"Even if they know Lieutenants Holloway and Voss survived the wreck," Piper said as she guided the ship through the upper atmosphere and out into space, "There's no way they can actually link those two officers to the pair of you."
She added, "Remember you don't have the identity implants anymore, and no indication you ever did. You're both younger than their missing men. And... Jenny correct me if I'm wrong, but even if they try a genetic analysis, that won't match either right?"
"That's correct captain," the AI responded from where she was standing at the back of the cockpit. She was using her HPD again, the sexbot was still down in the workshop and wouldn't be ready for some time yet.
"Right," I agreed. "I used my portable med-scanner on myself that first day, and it certainly didn't recognize me."
By that point we were clear of the atmosphere and the captain had us following a vector away from the planet and all its traffic.
"There's still a lot of circumstantial evidence," Sarah pointed out. She was with us in the cockpit, seated behind me at the engineering station. "The fact that we're using the same last names, I'm an engineer and Amanda's a medic. We joined your crew after your first visit to the Hammersmith's wreck."
"And worst of all," I added with a sigh, "I contacted my sister. I didn't come out and say who I was but it's easy enough to read between the lines. And I told her Sarah was with me. My little sister knows me and Sarah are the two missing officers. It's not going to be that hard for the Navy to figure it out."
The captain sighed, "Even if they suspect, they won't know for sure. And they can't prove it. They're going to see a couple teenage girls and some circumstantial evidence. Put yourselves in their position? It's a half year ago, you're serving on the Hammersmith, and you're told that a couple teenage girls in a remote frontier sector are really two navy officers, grown men. Would you believe it?"
Sarah grinned, "Good point boss. I'd assume it was a joke, or the information was garbled in transit or something."
"Yeah," I agreed. Then I blushed and added, "Honestly though I'd investigate anyways, because I'd want to know how it happened and if I could get in on it too."
"So our main threat is if the Imperium sends a trans girl to investigate," my girlfriend teased.
Piper rolled her eyes, "Seriously though, Jenny is there any way for someone to prove that Sarah and Amanda used to be the two officers they're looking for?"
The AI thought for a moment before responding, "Brainwave analysis. Assuming they have prior analyses to compare with, that's probably the only way to confirm who they are. Their bodies were rebuilt from scratch, no other biometrics would match."
The captain glanced at me and asked, "They don't do that brainwave stuff do they? So that shouldn't be a problem."
"I don't think so," I frowned. "I don't remember them doing it? I've never been asked to perform one on anybody."
"So at worst they might ask some annoying questions and get in our way," Piper stated. "That's assuming they even find the two of you and somehow make the connection that the eighteen-year-old girls Amanda Voss and Sarah Holloway might once have been their missing Navy lieutenants. And even that feels like a stretch."
Sarah agreed, "Good point boss. Like you said earlier, if I'd been told something like that before I'd have laughed it off. Even with the circumstantial evidence, it's still unbelievable. At best I'd figure I was trying to pull a scam of some kind, trying to cash in on the name of a dead Navy officer? I don't know, maybe I'd question if the mystery teen was trying to claim to be a daughter or relative to get a cut of the insurance or benefits? But since we haven't done that, there's really nothing to connect us or implicate us."
At that point it felt like we were all able to relax a bit. I was still uptight, and I really hoped my sister wouldn't get in any trouble because of this. But it sounded like the four of us would be ok. Like Rebecca said, at best the Navy could ask some annoying questions.
After a few moments I asked, "How would they even know we survived though? That's the part I don't understand?"
The captain sighed, "They must have found the lifepod. I forgot to blank its onboard computer before we dumped it overboard."
"Right," Sarah agreed. "The door sensors would have detected our implants when we boarded, it would have logged the two of us on board. It probably logged the two of us leaving too, when you carried me out."
"Ah," I grimaced. "I forgot about that. So they scanned the Hammersmith and realized one lifepod was missing, and after they chased us off they must have gone looking for it."
Rebecca nodded, "And once they found it, they checked its log. Then they reported back to the Imperium that there were two officers unaccounted for. That's how they know."
We continued to put more space between us and Rolandan-2, till we were finally clear of their traffic control range. Then the captain asked, "Amanda, can you plot us a level-one jump to Ecclestone's World please?"
"Yes boss," I replied as I pulled up the nav chart on my screen.
While I was working on the plot, Sarah asked "So worst-case scenario, what do we say if the Imperium does show up and ask? I think we should agree on a cover story now, instead of coming up with something at the spur of the moment?"
"Let's stick with what we told Lebeau," Rebecca suggested. "I received an FTL from an old family friend, looking to call in an old debt. We rendezvoused with his ship near Marshal's World, since that was the most convenient spot between my route and his. And I took you both on as crew."
She continued, "If anyone asks, the friend was Josh Flores, skipper of the MV Coral Swift."
Sarah asked, "And what were we doing on the Coral Swift? Why'd your friend need to hand us off to you?"
"Josh's already got a full crew," Rebecca explained. "And he's an older guy, he really wasn't comfortable with a couple pretty young girls on board. He knew I'd been running solo for a while and figured by calling in a debt he was solving his problem as well as mine. Like Mel said, my old man wouldn't have wanted me to work alone for so long."
"As for why you two were on his ship..." her voice trailed off as she tried to come up with an explanation.
Sarah suggested, "We stowed away? Me and Amanda are young, maybe a bit foolish, and we wanted to travel the stars and see other worlds."
"Bingo," the captain grinned. "You snuck on board while he was taking on cargo at Deveron-8. You managed to keep out of sight for three days, by the time Josh's crew found you he was nowhere near the Deveron system. And he's not going back that way any time soon, so he was stuck with you. Till he got the idea of dumping the pair of you on me instead."
"Works for me," my girlfriend said with a grin. "It doesn't explain all our skills, but we can lie and play ignorant if we have to. Right Amanda?"
I nodded, "Yeah, that works. And hopefully so will this jump plot. It's ready for you to have a look at it boss."
"Thanks Amanda," she replied. "Take the flight controls while I check it over."
I was pretty sure she didn't need me to take over, considering she could fly and plot a course herself at the same time. But it was probably good practice, even if all I was doing was keeping the ship flying in a straight line.
"Just one more question about the backstory," Sarah mentioned after a few minutes. "Is Josh Flores a real person? Is the Coral Swift a real ship? And if so, what if someone contacts him or his ship and tries to verify the story?"
The captain was still going over my plot as she replied, "Captain Flores and the Coral Swift are real, or at least they were. Josh knew Gabe and I, though I haven't seen him in about a decade. I'm pretty sure they left the sector for greener pastures but I suppose it's also possible they were destroyed. Either way, they're not around to confirm or deny the story."
"And this plot is good Amanda," she added a moment later. "Just two minor corrections and we're ready to go."
It only took her a half minute to make the changes, and she made sure I saw what she fixed so I knew where I got it wrong. Then Piper opened the safety cover and turned the toggle, activating our jump drive.
I felt the little shudder through the deck, then through my body. Outside the stars got brighter, then blurred into a swirl of blue and violet, and that was that.
"Five hours to Ecclestone's World," the captain said as she got up out of her seat. "We should probably relax and take it easy, but if you kids want to go play with your new toy down in the workshop I'm not going to stop you. Just be ready to get back to work before we come out of jump."
I blushed slightly as I followed the others aft out of the cockpit. Neither Jenny or Sarah rushed down to the lower deck though. The others all ended up sitting around the table in the mess again, but I went into the little lounge area. Jenny was right that we barely used it, and I didn't actually know why not.
The sofa was comfy, and I curled up on it in the corner then pulled my little datapad out of my jacket pocket and re-read Nyssa's message. Now that all the shock and adrenaline had passed, I took the time to enjoy my little sister's words.
She knew who I used to be, but she accepted me for who I really was. She called me Amanda. And when she referred to the old me, she called me her sibling rather than her brother. And that made me really happy. It was another kind of euphoria, one that I never thought I'd get to experience.
It was the sort of affirming, validating acceptance I never expected from my family. And I was positive I'd never get that from my dad, or my older brothers. I wasn't so sure about Kayla or Luke, but I had my doubts.
I had doubts about my mom too, but after Nyssa's message I couldn't help wondering. Like if mom figured out who I was in the vid, maybe she realized how happy I was. If she saw the same things Nyssa did, then mom might understand too.
After reading the message for the fourth or fifth time I finally closed it, then had a look at the pictures. The first one was an up-to-date shot of Nyssa. She looked good, she had a happy smile on her face. Her strawberry-blonde hair was a mess as usual, but I always thought that added to her charm. The image was taken outside, and I could see the gentle rolling hills of our farm behind her. It didn't quite make me feel homesick, but it definitely brought up some nostalgia.
The other image was exactly the opposite. Instead of making me feel happy, it left me feeling uptight again. It was a screenshot of the official Navy message, informing my family of the Hammersmith's loss and my disappearance, along with the assurance that I'd survived the wreck and they were committed to finding me and bringing me home.
"Crap," I sighed to myself. Then I went back to looking at the other picture again, and re-read Nyssa's message once more to try and push the stress away.
Eventually Sarah joined me to see what I was up to. She sat down next to me on the sofa and wrapped an arm around me, and I showed her Nyssa's picture and her message.
"That's really nice," she said after reading my sister's message.
I leaned against her and asked, "You still don't want to contact your family?"
"Nah," she shook her head. "I don't think it would do Katia any good. Maybe Sabia would be more understanding or accepting? But we've never actually met, so she wouldn't know me either way."
"I guess," I sighed.
After that the two of us just sat quietly cuddling together. Eventually we got up and joined Rebecca for some lunch, but mostly we just took it easy for the duration of the trip. Then with about a half hour to go before we were due to drop out of jump we all took some time to get ready for our arrival. Which basically meant getting into our 'working clothes', and strapping weapons to our belts.
When the time came, Rebecca and I were up front in the cockpit while Sarah was back in the engine room. And Jenny took the engineering seat behind me.
We dropped out of jump on schedule, about an hour away from Ecclestone's World. The captain handled the piloting while I stood by with the comms and sensors. And Jenny was there to back me up on either, just in case.
Like before there was an almost chaotic array of traffic in orbit. I spotted a pair of those massive freighters, one was being loaded while the other was unloaded. There were a few more large craft in higher orbit around the planet, though nothing on the scale of the mega-freighters. And finally a few dozen smaller craft, not including shuttles and the constant stream of orbital lifters servicing the two biggest freighters.
One of my displays lit up just a minute or two after coming out of jump and I frowned, "Someone's scanning us. Standard short-range sensors..."
My voice trailed off as the readings changed. "Ok they've just boosted power. It's not like a weapons system, more like a very high resolution scan?"
"From the planet? Or another ship?" the captain asked.
"Another ship, in medium orbit," I replied as I tracked back where the scan came from. Then I felt a cold lurch in my gut, "Oh crap. It's the ISS Kennington. That's who scanned us."
"Fuck," Rebecca sighed. "Are they hailing us?"
I shook my head, "No ma'am. Not yet at least? Nothing from them, nothing from port control."
Jenny asked, "What do you think captain? Why the high-power scan?"
The boss hadn't altered course, we were still approaching the planet like usual. Rebecca shook her head, "No idea. They're not trying to talk to us, so just ignore them I guess?"
I nodded slowly, but I couldn't help being anxious again.
Apart from that our arrival was uneventful. We didn't even talk to the port controllers, Rebecca just took us down through the atmosphere, and when we got close enough to the port she found her own empty pad in the two-hundreds section.
We touched down on pad two-twenty-four with a gentle thump and a cloud of dust blown up around us, then we went through the landing checklist. And when all that was done, the boss sent a signal to Lebeau to let him know we'd arrived with his cargo.
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"Even if they know Lieutenants Holloway and Voss survived the wreck," Piper said as she guided the ship through the upper atmosphere and out into space, "There's no way they can actually link those two officers to the pair of you."
She added, "Remember you don't have the identity implants anymore, and no indication you ever did. You're both younger than their missing men. And... Jenny correct me if I'm wrong, but even if they try a genetic analysis, that won't match either right?"
"That's correct captain," the AI responded from where she was standing at the back of the cockpit. She was using her HPD again, the sexbot was still down in the workshop and wouldn't be ready for some time yet.
"Right," I agreed. "I used my portable med-scanner on myself that first day, and it certainly didn't recognize me."
By that point we were clear of the atmosphere and the captain had us following a vector away from the planet and all its traffic.
"There's still a lot of circumstantial evidence," Sarah pointed out. She was with us in the cockpit, seated behind me at the engineering station. "The fact that we're using the same last names, I'm an engineer and Amanda's a medic. We joined your crew after your first visit to the Hammersmith's wreck."
"And worst of all," I added with a sigh, "I contacted my sister. I didn't come out and say who I was but it's easy enough to read between the lines. And I told her Sarah was with me. My little sister knows me and Sarah are the two missing officers. It's not going to be that hard for the Navy to figure it out."
The captain sighed, "Even if they suspect, they won't know for sure. And they can't prove it. They're going to see a couple teenage girls and some circumstantial evidence. Put yourselves in their position? It's a half year ago, you're serving on the Hammersmith, and you're told that a couple teenage girls in a remote frontier sector are really two navy officers, grown men. Would you believe it?"
Sarah grinned, "Good point boss. I'd assume it was a joke, or the information was garbled in transit or something."
"Yeah," I agreed. Then I blushed and added, "Honestly though I'd investigate anyways, because I'd want to know how it happened and if I could get in on it too."
"So our main threat is if the Imperium sends a trans girl to investigate," my girlfriend teased.
Piper rolled her eyes, "Seriously though, Jenny is there any way for someone to prove that Sarah and Amanda used to be the two officers they're looking for?"
The AI thought for a moment before responding, "Brainwave analysis. Assuming they have prior analyses to compare with, that's probably the only way to confirm who they are. Their bodies were rebuilt from scratch, no other biometrics would match."
The captain glanced at me and asked, "They don't do that brainwave stuff do they? So that shouldn't be a problem."
"I don't think so," I frowned. "I don't remember them doing it? I've never been asked to perform one on anybody."
"So at worst they might ask some annoying questions and get in our way," Piper stated. "That's assuming they even find the two of you and somehow make the connection that the eighteen-year-old girls Amanda Voss and Sarah Holloway might once have been their missing Navy lieutenants. And even that feels like a stretch."
Sarah agreed, "Good point boss. Like you said earlier, if I'd been told something like that before I'd have laughed it off. Even with the circumstantial evidence, it's still unbelievable. At best I'd figure I was trying to pull a scam of some kind, trying to cash in on the name of a dead Navy officer? I don't know, maybe I'd question if the mystery teen was trying to claim to be a daughter or relative to get a cut of the insurance or benefits? But since we haven't done that, there's really nothing to connect us or implicate us."
At that point it felt like we were all able to relax a bit. I was still uptight, and I really hoped my sister wouldn't get in any trouble because of this. But it sounded like the four of us would be ok. Like Rebecca said, at best the Navy could ask some annoying questions.
After a few moments I asked, "How would they even know we survived though? That's the part I don't understand?"
The captain sighed, "They must have found the lifepod. I forgot to blank its onboard computer before we dumped it overboard."
"Right," Sarah agreed. "The door sensors would have detected our implants when we boarded, it would have logged the two of us on board. It probably logged the two of us leaving too, when you carried me out."
"Ah," I grimaced. "I forgot about that. So they scanned the Hammersmith and realized one lifepod was missing, and after they chased us off they must have gone looking for it."
Rebecca nodded, "And once they found it, they checked its log. Then they reported back to the Imperium that there were two officers unaccounted for. That's how they know."
We continued to put more space between us and Rolandan-2, till we were finally clear of their traffic control range. Then the captain asked, "Amanda, can you plot us a level-one jump to Ecclestone's World please?"
"Yes boss," I replied as I pulled up the nav chart on my screen.
While I was working on the plot, Sarah asked "So worst-case scenario, what do we say if the Imperium does show up and ask? I think we should agree on a cover story now, instead of coming up with something at the spur of the moment?"
"Let's stick with what we told Lebeau," Rebecca suggested. "I received an FTL from an old family friend, looking to call in an old debt. We rendezvoused with his ship near Marshal's World, since that was the most convenient spot between my route and his. And I took you both on as crew."
She continued, "If anyone asks, the friend was Josh Flores, skipper of the MV Coral Swift."
Sarah asked, "And what were we doing on the Coral Swift? Why'd your friend need to hand us off to you?"
"Josh's already got a full crew," Rebecca explained. "And he's an older guy, he really wasn't comfortable with a couple pretty young girls on board. He knew I'd been running solo for a while and figured by calling in a debt he was solving his problem as well as mine. Like Mel said, my old man wouldn't have wanted me to work alone for so long."
"As for why you two were on his ship..." her voice trailed off as she tried to come up with an explanation.
Sarah suggested, "We stowed away? Me and Amanda are young, maybe a bit foolish, and we wanted to travel the stars and see other worlds."
"Bingo," the captain grinned. "You snuck on board while he was taking on cargo at Deveron-8. You managed to keep out of sight for three days, by the time Josh's crew found you he was nowhere near the Deveron system. And he's not going back that way any time soon, so he was stuck with you. Till he got the idea of dumping the pair of you on me instead."
"Works for me," my girlfriend said with a grin. "It doesn't explain all our skills, but we can lie and play ignorant if we have to. Right Amanda?"
I nodded, "Yeah, that works. And hopefully so will this jump plot. It's ready for you to have a look at it boss."
"Thanks Amanda," she replied. "Take the flight controls while I check it over."
I was pretty sure she didn't need me to take over, considering she could fly and plot a course herself at the same time. But it was probably good practice, even if all I was doing was keeping the ship flying in a straight line.
"Just one more question about the backstory," Sarah mentioned after a few minutes. "Is Josh Flores a real person? Is the Coral Swift a real ship? And if so, what if someone contacts him or his ship and tries to verify the story?"
The captain was still going over my plot as she replied, "Captain Flores and the Coral Swift are real, or at least they were. Josh knew Gabe and I, though I haven't seen him in about a decade. I'm pretty sure they left the sector for greener pastures but I suppose it's also possible they were destroyed. Either way, they're not around to confirm or deny the story."
"And this plot is good Amanda," she added a moment later. "Just two minor corrections and we're ready to go."
It only took her a half minute to make the changes, and she made sure I saw what she fixed so I knew where I got it wrong. Then Piper opened the safety cover and turned the toggle, activating our jump drive.
I felt the little shudder through the deck, then through my body. Outside the stars got brighter, then blurred into a swirl of blue and violet, and that was that.
"Five hours to Ecclestone's World," the captain said as she got up out of her seat. "We should probably relax and take it easy, but if you kids want to go play with your new toy down in the workshop I'm not going to stop you. Just be ready to get back to work before we come out of jump."
I blushed slightly as I followed the others aft out of the cockpit. Neither Jenny or Sarah rushed down to the lower deck though. The others all ended up sitting around the table in the mess again, but I went into the little lounge area. Jenny was right that we barely used it, and I didn't actually know why not.
The sofa was comfy, and I curled up on it in the corner then pulled my little datapad out of my jacket pocket and re-read Nyssa's message. Now that all the shock and adrenaline had passed, I took the time to enjoy my little sister's words.
She knew who I used to be, but she accepted me for who I really was. She called me Amanda. And when she referred to the old me, she called me her sibling rather than her brother. And that made me really happy. It was another kind of euphoria, one that I never thought I'd get to experience.
It was the sort of affirming, validating acceptance I never expected from my family. And I was positive I'd never get that from my dad, or my older brothers. I wasn't so sure about Kayla or Luke, but I had my doubts.
I had doubts about my mom too, but after Nyssa's message I couldn't help wondering. Like if mom figured out who I was in the vid, maybe she realized how happy I was. If she saw the same things Nyssa did, then mom might understand too.
After reading the message for the fourth or fifth time I finally closed it, then had a look at the pictures. The first one was an up-to-date shot of Nyssa. She looked good, she had a happy smile on her face. Her strawberry-blonde hair was a mess as usual, but I always thought that added to her charm. The image was taken outside, and I could see the gentle rolling hills of our farm behind her. It didn't quite make me feel homesick, but it definitely brought up some nostalgia.
The other image was exactly the opposite. Instead of making me feel happy, it left me feeling uptight again. It was a screenshot of the official Navy message, informing my family of the Hammersmith's loss and my disappearance, along with the assurance that I'd survived the wreck and they were committed to finding me and bringing me home.
"Crap," I sighed to myself. Then I went back to looking at the other picture again, and re-read Nyssa's message once more to try and push the stress away.
Eventually Sarah joined me to see what I was up to. She sat down next to me on the sofa and wrapped an arm around me, and I showed her Nyssa's picture and her message.
"That's really nice," she said after reading my sister's message.
I leaned against her and asked, "You still don't want to contact your family?"
"Nah," she shook her head. "I don't think it would do Katia any good. Maybe Sabia would be more understanding or accepting? But we've never actually met, so she wouldn't know me either way."
"I guess," I sighed.
After that the two of us just sat quietly cuddling together. Eventually we got up and joined Rebecca for some lunch, but mostly we just took it easy for the duration of the trip. Then with about a half hour to go before we were due to drop out of jump we all took some time to get ready for our arrival. Which basically meant getting into our 'working clothes', and strapping weapons to our belts.
When the time came, Rebecca and I were up front in the cockpit while Sarah was back in the engine room. And Jenny took the engineering seat behind me.
We dropped out of jump on schedule, about an hour away from Ecclestone's World. The captain handled the piloting while I stood by with the comms and sensors. And Jenny was there to back me up on either, just in case.
Like before there was an almost chaotic array of traffic in orbit. I spotted a pair of those massive freighters, one was being loaded while the other was unloaded. There were a few more large craft in higher orbit around the planet, though nothing on the scale of the mega-freighters. And finally a few dozen smaller craft, not including shuttles and the constant stream of orbital lifters servicing the two biggest freighters.
One of my displays lit up just a minute or two after coming out of jump and I frowned, "Someone's scanning us. Standard short-range sensors..."
My voice trailed off as the readings changed. "Ok they've just boosted power. It's not like a weapons system, more like a very high resolution scan?"
"From the planet? Or another ship?" the captain asked.
"Another ship, in medium orbit," I replied as I tracked back where the scan came from. Then I felt a cold lurch in my gut, "Oh crap. It's the ISS Kennington. That's who scanned us."
"Fuck," Rebecca sighed. "Are they hailing us?"
I shook my head, "No ma'am. Not yet at least? Nothing from them, nothing from port control."
Jenny asked, "What do you think captain? Why the high-power scan?"
The boss hadn't altered course, we were still approaching the planet like usual. Rebecca shook her head, "No idea. They're not trying to talk to us, so just ignore them I guess?"
I nodded slowly, but I couldn't help being anxious again.
Apart from that our arrival was uneventful. We didn't even talk to the port controllers, Rebecca just took us down through the atmosphere, and when we got close enough to the port she found her own empty pad in the two-hundreds section.
We touched down on pad two-twenty-four with a gentle thump and a cloud of dust blown up around us, then we went through the landing checklist. And when all that was done, the boss sent a signal to Lebeau to let him know we'd arrived with his cargo.
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