the citizen, she certainly seems to take my deliberately shaky voice and stammer at face value although I feel unexpectedly shaky at this. I should have anticipated such a question and thought about how I’d answer so I was ready.

Something clever is going on behind the scenes, I’m pretty sure that the Honshu person is in the station somewhere, but we’re kept apart. I step out and head into a nearby eatery. Goffi might not taste like it did back in the home galaxy, heck, it doesn’t really taste the same, settlement to settlement, but Heddlu still drink it wherever you go. I get a cup and look around, checking to see if anyone is interested in me.

After a while I’m sure there’s no one directly surveilling me, so I look up the address for Steffon. Detective Jones mutters as she enters data into the Weave, common when people are used to a voice interface instead of a manual one, and I’ve overheard the address. While, officially, psychics are full citizens, many smaller settlements have psychic quarters still. This dates back to the time when seers were tightly controlled and all psychics were kept together, encouraged to interbreed to make more seers… It’s not a proud episode of our history. But it suggests Steffon is a psychic of some sort. Why wouldn’t Medwyn tell me? Why wouldn’t Jones ask about it?

Before I have to order a second cup of the rather revolting goffi here, the Honshu being leaves the station, looks around and heads off. I tail them. This seems too easy, they appear to have no tradecraft and I wonder if they are leading me into a trap, however I follow with renewed caution as they lead me to a middle-sized residence, where I start to surveil the site.

I settle into another goffi shop, my bladder might hate me, but on a cold planet like Boreas it’s better than outdoors surveillance. Over the next few hours, far too much goffi and cakes, I notice three people within the building, moving around as if they’re following a guard pattern. Two others enter, and about an hour later, two of the “guards” leave, and there’s a new three person guard pattern. Tucked away in my memory is the fact that Honshu special forces operate with a senior NCO or officer and five troopers. If Steffon is alive it’s reasonable to assume that the most senior person is with him, the troops are mounting a guard on the building. They probably can’t install military grade security, mines and the like into the approaches, so they need a higher state of alert on guard duty.

Now I have a better idea what’s going on, I need to think about how to tackle the situation. I jog back to the Skirl, careful to leave the goffi shop on the far side to the residence of interest. At the edge of the spaceport I stop and adopt a more careful approach, remotely checking through the Skirl’s camera’s for signs of surveillance, then signs of electronic intrusion.

There are signs someone tried to hack into Skirl but failed. Fortunately for me, they failed at the levels that a normal free trader might have, rather than the more exciting levels that go with my more covert activities. Free traders don’t want to be stopped in space by lazy raiders, so we often have surprisingly deep firewalls.

Feeling bolstered, I get back onto the Skirl, reset the defences and then very, very cautiously start probing the defences of the residence and remotely surveilling it.

It’s obvious something is up almost as soon as I start. The Honshu troopers, and it’s clear they are troopers from how they’re reacting, are running around. Not in panic, but they are being thrown out of the house and catching fire, then time is jumping and they are back to being in midair, flying out of the house. Steffon is clearly multitalented, Firebrand, Kinetic and Looper are all on display. And I’m a good twenty minutes away! I grab my gear, run to the nearest hire point and rent a hover bike.

Even though I’m probably breaking the law, the streets are clear, and I get there really quickly. I don’t like this, but I’m going to just dive in and try to rescue Steffon before he burns himself out.

I pull the veil around me and sneak into the house. At first it goes well, even Steffon seems to ignore me but his Looper ability doesn’t require him to know I’m here… once I’m in the residence it grabs me and tries to shift me back through time. It doesn’t get a full grip, It looks like the troopers were running back about three seconds, I’m running back less, one maybe, but definitely running back. This is going to be a challenge. I press on. Knowing it’s coming, I plan my route so it’s all in cover and when I get skipped back I’m going to land somewhere safe. I’m crawling too, pretending I’m climbing, three points of contact at all times, so whenever I get jumped back I land in a balanced, stable position. It’s slow, but it stays silent. As I turn to enter the room where it’s pretty obvious they were holding Steffon, something goes wrong… I think it’s our powers clashing. My veil and the power to stop Steffon noticing me clashes with his power to loop back through time and for what feels like an eternity everything just freezes. I can’t tell if that’s just me or everyone else experiences it. I gather my focus and slowly, incredibly slowly, I feel my power force his from my mind and body. Time starts running again. It’s not normal, I feel like I’m moving through treacle but Steffon and the Honshu trooper standing over him remain frozen.

With a final effort I reach Steffon and just grab him, pulling him away. I don’t know how this works, but everyone, including Steffon remain frozen, even as I’m pulling through the house. I can feel his powers weakening and I head for the roof. I know I can get up there, and there are steps up so that home owners can clean the ice from the roofs to prevent them collapsing in the winters. I think it will be a struggle, but I’m pretty sure I can get Steffon up there, under the cover of the veil, before his looping collapses.

Sadly my optimism was misplaced. We’re about half way up the stairs and the looper field collapses. The shock drags my veil down too. I swear under my breath and collapse under Steffon trying desperately to muffle the sounds. Fortunately for me, the Honshu troopers are a right state. They’ve got impact damage, burn damage and they’re in shock, both from being tossed through windows and into walls but also from looped through time repeatedly for the last five minutes or more.

I try to go and retrieve the hover bike, but it’s been impounded by the Heddlu. That’s not good. What to do next?

I wonder if there’s a vehicle attached to the house, and if I can get it out before the building is totally surrounded and locked down?

Back to the residence, there is an underground garage, common on Boreas because of the foul weather, and with two exits, again common because of the weather. They’re at 90º to each other so if one is blocked by drifting snow, the other is usually accessible. I settle Steffon over my shoulders more carefully, wishing briefly I was one of the more muscular members of my cohort and head down to the garage. I get about half way there and Steffon slips from my grasp. I decide to leave him, he’s heavier than he looks and he won’t freeze in the next two minutes, retrieve the vehicle and come back for him.

Fortunately that plan is successful. The heddlu are very cautiously moving into the garage, having only secured one entrance and having their hands full of armed, burnt, shocked soldiers above. Like most electric gravity vehicles the car is silent, so I’m out before the heddlu enter the garage, although I can hear their footfalls, and seconds later I’m loading Steffon into the back seat and covering him with a blanket. Tradecraft kicks in. Rather than what should be a short drive back to the Skirl, I drive away at an odd angle, take the time to stop and destroy the license plates some distance away, and spoof the transponder. I do that, and I’m just putting my kit away when I notice something odd… there’s a signal I wasn’t expecting. What I thought was the transponder actually a suppressor, presumably fitted by the Honshu commandoes, and I’ve just turned the transponder back on. Oops. Out with the hacking tools and to work again. This time I’m sure I’m successful, I double and triple check, swapping my transponder code for code in the data web that’s in a vehicle marked for destruction. It’s not foolproof, but it’s a legal code still and will work for tonight.

With all of that done it’s a short drive to get Steffon back to the Skirl and aboard.

I don’t have a sick bay, but I put him into a berth, hook up my med kit and follow the instructions it gives. There’s a whole cocktail of medication, which fortunately I have, although some will have to be replaced if I’m going to keep on giving it to him, and the med kit reports he’ll be out for 8-12 hours.

Dump the hover car… that’s successful and easy. Probably made easier because the heddlu are all over looking at a special forces unit that’s suddenly appeared in the posh bit of town…

Finally it’s time to go home and rest.

Steffon is rescued, safe and sound, and going to sleep for another six or more hours. Time for me to rest too.

I kip for six hours, although I’m tired after yesterday’s efforts, I’m not too bad. A relatively decent night’s sleep in my own bunk has let me sort out the shock of not having thought through the way to react to the detective’s questions and although I haven’t got a whole set of answers lined up, I can feel my subconscious is churning away at them, I trust in the process.

Speaking of the devil I call Detective Jones and inform her that I’m leaving, but I would like to be kept informed of progress. For a trader like me, leaving port is not that unexpected. She can easily check that I usually turn around in a day or two, and I tell her that while I’m not sure when I’ll be back, it will probably be within a week. That’s not entirely true, I know I’ve got a date with a courier in four days. But I can burn to Optima, drop Steffon off with Medwyn if he wishes, or to Perchance in 6 Tau Nu en route if he doesn’t want to go back. We add each other to our comm units, I just hope she never finds out I rescued Steffon from the Honshu strike team and whisked him off to a different planet while asking her to keep me updated on the missing persons enquiry!

I lay in a course for Perchance, and potentially Optima.

A few hours later Steffon wakes up and I give him breakfast, then gently ask him about what was going on, does he want to go back to Medwyn and Optima and the like.

The first step is really to explain that I’m here to rescue him at Medwyn’s request. I can always make things turn to a harder route from the soft approach if I need to. It’s clear that Steffon still loves Medwyn but doubts my word. It turns out he and Medwyn had a huge fight, which is why he moved to Boreas, and they’ve never really resolved it, although they’ve been in touch intermittently. When I tell him I swore an Iron Vow and the precise terms of the vow, Steffon breaks down sobbing. I comfort him, there’s a whole module in how to do that as part of an interrogation, and sneak in a couple of questions about why he was in that residence. The first answer doesn’t really surprise me, he’d expressed bitterness towards Medwyn and 5MI, only to be expected after such a lovers’ tiff, and someone, somewhere had thought he might be willing to turn that into a more direct action. It’s a hard card to play, there’s a big step from “Gods, I hate my husband and I hate where he lives” to “I want to blow the whole planet up” but usually you can tell after a quick chat over drinks and investing an hour or two that way doesn’t cost much but has great rewards if you hit the right person. It’s pretty clear from the second answer that Medwyn wasn’t the right person though, he didn’t realise he’d been approached until six weeks later, when he woke up in the house and this guy who’d offered him a sympathetic ear one night was one of the people keeping guard over him. But what was scary was that I’d hypothesised that Medwyn felt threatened living with a triple-talent psychic. He might, they’d have to work that out, but Steffon had had a really weaker firebug talent. He could light candles on birthday cakes. That was literally the limit of his strength. He had a looper and a kinetic somewhere in his extended family, but he’d shown no sign of these talents. Not until about a week ago. They’d started growing stronger and stronger within him until last night he hadn’t been able to contain them any more. He’d felt another talent nearby - me presumably - and his control had slipped.

I could feel this conversation was heading into dangerous territory, and really didn’t want to have his talents explode again so I steered the conversation into descriptions of his guards. He’d been there for weeks and although at first he wasn’t good at it, I teased out decent physical descriptions, then went back over these and teased out names and habits for each of them. This was a long, slow process, interrupted by frequent crying bouts, cups of tea and the like. It’s important not to push the interrogation, in fact it was pretty important for Steffon not to realise he was being interrogated at all, so we stopped for lunch at this point and I amended the course to head for Optima after checking in with Steffon.

Over lunch we chatted about Steffon training his new talents. I carefully hid the fact that I was psychic, it wasn’t at all clear that Steffon remembered his rescue with the trauma of his breakout and whatever had happened around it and the damage he’d done. I’m not ashamed of being a shade, but when you’re stealthy, you get used to keeping the fact you’ve got a psychic edge to that a secret. Steffon seemed happy to know he had a way forward, and that it wasn’t automatically in the military in some form, although I’m sure there were mercenary groups that would snap him up if that’s what he chose to do.

After tea, when he was relaxed again, I asked Steffon if he’d heard his kidnappers talk about what their plan were at all. This kept us up until long into the night. He was sorting through everything he’d heard and it spilt from his lips all out of order. That was ok, the Skirl was recording it all, even though he didn’t know it. There were three main areas of interest to me, and a number of other areas where I had to listen and take interest, express support and sympathy.

Clearly Honshu is looking at the disaffected and disgruntled, looking for people in the more distant sectors with reasons to travel to more central and more interesting ones to strike. There were discussions of grooming, entrapment, a list of planetary targets that didn’t mean anything to Steffon but included a number of military supply sites, the Service HQ, three critical nexuses for the Weave and two major critical industrial centres. There were a few other target planets that had no obvious strategic value that immediately sprang to my mind but I scribbled down too. What’s the value of 8GU and 9IZ? They’re on the wrong side of AWJ space for Honshu?

As we approached Optima, I wrapped up the conversation and couldn’t help feel I’d missed something important. Whatever it was, it was eluding me. I landed and took Steffon to meet Medwyn, then arranged an emergency data drop for Conductor.

I got a message back. My vow to unravel the details of the Honshu Insurrection just got a lot more troublesome. I’m going undercover as a double agent. Eeek.