Chapter 35 - Strings Attached

  Darius was jolted awake by a gentle rapping at his door. The consequences of falling asleep slumped against the wall quickly made themselves apparent, and he groaned in pain at the crick in his neck.

  “Gonna be feeling that one for a while,” he winced, rubbing the grogginess from his eyes and looking around the room.

  As if on cue, the 3D printer beeped at him to inform him that a part was finished. Darius squinted at it in puzzlement for a moment before memories from last night rushed back.

  “Damn, must have nodded off,” he muttered, staggering forward to remove the completed part from the printing bed. The small integrated screen lit up, and the printing arm swung back into motion, already starting on the next part.

  Before he could do anything else, there was another rap at the door. “Darius?” Lena’s voice filtered through. “You awake?”

  Darius tensed, the last remnants of grogginess vanishing. He glanced at the 3D printer, its arm methodically tracing over the next piece, and then at the partially assembled frame on the table. “Yeah,” he called back, trying to keep his voice steady. “Just a second.”

  He crossed the room, scrubbing a hand over his face. Echo remained silent in his augs, which was considerate. Darius was slightly unnerved by how quickly he had come to appreciate the AI’s presence in his head – it was oddly comforting to know that someone was always there to talk to.

  Reaching the door, he hesitated, forcing himself to breathe evenly. Then, he slid it open.

  Lena stood just outside, her arms crossed, expression carefully neutral. Her gaze flicked past him, landing on the table where the frame components were laid out in various stages of completion. Her eyebrows rose slightly.

  “Morning,” she said. “Harlan wants to see you. He says Voss has… made a decision.”

  The weight in her tone made Darius’s stomach flip. “Right. Okay.” He tried for a grin, but it came out a little sickly. “Fingers crossed, right?”

  Lena peered curiously over his shoulder at the mess he’d made of his room. “Is that…” she trailed off, then gestured toward the table. “That what you’ve been working on? Your, uh, ‘personal project’?”

  Darius spared a glance at the printer, still humming away. “Yeah, that’s the frame I’m building for Echo. It’s… a work in progress,” he said, suddenly feeling almost defensive about the random parts and tools scattered everywhere.

  He turned back in time to see the discomforted look on her face at the mention of the proverbial elephant in the room. It was both amusing and irritating to see how unsure she was about Echo – on the one hand, yeah, fair enough, he’d reacted the same way at first. On the other hand… well, he’d only been with them for a few weeks now, but surely he’d earned at least some trust?

  He winced a little. If Voss had made a decision, then chances were he was about to see exactly how much trust he’d earned. And from Harlan’s blase comments last night, it may well be the last thing he ever did.

  Lena seemed to sense his unease, her expression softening slightly. “Come on. No point in making him wait.”

  When they reached the living room, they were greeted by the sight of the rest of the squad clustered around the encrypted radio set on the table. Harlan was sitting at the head of the table, looking as inscrutable as ever. Tarek huffed as soon as Darius emerged from the corridor, looking away with a surly expression.

  That… could be a good sign, or it could be a bad one. On the one hand, Tarek had never liked him, but on the other, the younger man had seemed hesitant at the idea of killing him. His current disgruntled expression could be because Darius was heading for the chopping block and Tarek wasn’t entirely happy about it, or it could be that Darius was getting off scot-free and Tarek wasn’t happy about it.

  Before he could descend any further down that particular tangle of thinking, Harlan broke the silence.

  “Morning, Kallan,” he greeted, his tone even. “Have a seat.”

  Darius hesitated but complied, pulling out a chair across from Harlan. His eyes flicked to the others again, searching for any clue as to how this was going to go. Corin was… just as inscrutable as Harlan, really, but instead of the perpetual gruff look the older man wore, Corin just looked… sort of blandly polite all the time.

  Darius nervously wondered if he should have spent more time trying to make friends. He wasn’t very good at it, of course, but every little bit helped, right?

  Harlan wasted no time. “Good news, Kallan. Voss has made her call,” he said, his voice steady but with an edge of finality. “You’re staying.”

  Darius sagged in relief.

  “But there’s a condition,” Harlan continued. “From now on, you’ll have someone from the squad keeping an eye on you at all times. Call it… oversight. No more slipping away by yourself. No more unapproved projects. Everything you do, someone will be there.”

  Darius un-sagged, drawing himself up for an instinctive refusal before he hesitated. Harlan’s arched brow, not to mention his own, long-dormant social abilities, were telling him that protesting was not the right move here. Really, as much as he hated the idea of someone looking over his shoulder, this was fairly close to an ideal situation.

  He’d already told them about Echo – both the existence of the AI, as well as his plans to build the machine a body – and realistically, he didn’t have any other secrets. Which meant he didn’t have anything to hide, which meant it shouldn’t matter if they wanted to keep an eye on him.

  That said, that particular argument hadn’t gone down so well when the government tried to convince people to accept a surveillance state, and it wasn’t working terribly well with him now.

  Unfortunately, beggars can’t be choosers.

  Darius nodded slowly, keeping his voice steady. “Fair enough.”

  Harlan’s lips twitched into a faint smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Good to hear. Now, even better news – depending on how you look at it – Voss is quite interested in Echo. Apparently, she’s impressed at the information it managed to dig up when we hit the records building.”

  Darius stiffened slightly, trying to mask the unease curling in his gut. “What exactly does ‘interested’ mean here?” he asked carefully, his tone measured. “You know, in practical terms.”

  Harlan leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. “Well,” he said casually, “You mentioned you were trying to build it a body? Seems to me like that might be a difficult – or expensive – project. You’re working with limited tools and materials, and if Voss thinks Echo has value, we can justify putting a few resources behind you. Parts. Supplies. Maybe some time with a proper fabricator if you need it.”

  Darius nodded slowly, his thoughts spinning faster than he liked. Assistance was good in theory—great, even. But nothing the Freeholders did came without strings. If they were offering help, it wasn’t because they were feeling charitable. It was because they saw a return on investment somewhere down the line.

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  And Echo? Echo was that investment.

  He couldn’t say no, of course. Refusing the offer, however politely, would be a mistake. They already didn’t trust him, and turning down support would only deepen their suspicions. He forced himself to keep his voice steady. “That’s… generous. I appreciate it.”

  “Glad to hear it,” Harlan said, not sounding very glad. “If you happen to have a list of stuff you need, feel free to pass it along – we’ll see what we can do to make it happen.”

  Darius gave him a tight smile. “Sure. Echo?”

  There was a faint squeal of feedback before Echo’s voice crackled through the TV speakers from the living room.

  {I appreciate your assistance, as, I’m sure, does Darius. I have taken the liberty of uploading a list of parts to your dataslate.}

  Darius was briefly confused about why Echo would be using a set of speakers that weren’t even in the room before he realised that there were no dataslates lying around. Was that… on purpose?

  Judging by the slight grimace that crossed Harlan’s face, along with the way he shifted in his seat, it might have been. Darius had to keep the corners of his mouth from twitching into a grin as he realised Echo might have just neatly side-stepped an attempted power move by the older man.

  Forcing the AI to use Darius as a go-between would almost instantly make communication more difficult, which could be pretty easily twisted into some ‘misunderstandings’ that would allow the Freeholders to creatively reinterpret anything they wanted.

  But not only did that not work, Echo had proven that he could commandeer other electronic devices in the apartments, as well as access their dataslates even when they weren’t in the room. A nice, subtle little demonstration.

  He had to wonder, of course, whether Echo had done any of it on purpose. The AI did seem to be picking up the intricacies of their situation fairly quickly, but truth be told… well, Darius didn’t know how he should feel about the notion of the AI learning to manipulate people or situations to its advantage. For now, anything Echo did to improve his circumstances would help Darius out by default. For later…

  Well, that was a bridge to be burnt once it was reached.

  Harlan’s lips tightened briefly before settling back into his usual unreadable expression. “Efficient,” he remarked dryly, tapping at the dataslate on the table. His gaze flicked to Darius. “Seems like Echo’s just as eager to move this along as you are.”

  Darius shrugged, keeping his expression neutral. “Time’s a resource, right? No point wasting it.”

  “Right.” Harlan leaned back again, the movement deliberate, as if reclaiming the ease he’d momentarily lost. “Looks like most of this is straightforward enough. Shouldn’t be too hard to scrounge up. Some of it we might already have access to. For the rest… well, we’ll see.”

  Darius forced himself to nod, keeping his grip on the back of the chair loose despite the tension crawling up his spine. “Appreciate it.”

  He knew that every part or tool that the Freeholders provided would only bind him tighter to their cause – whether he liked it or not. Worse, he knew that pretty soon, they wouldn’t even need him at all. Without Echo, Darius was honest enough to admit he really didn’t bring much to the table.

  That said… he was also working under a rapidly approaching time limit. So it was a choice between the certainty of something bad happening if he tried to keep Echo to himself, or the possibility of the Freeholders getting rid of him once his usefulness had expired. He was stuck between two terrible choices.

  Wonderful.

  Harlan didn’t give him much time to ruminate on his circumstances. “In the meantime, I’m hoping you don’t mind getting Echo to help out with our upcoming mission? Hitting the garrison will be significantly easier if he can disable the security.”

  Ah, and the first instalment of ‘payment’ the Freeholders wanted in return for their ‘generosity’.

  Darius shrugged. “I mean, he’s probably fine with helping out, but there’s no point in asking me. You want his help, ask him.”

  It might be a little petty, but Darius wasn’t above enjoying the discomfort Harlan obviously felt about interacting directly with Echo.

  Harlan’s jaw twitched slightly, but his expression didn’t waver. He turned a little hesitantly towards the TV, clearly unsure as to where to direct his query. “How about it, Echo?” he asked, doing an admirable job of acting casual. “Are you willing to help us out when we raid the Imperial garrison?”

  There was a beat of silence.

  {In return for your help with finding parts and tools, certainly. However, I should warn you that I will require physical access to disable security or surveillance systems.}

  Harlan’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Why’s that?” he asked, tone just shy of sharp. “You don’t seem to need physical access to hack into any of our stuff.”

  {Your ‘stuff’, as you put it, is not as secure as the Imperial’s security systems will be.}

  Darius was almost certain he didn’t imagine the sarcasm.

  Harlan’s lips pressed into a thin line, but he couldn’t dispute the logic. “Fine. I… appreciate your willingness to help out.” He stood, clearly done with the conversation. “Kallan, you’ll get your parts over the next couple of days. Until then, do me a favour and don’t leave the safehouse. Last thing I need is more trouble.”

  He gritted his teeth, but nodded, well aware that it wasn’t a request. The meeting dissolved quickly after that, and the squad scattered to their various tasks. Darius slipped away quietly, making a beeline for his room.

  Where he would be stuck for the next couple of days at least. Again.

  The faint hum of the 3D printer greeted him as he entered, the printing arm still moving with mechanical precision. He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face as he sat at the edge of the bed. The half-assembled frame on the table stared back at him, an uncomfortable reminder of just how precarious his situation had become.

  “I’m starting to think we need a plan to get off-world, buddy,” he said after a long moment.

  {You believe that fleeing this world is the correct course of action?}

  Echo sounded more like he wanted to hear Darius’s reasoning than actually disagreeing with it.

  “You think this is gonna end any other way?” Darius retorted. “When you first got me into this mess, the extent of my planning was to lay low from the Empire for a couple of weeks before slinking back to work. That was before I knew about how much of a mess everything actually was. Now… I can’t see myself sticking around. It just isn’t viable any more.”

  {Once again, I do apologise,} Echo ventured.

  Darius waved him off. “Nah. To be totally honest? I’ve had way more fun in the last couple of weeks than I did in the three years before that.”

  {While I am glad that you no longer resent me for our current situation, I feel it necessary to point out that your viewpoint is not a terribly healthy one.}

  Darius snorted. “Nothing about life is healthy, Echo, and no one gets out of it alive. I’d rather spend thirty good years in this life than eighty miserable years.”

  {That is certainly… one way of looking at things. Putting aside your personal philosophy for the moment, do you truly see leaving the planet as the only viable option? While I understand that you have your differences with the Freeholders, especially in light of your recently changed relationship with them, surely it is worth attempting to work with them more fully?}

  Darius shrugged. “Never say never and all that, but I don’t think it’s likely. Besides, even if I can get along with them, better to have a potential way out and not need it than need one and not have it.”

  {Surprisingly wise of you.}

  “Whatever. Besides…” Darius hesitated for a moment. “Well, I reckon you’re going to be heading off-world anyway for your super secret ‘mission’, and I know for a fact that you’re smarter than me. I figure I can leech off you for a while longer. You do kinda owe me rent, after all.”

  {…If I’m paying rent, does that mean I get to complain about the quality of my lodging?}

  Darius choked down a laugh, thankful that Echo seemed happy to play things casually. “I’ll be sure to give any complaints all due consideration,” he snarked back.

  {On a more serious note, I would be happy to travel with you, Darius.} Echo’s voice could almost pass for warm, and Darius realised he was starting to get more used to treating the AI like he was just… a person. {In which case, you are correct. We should start planning an escape route. Do you intend to steal a ship, attempt to gain legal passage, or try stowing away on a suitable vessel?}

  “Uh, to be honest, I hadn’t even started to think about it,” Darius admitted, taken aback by the sudden shift to planning. “I guess… it makes more sense to steal a ship, right? Getting out of here legally is gonna be all but impossible while the Empire is looking for me, and stowing away is risky on multiple levels. Not to mention, the timing would have to be perfect – passenger ships hardly leave every day, and most of the other traffic in-system is just mining rigs or salvage vessels. Not much point hitching a ride on one of those only to come right back to where we started.”

  {Stealing a ship will not be easy,} Echo pointed out, voice pointedly neutral. {There are also the ethical ramifications to consider, as any ship small enough for you and I to steal and pilot will likely be a personal vessel. We could be costing an innocent person their livelihood.}

  Darius winced. The possibility hadn’t escaped him either. He sighed. “Look, I know that’s a risk, that we might be screwing over some random guy. But to be totally honest with you? I’d rate my life above anybody else’s. Selfish, maybe, but that’s life. Besides, anyone rich enough to have their own ship is hardly going to be left homeless. Not to mention most people have insurance for this kind of thing.”

  Echo hummed non-committedly but didn’t argue. For now, anyway.

  Darius leaned back, staring at the printer still faithfully humming away as it built Echo a body. It wasn’t a good feeling to be planning on stealing something from someone innocent. A ship… well, it wasn’t a small thing. Despite what he had said to Echo, he knew that the loss of a ship could quite easily sink someone financially – especially if they still hadn’t paid it off, which was likely.

  Still, compassion was a luxury of the rich and powerful. Right now, he simply couldn’t afford it.