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By Thomas Hobbes

"And in the year of our LORD 2412 the New Christian Alliance swears to take back the heavens –" I switched the channel and a different, equally boring – although not as animated –, announcer appeared. "Now we take you to footage of the famed Titanium Angel combat team on Archon…" A flickering image: Numerous well-armed, disciplined men carrying heavy weapons that blew holes in the jungle in eerie silence. Old news. I flipped around and over, nothing was on. Holding up my wrist, the implanted watch responded to my sub-vocalized command, 23:49 glowed under my skin in thin blue traces. I flicked off the Holo and rolled over with a blanket only to be wakened rudely what seemed to be a minute later by an irritating chime.

An imperious voice boomed out, "Report to extrasolar branch…NOW." I moved as fast as I could and was out the door in just under 32 seconds, at least according to the blue glow emanating from my wrist.

I took a moment to glance at the outside pick-up camera on my way to the meeting, or whatever it was. My habitual grin tugged at my face as I watched my home, Independent Station (12) Crossroads, as it glittered in the light of the sun. It spun slowly around the axis, generating a full g of gravity. Orbiting high above the Earth Crossroads was one of the most powerful independent stations around. For example the feared intelcorp Future Warning operated out of it. I happened to work for them.

It was no routine meeting that much I knew, the truly massive security and middle-of-night bit kinda tipped it off. Walking forward to the extrasolar branch door I got scanned by dozens of systems more than usual before the door slid quietly open, revealing an elegantly furnished room. I looked over at the man behind the desk and shivered. When the head of the entire extrasolar branch wakes me up in the middle of the night I get worried – fast. The man, Charlie was the name he gave me last time I dared to ask, gestured for me to sit in the rooms only other chair so I did. A recording came on with a faint click.

"It’s so dark", raved the voice emanating from the walls, in a Midwestern American accent "So dark and so wrong, it’s tugging at my eyes again...make it stop...oh please God make it stop. It pulls you in slowly. It’s so dark and wrong". The voice dropped to a deathly calm whisper, "So dark you’re not quite yourself anymore. You see things, things you can’t explain...Here comes one right now..." The voice faded into incomprehensible static, slight strange noises stabbing deep into the brain, then blankness overcame the static as the recording cut out.

Oh joy, looped in my mind, as I ignored Charlie while I thought things over. That recording sounded dangerous, in fact it sounded like the missions that should always be avoided. Walking up to people and saying Conor Tierney, intelcorp agent, might be a good way to meet girls but it wasn’t as dangerous as it looked on the holo’s. Occasionally though I did have to risk my life – which I was quite fond of - and this sounded like one of those occasions.

My attention turned Charlie as his chair creaked alarmingly. He noticed and started speaking, "That was Arthur Shaw and he made the last transmission from explorcorp Whirlwind’s Station (136) Jeweled Angels out by Neptune. The Titanium Angels, their Special Forces unit, were training there for a mission out to Aurora against another explorcorp. When Needle 77 arrived after a high-boost from near-Jupiter space everyone was dead. The Last Adventure arrived two hours later, redirected from its wormhole entrance into the system to Station 136." He paused expectantly, his little quirk.

I declined to indulge him, "Ease down the info load boss, I’m sure it’s in my packet."

Charlie looked at me, his eyes going colder by the second as my retinal implants tossed a virtual curtain of ice between us - my little quirk. I continued to ignore his stare, focusing instead on the strange patterns glistening in the virtual ice before me. He continued in a frosty tone, "There is no packet, Whirlwind wouldn’t allow it."

I rolled my eyes and satisfied him "Alright, what did they find?"

"Dead people. A pirate attack was the first guess, it doesn’t happen often but it does happen. The crew of the Last Adventure explored further and there are many signs of firefights but everyone dead is registered on the station and there is no trace of anyone else. There were no aliens, no killer robots, nothing but dead humans, some cats, and lots of pests. The Titanium Angels were some of the best; with over 200 on station it’s inconceivable that pirates could have killed them without losing some people - or at least leaving some trace behind."

He leaned forward in his chair "We have to assume that someone out there has an invisible weapon – that or we’re dealing with technology several hundred years ahead of us and if we are then we have no chance. I prefer the first option.

I nodded my head, if anyone was 200 years ahead then we better hope there peaceful.

He smiled tightly, "We do have one lead. There is one missing Angel, Walter Bradley. However, if alive he’s going to be hard to find, he might not be in intelligence but he’s a tactical commando with the best training money can provide."

I sighed and looked him in the eye; "I have to find him, don’t I?"

"That’s right, find him and you also have to find out what happened. If Bradley doesn’t know I still want you to find out. A ship was missing from the station, the Coherent Light, a Class IV scout ship with limited range. Unless he spends the time to recalibrate his software he can get no farther then 50 or 60 light-years and that’s only two colonies with a few mining bases. The Nameless Sun has been made available to you in docking bay 34, it’s got three times the range with the best equipment Whirlwind could buy. Whirlwind provided a dossier on Walter Bradley and a good expense account. Don’t screw this up, we have a reputation to keep."

I got up, my bones creaking; "I’ll get going then" I accepted the hard-copy dossier on Bradley, and loaded the expense account information while I walked out.

It was just my bad luck that when I arrived in bay 34 alarms went off, followed by a bland, slightly female computer synth voice, "Warning, fusion reactors have been sabotaged. All personnel onboard must evacuate the station immediately. Once clear of blast radius head to Station 28 for questioning, any ship that does not comply will be destroyed."

"Son of a bitch," I shouted out to the rapidly clearing bay. No one bothered to stop, they just hurried out faster. Charlie better come trough was my dark thought.

Luckily for him Charlie came through. His voice came on, "I cleared you, station control owed me a favor. Just hurry up and get out of here."

I hurried for the Nameless Sun. The door on the walkway opened smoothly, sliding sideways, as I walked towards it.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder.

I spun around, internal enhancements boosted to max as I turned into a blur of motion. Anyone in the bay wasn’t authorized so my combat wetware's tree popped up a dozen strings; I selected the most lethal one. My left hand dropped towards my gun, the other held a vibro knife that slid smoothly down from my sleeve. The person attacking me gripped my hand with the knife and my body had a quick spasm as he pinched a nerve. He grabbed my other hand, inches away from my gun, and my body overloaded – two separate pain signals mangling my brain. He flipped me face-first onto the ground, disarmed me, and twisted my arms behind my back.

"Going to try anything?" The man asked.

I shook my head; he was too damn good to mess with.

He let go of my arms and I stood up, massaging the feeling back into them while I watched him carefully. My eyes widened as I took in his details. He was a person who was so utterly average and ordinary it was incredible that he had managed to beat me. Even as I watched him warily he almost managed to blend into the wall; my eyes kept trying to slide past him. I quickly flipped through something that could do this to me; coming up with only one possibility I blurted it out before stopping to think "A chameleon".

He smiled and nodded as he asked me "Can I hitch a ride?"

"Why me?" was my response.

The chameleon shrugged, "Yours was the only cleared ship. I have good hearing and overheard your authorization as I passed by. If I’m questioned they might figure who I am and that can’t happen. I'm Tad by the way"

I looked dejected I knew but it wasn’t like choice was much of a factor.

Chameleons were the creation of an intelligence agency. They were gene-engineered to blend into any crowd but they did their job too well and were soon banned across explored space. Very few wanted the loss of freedom so most did what they were designed to do; they disappeared.

My knowledge about them didn't really help me though, if anything I was more scared. As per a hundred years of regulation, if I was caught with one I was dead. Three cities and four asteroids had been destroyed to based on those regulations. Destroyed permanent, very dirty nukes had been used to set an example.

I sighed resignedly, "Welcome aboard Tad". What else could I have said and still keep a decent chance of breathing? I mentally shrugged, answering my own question.

He handed me my weapons and while I slid them back into place I gestured ahead of me, offering for him to precede me. He accepted and I followed close behind him. The ship scanned me to make sure I was authorized but it didn't even question the chamel...Tad's presence.

That bland computer voice came on again, "All station residents please evacuate NOW!"

I was jolted out my thoughts, "We’re out of here," I told Tad, "Do you mind where?"

He shook his head and walked off towards the cramped living quarters.

I slid into the pilot’s seat. Not bothering to ask station control I retracted the walkway and we pulled away from the station at 10 G’s worth of acceleration as soon as we cleared the bay. When we got enough distance from the station to use it safely I kicked in full power and we rapidly increased acceleration to the limit the ship could counteract. I settled down for the flight out to allowed wormhole distance.

Some people have an endless string of good days; most people have at least a few good days, and a handful of unlucky people never have good days.

I was one of the unlucky people.

This conclusion became startlingly obvious when Tad walked up behind me and stated, "By the way, I’m going with you on the mission".

"What mission," I said innocently.

He saw right through me, "Whatever mission that had enough clout to get you cleared from possible sabotage charges. There is also the fact that you’re a top intelcorp agent –" He smiled at my expression before tapping his head, "I got a bio on everyone who might be hired to track me."

"It would be a killer mission," I said laconically.

He smiled at that before continuing, "I figure I’ll stick around, find out what the mission is about…since you’re not going to tell me?"

I shook my head.

He shrugged, "I didn’t think so".

I didn't know what to do; on one hand here was one of the best people to have on this kind of mission, on the other he was a killer and I'm not, nor do I like them. I’ve killed, once in a blue moon, in my line of work but that’s a necessary evil for me, and a career for him.

I mentally flipped a coin…heads. I nodded my head yes.

It was a long several hours with me and the chameleon – His name was Tad but when your face to face with the childhood bogeyman... It's harder to give him a name - in an enclosed space but we finally got permission to wormhole out of the system. I had chosen Sirius as our first destination, it was the place to get a new identity and I figured Bradley might want one.

The Steiner AI, Turing Class IV, visualized the singularity for me as a sharp and solid object – the event horizon surrounded by a bright silver halo. I hit the jump button, responding to my command the magnetic fields controlling the quantum singularity opened a small, carefully calculated path.

We went down the rabbit hole.

My now was a step ahead of the universe’s now; quantum-tunneling circuits in the jump computer letting me experience the dive into the singularity before it happened.

Falling into the singularity, the ship was – would be – accelerated to relativistic speeds; the minuscule fraction of a picosecond before the singularity was let loose and the ship was devoured was experienced by me as a very busy hour.

It wasn't easy to fly close to a singularity even with modern technology. There were gravitational disturbances; flares of energy, and the gravity lure that – siren-like – called me back into realspace.

The modern technology that enabled me to plot a course through all that were called navigational aids and as I went in they popped up my constantly modifying course at the edge of my mind. I ignored its twisted unstableness as I fought against the effects of the singularity so the wormhole entrance out would be in the right direction.

A gravitational eddy appeared before me and WARNING flashed red script across my mind. I spared a moment’s attention to correct the course as the singularity tried to kill me simply by existing.

It was enough. I had – would – dodge the eddy so the nav aids shut up.

I was tired though, and when gravity clutched at me I didn't care enough to dodge it. Realspace reared its head.

Wormhole entrance.

An explosion of light and color burst through my mind as we fell into the sunless void 5 light-years from Earth, our velocity lost, with an expanding wave of energy announcing us to anyone who cared.

No one did. No one would until we came out of our second jump and arrived in the Sirius system.

After a short break, and another exhausting jump, our soap bubble popped and the light of Sirius’s suns shone down uncaringly on our hull.

System Control painted us with a comm laser asking for the standard custom info as soon as they picked up our emergence wave. I answered, considering the usual state of affairs in the Sirius system we were lucky not to have been killed.

The usual state of affair in Sirius was lots of nasty wars. It had been the first extrasolar colony established. It went bad in a massive revolution against Earth, troops were sent in, and it wound up as a dozen nations in near-perpetual wars. Four nuclear weapons had been used on the planet but, for the fugitive, it was the best place to get a new identity outside of Earth. Of course, there were the First Families. They were rich, powerful, outside the wars – nobles in all but name.

Once we got permission we headed in towards the planet and docked with Orbital Command. Within the hour we were headed down to the planet – Ad Astra – on the hourly shuttle.

Once down we headed off for the seamy parts of town, the chameleon on the South Side, me on the North Side. With any luck we were on our way to piecing together a piece of the puzzle. I shook my head; too bad I’m not very lucky.

A young man was fighting against a pair of opponents in a well-padded room, a dazzling display of Aikido, and the uses of a large chair. The young man fell to the soft floor, calling out time as he went down. He massaged the bump on his head; "Did you have to use the chair Charlie?" He asked, wincing as he did.

An older, man with graying hair replied "You said use everything, so I did".

"But that hurt and it wasn’t part of Aikido". The younger man whined.

"Oh shut up," muttered the third person in the room, a young, slim woman with short, blonde hair and gray eyes "You wanted to get some practice in, you shouldn’t have left the chair in here if you didn’t want us to use it. That’s the whole point of practicing, in a real fight you might face more then just a chair."

The young man sullenly striped out of the practice gear and picked it up, walking out of the room while calling over his shoulder, a smug sneer appearing on his face "Nicole, I’ll see you later".

Nicole glared at his retreating back, being a retainer in one of the First Families of Sirius was a pain in the ass, they were this world’s equivalent of nobility. More to the point she hated being a retainer period, but it was the only way she could get the money she needed. The unpleasantness that seemed to go with the job was a side effect.

Charlie looked at Nicole with sympathy "I hate that smug bastard too but if you want to stay here you have to obey".

Nicole turned her glare to him "You’re a man". With that she stalked out, too mad to even notice that she was still wearing practice gear.