Jeffrey Carver - Eternity's End

Introducing Tracy-Ace to Morgan and Maris was a different matter. After dinner, Tracy-Ace was permitted to come to his suite along with other visitors, and she was there when Maris and Morgan arrived. In fact, she was standing with her hand on Legroeder’s shoulder as the two women walked in.

Legroeder blushed as he saw Morgan stiffen. “Hi,” he said, managing not to stammer. “Ladies, I’d like you to meet my friend, Tracy-Ace/Alfa.” He turned, as Tracy-Ace’s hand dropped from his shoulder, and awkwardly completed the introductions. He glanced at Harriet, but she merely raised her eyebrows slightly.

Tracy-Ace stepped forward to meet the other two. “I’m pleased to meet you both at last,” she said. “Legroeder has been very eager to get back here to rejoin you. He’s told me a lot about you all.” Legroeder pressed his lips together and said nothing.

“I’m sure he has,” Morgan said brusquely. “Pleased to meet you. Hi, Mom.”

“Hello, dear,” Harriet said, and appeared to decide to help Legroeder out a bit, after all. “Legroeder’s friend Miss Alfa—”

“Please. Tracy-Ace.”

“Tracy-Ace, sorry. Tracy-Ace has brought some wonderful news. They’ve found Bobby, and there’s a good chance he’ll be freed.” Harriet waved to a small sofa and a side table. “Please sit. Get yourself a glass of wine.”

Morgan blinked, and seemed to be struggling to recompute.

“That’s right,” Tracy-Ace said, taking a seat in a chair, while Legroeder joined Harriet on the other sofa. “Bobby’s not at our outpost, but we’re hopeful.” She explained what she had told Harriet.

“That’s… terrific ,” Morgan said, her eyes implying that it would have been even more terrific if Bobby had never been captured in the first place.

“Bobby is what—your nephew?” Tracy-Ace asked.

Morgan bobbed her head. “And I’m extremely grateful—really—for the news.”

Tracy-Ace took a sip of wine. “But you’re not so sure about me, I take it.”

“Well, it’s not—”

“I think,” said Maris, speaking for the first time, “that we’re both wondering… well… are you here with Legroeder in a purely official capacity, or…”

“We’re friends,” Tracy-Ace said quickly.

“Good friends,” Legroeder echoed, in a voice that seemed exceedingly hollow.

“Ah-hah,” Maris said, nodding.

Morgan also nodded, more slowly. “Then we should—” Regard you as a friend? Claw your eyes out? What? her eyes seemed to say.

Legroeder cleared his throat. “You should treat her as a friend of mine,” he said softly. “As someone I trust, and someone who has helped me tremendously. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be back here now.” He could feel the flush in his face as he said it—annoyance, defensiveness, guilt. Love for Tracy-Ace, and embarrassment about it.

“Perhaps,” Harriet said, in an even voice, “we could let Tracy-Ace speak. I’m sure she’d like to answer some of our questions.”

“I would be happy to answer your questions,” Tracy-Ace said softly.

Answering their questions was no trivial matter; and as Tracy-Ace talked about Ivan’s scheme to draw first the Narseil and Legroeder—and later the Centrist Worlds—into talks, Morgan grew increasingly restless. “That’s all very well,” she said, “but what about the kidnapping of Maris? And those attacks on my mother and Legroeder? They almost died getting to McGinnis, you know. Are you going to explain those away?”

Tracy-Ace looked a little startled by the ferocity of the question. She closed her eyes for a moment; her cheek implants flickered frenetically. She muttered something under her breath before opening her eyes again. “We certainly had nothing to do with those attacks. I believe it was the local group Centrist Strength, under orders from Kilo-Mike/Carlotta.”

“If you knew that, why didn’t you do something to stop it?” Morgan demanded.

Tracy-Ace turned her palms up. “We didn’t know in advance . Understand, we have a few people here, but nothing like Carlotta. She has agents everywhere, including—well, we know where, now. All the way at the top of the Spacing Authority. We did what we could.” She turned to Maris. “I didn’t know until just now about your… protective custody. But yes—it was our people who took you.”

Maris’s face tightened.

“Our field commander had learned of the attack on Legroeder and Harriet,” Tracy-Ace continued. “It was his judgment that you were in grave danger, Maris, and that you very likely would not have left that hospital alive, or free, if they did not take action at once.” Tracy-Ace opened her hands in apology. “I’m sorry they treated you like a prisoner. Very sorry. Our agents truly were ordered to protect you. But they were insufficient, as it turned out. And they both paid with their lives. I’m very glad that your friends came to rescue you.” She nodded toward Morgan.

For a moment, no one seemed to know what to say, Legroeder least of all. Maris stared at Tracy-Ace with an uncertain expression. She seemed to be trying to process this latest twist, and coming up short. Finally Legroeder cleared his throat. “Maris, Tracy-Ace and her people saved my life, more than once. If she says that’s what happened, you can believe her.”

Maris did not shift her gaze from Tracy-Ace. But after a moment she nodded decisively. “Very well. Since you are a friend of Legroeder’s, I will allow that you may be telling the truth.” She glanced at Legroeder with a trace of a grin. “Seeing as how you saved my life, too, eh?”

Legroeder allowed a smile to tickle at his lips.

Tracy-Ace drew a deep breath. “That was one time when we managed to act ahead of Carlotta. But don’t misunderstand—even with North dead, Carlotta still has plenty of agents here, and they’ve managed to disassociate themselves from Centrist Strength with that attack on North’s ship. But don’t believe for a minute that they’re not still pulling strings in that group. They can cause plenty of trouble.”

“What do you intend to do?” Harriet asked.

Tracy-Ace opened her hands. “What can I do? It’s your world, not mine. I’ll help if I can—but my help won’t matter much if we don’t get Impris , and Legroeder and his implants, to the Narseil Rigging Institute.”

“Do you want to explain that to the others?” Harriet asked.

Tracy-Ace looked to Legroeder, who sighed. “When the Narseil fitted me with these implants—” he rubbed at his temples and behind his ears “—I didn’t know that they were going to end up recording some of the most crucial data in the history of starship rigging—and then treat it as a Narseil state secret.” (You bastards. Are you still there? Answer me, damn you.)

// Awaiting release codes. //

Stunned, Legroeder drew a sharp breath. (You’re there?)

No answer.

“You okay?” Tracy-Ace asked, cocking her head, as if she’d caught an echo of it.

Legroeder nodded slowly. “And so right here,” he continued, tapping the implants, “is where the data remain, even as we speak.”

Morgan and Maris stared at him. “ What data?” Morgan demanded.

Legroeder closed his eyes with a shiver. “When we came out of the underflux with Impris , my implants mapped it all. It’s the most astounding, and beautiful, and deadly thing I’ve ever imagined—this network of quantum flaws woven through the whole galaxy, through spacetime.” He opened his eyes. “Every rigging world, and every rigger, needs to know about this.” He drew a breath. “And only the Narseil Rigging Institute can get at the data.”